JOBLESS YOUTH OF GREAT CONCERN

Good Morning Bloggers

Well, we are in for a treat if some solutions are not found aren't we? One of the issues that we have been discussing on the NARDEP blog (www.nardep.blogspot.com), is the vast amount of money that is available for training of which Life Skills is a huge part, something like 3 point something billion and the vast number of Community Developement NGO's, section 21 companies etc, that are struggling to get funds in order to do the training that is so obviously necessary.

One would think that somewhere, someone would make some sort of connection to introduce the two to each other! For all those that are interested, watch the NARDEP blog as it unfolds as members from the Inner Circle (www.innercircleforum.com) get together as an advisory committee to assist NARDEP and Babayile in getting funding to do this vital training and facilitating. Watch how we create jobs and bring meaning into the the lives of some who so desperately need it, while creating and assisting entrepreneurs to get their businesses off the ground.

My these are exciting times and perhaps, just perhaps Government themselves can take a page or two out of our books and learn a lesson too!

Mlambo-Ngcuka: Jobless youth of great concern

Cape Town, South Africa

22 March 2007 06:09

How South Africa's vast army of unemployed, untrained youth can be fitted quickly into the country's economy is of great concern, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said on Thursday. Briefing the media in Cape Town on progress made in implementing the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (Asgisa), she suggested the situation calls for a rethink."I think the area I'm most concerned about is ... the limited progress around the second economy.

This is an area in which we need to do much more work ... [especially] the situation of young, unemployed able-bodied persons, most of whom have less than 12 years of schooling. "We don't ... have a comprehensive intervention to deal with those people. This is a much bigger number of people, much harder to train. "Of all the things we have done, this is the one I am most worried about. It is also the one that is the most difficult. It is also one of those that lingers on from what apartheid was about."Mlambo-Ngcuka said the Asgisa team needs to go back to the drawing board and develop new strategies when it comes to integrating unskilled workers into the economy.

There is "an army of people we must take care of sooner rather than later", she said. A report by the Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition, set for release on Monday next week, is set to focus on this issue. In a foreword to Asgisa's 2006 annual report, copies of which were handed to journalists at Thursday's briefing, Mlambo-Ngcuka said that a year after the initiative was launched -- on February 6 last year -- it is on track regarding key targets. "Current economic trends indicate that South Africa will meet the Asgisa objective for 2004 to 2009 of average growth of 4,5% or more per year. "However, the targets for 2010 to 2014 are challenging. "South Africa's ability to reach 6% average annual growth relies on removing bottlenecks to growth," she said. -- Sapa