{"id":2836,"date":"2019-06-21T12:05:37","date_gmt":"2019-06-21T12:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/clockworkapp.co.za\/?p=2836"},"modified":"2023-09-26T09:09:48","modified_gmt":"2023-09-26T09:09:48","slug":"youth-unemployment-sona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clockworkapp.co.za\/youth-unemployment-sona\/","title":{"rendered":"Youth Unemployment \u2018National Crisis\u2019 Ramaphosa\u2019s State of the Nation Address (SONA)"},"content":{"rendered":"
SONA acronym – State of the Nation Address<\/p>\n
This is an opinion article by ClockWork CEO Jamie Rood \u2013 posed to suggest some of the ways South Africa can address youth unemployment. <\/em><\/p>\n National crisis\u2019 can be many things. Often we see recessions in the economy or humanitarian disasters used to describe a crisis. However, in this instance, our President<\/a> addressed his nation at the SONA<\/a> in Cape Town on Thursday 20th<\/sup> June. He described the country\u2019s youth unemployment rate as a \u2018national crisis\u2019.<\/p>\n The number of youth currently unemployed in South Africa lies at over 50 percent<\/a>. Various different solutions have been proposed, but unfortunately, they have also failed. Public works programmes, youth employment programmes, learnership programmes have all been tried. These might serve as temporary solutions, but the country needs something that will fix this in the long run.<\/p>\n \u2018More people are entering the labour force every year\u2019 said Ramaphosa<\/a>. As a result, we need to essentially create more jobs each quarter than there are individuals entering the labour market. It\u2019s a race against time \u2013 youth unemployment isn\u2019t a ticking time bomb, it\u2019s a bomb that\u2019s already exploded. Now we need to repair the damage and grow back stronger.<\/p>\n Furthermore, the President expressed that \u2018The brutal reality is that when it comes to youth unemployment, we have to run just to remain in the same place\u2019.<\/p>\n The numerical response was that we need to produce no fewer than 2 million jobs for youths within the next decade. They will do this by creating pathways into work for young people through scaling up existing pathway management networks.<\/p>\n When drafting solutions, we are often quick to jump to the conclusion that government are to blame. Although this may be partially correct, multinational companies also play a responsibility when it comes to the creation of employment. Investing in the people is a crucial part of a country\u2019s success, and that needs to happen right now with South Africa\u2019s youth.<\/p>\n The encouragement of entrepreneurship is another way of creating jobs. Both government and private support for young entrepreneurs needs to improve to drive innovation and employment across the country.<\/p>\n A child needs to be nurtured by their parents in order to thrive. However, too much hand holding and they will develop a degree of learned helplessness<\/a>. This is where an individual is repeatedly subjected to an aversive stimulus that they cannot escape (unemployment). Even when opportunity to escape this stimulus are presented, the learned helplessness<\/a> will prevent any action.<\/p>\nA National Crisis at the SONA<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Crunching the Numbers<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Public or Private?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Learned Helplessness<\/strong><\/h3>\n