18 Mar 2015

Government is committed to nurturing and developing young people, deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture, Mr Kgopotso Ramoroka has said.

Addressing the national internship stakeholder consultative meeting for the private sector, Mr Ramaroka said this arises from the fact that the existence of the nation and its prosperity is dependent in to a large extent, on empowerment of youth given its resourcefulness

He said the commitment of government to youth employment is demonstrated by many government programmes focusing on the youth such as Youth Development Fund, Youth Participation in the Local Procurement Scheme, national internship and Tirelo Setshaba.

“The national internship programme has to date offered 10 000 internship placements to graduates across all sectors of the economy.  As end of January the 2015, there were 4 912 active interns placed within the public, private, parastatal sectors and non-governmental organisations,” said Mr Ramoroka.

He said it should be noted that the programme enhanced the employability of unemployed graduates, adding that during the current financial year, about 1 340 out of 5 934 interns were able to secure permanent employment and the current waiting list stands at 5 764, with ICT comprising 2 900.

“We are committed to cause youth empowerment, in particular youth employment; we are in this together; the private sector requires skilled committed work force; in addition the private sector requires a market base with earning power and it is only when our graduates are employed that your business can thrive,” he lamented

Mr Ramoroka said, however, government could only create a conducive environment for the private sector to create employment; the onus would be on their part  to create the jobs and consequently strengthening the purchasing power that the economy so desperately needs.

He called the private sector to act as ambassadors of youth empowerment, urging them to mobilise their fellow colleagues to enroll the graduate youth, mentor them and endeavour to create job opportunities for them.

“I urge you to partner with us and go the extra mile in securing the economic livelihoods of our graduate interns, besides they are our children and it is from your corporate and individual taxes that we resourced their education, the only way for them to give back to you is through meaningful employment and enterprenuership,” said Mr Ramoroka.

For her part, National Internship Coordinator, Ms Boitshepo Bolele said National Internship has been running for six years and motivated by the private sector hence the need to come with proposals on how to reform and enrich the programme, adding this is a win-win situation.

She said they have proposed to introducing profiling of companies, as presently they have over 700 companies which have absorbing the interns, adding recently they have been only profiling interns.

“Profiling will allow us to serve companies better, to understand their needs and peculiar internship experiences and develop targeted response to their needs,” she said.

Ms Bolele added that they also proposed ratio of interns to qualified staff for overall staff and also for the majority in specific post emphasizing that this is to guard against a situation where the interns are the majority in the company. ENDS