Jobs for a growing South African youth base

According to Statistics South Africa the official unemployment rate in South Africa is 25.6%, a mammoth quarter of the economically active participants in our country. The rate among youth lies between 45% and 60%, depending on which source you consult.

Low skills and lack of opportunities lie at the heart of this cancer affecting our young people.

Numerous personalities indicate that entrepreneurship is a possible alleviator of this massive scourge on our youth. True as that may be, we need to take a long hard look at the reality before pushing for reforms with minimal chances for success.

One of the most crucial resources an entrepreneur needs to have is a working knowledge and experience in the area in which he/she wants to start and grow a venture. Our youth currently does not have the required experience to go out and start businesses, they mostly lack the networks required to be secure deals and if they do, there is often lack of capacity to deliver on the contract.

So at every turn, the venture is plagued with structural issues. We need to forget the American entrepreneurial space, with incredible rags to riches stories of young people starting companies that turn them into paper billionaires.

As Africans, we always have a desire and need to have a hero, some mythical person who will come and make everything right, a president, a leader, etc. this is however not a realistic view, no great being will descend on us to offer the key to our economic crisis and impending revolt.

Let’s face it; the South African youth is sabotaged by the system that is supposed to assist it. At secondary level, to pass (succeed) you need 40 odd percent – it is not so for the real world, to succeed you need to maintain a 75% average and that is at the bottom end of success in business.

Concerted effort must be made to ensure that young people are adequately skilled – I am not talking of industrial revolution, schooling fundamental, of getting people in class and giving them tutelage – which form of empowerment does not make sense in the time we live in. Young people need to be mentored, guided and shown the way, learning from a senior who has walked the distance and can offer proper guidance. As was in the so called ancient times, we need to offer young people the chance to learn a “skill” from the feet of a master. 

Over the past two years I have had the great pleasure of working with some of the nicest recent graduates and unemployed youths I have ever met – at 28, I am not much older than them. These individual have taught me humility and opened my eyes on what is possible. When we started this business, Developer Factory, in November of 2011, our dream was to change the world. Though we have not yet reached the pinnacle of our dream, daily we are systematically changing the world.

In the time we have been running, we have had 60 young people undergo our skills enhancement program; focused on capacity building to service high - demand areas within the software development arena.

As part of our process at the Developer Factory, we have successfully developed crucial technical and soft skills within the community of these previously unemployed youths.

We have attained a successful placement rate of 85% and counting – able to ensure that each Appie (what we call them) is able to embark on a career within the software development arena.

Where each will one day go or become, is not for us to determine, each Appie has the capacity to one day start a business that will generate quality jobs.

But our aim has always been to make South Africa internationally competitive – enhancing software development skills that will allow young South Africans to play a pivotal role in turning medium to large companies into ventures full of innovation, with good people working hand in hand to grow them and the economy.

In 2014 we aim to have 100 unemployed youths, with a desire to join the IT space to undergo our program and benefit from the mentorship opportunities available.