Intervention Portfolios – YouthStart Foundation

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

The fundamental elements of true economic empowerment are education and training. Educating our nation must be top priority and our programmes are developed to equip young people with the tools they need to adapt in the changing world. Utilising innovative, stimulating and engaging content, education and training is delivered nationwide in various sectors in our efforts to cultivate a capable, self-sustaining and skilled population

EMPLOYABILITY

Research shows that one of the biggest contributors to South Africa’s alarming unemployment rate is the misalignment between skills required by the labour market and those which scholars and graduates offer. This issue can be attributed to a number of challenges and as YouthStart, we believe that proactive solutions are critical to closing the gap. Investment in career guidance, work readiness training, bursary alignment as well as proactive skills investment are part of the interventions conceptualised and implemented by the Foundation to get youth employable.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

The National Development Plan was adopted as the blueprint for South Africa’s turnaround strategy and it emphasized the need for small businesses to provide 90% of jobs needed in the country. While this is true, the main obstacle to achieving this goal is the lack of entrepreneurial education. Our youth are not taught how to think as innovative, creative and financially-astute problem solvers that can create solutions to problem their communities face and come up with a model to make money out of it. With this in mind, we have collaborated to develop a national youth entrepreneurship development programme geared at inculcating a culture and mindset of entrepreneurship. Encouraging youth to become job creators and not just job seekers

HEALTH

As part of our goal to promote holistic development, we have introduced health as a pillar of focus. Intervention targeting includes hygiene, drug and alcohol abuse, exercise, sport, food, healthy lifestyles and considering the recent coronavirus pandemic – provision of personal protective equipment as well as awareness education.

TECHNOLOGY

The implementation of a scalable, well-managed blended learning model is critical for success in the current times. Considering South Africa’s socio-economic status, the ability for interventions to reach more beneficiaries, various platforms must be leveraged including face-to-face and digital.

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