National Youth Service Programme

PURPOSE

Hand in Hand was appointed by the Jobs fund(JF) in Partnership with the National Youth Development Agency(NYDA) as an implementer of the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention Programme, National Youth Service(NYS) in eight provinces across South Africa namely, Western Cape, Gauteng, North West, Eastern Cape, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu- Natal, and Free State.

The Primary Aim of the NYS project is to mobilise young people to become active citizens of the country's democracy, while earning an income and increasing their employability. It is a programme directed at addressing South Africa's chronic youth unemployment challenge.

IMPLEMENTATION

The target audience (preferred by the Jobs Fund) was unemployed youths, also called participants, between the ages 18-35 years with the aim of creating 6080 individual employment opportunities throughout a six-month period in four main categories of work namely, Surveys and Digital Mappings, Social Support Services, Solidarity and Care, Food Security and Child care and lastly Community Work, Revitalisation and Greening Programmes. Target groups were established in the various districts of each province to ensure that equal employment opportunities were presented provincially.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND OUTCOMES

Statistics and data on the accomplishments of the programme were collected per province and these were the findings: 

The project ultimately reached out to 7015 participants throughout South Africa and in addition to the employment opportunities, free training and support sessions were offered in, Employability, Administrative support services, career guidance, Entrepreneurship training, Gender-Based Violence (GBV), Sexual Harassment, HIV/AIDS, Team building, Self-esteem as well as Women Empowerment. These training and support services were provided by HIH SA alongside our stakeholders namely, NYDA, Stepping Stone, Department of Labour, FHI360, Department of Social Development, Ndzalama HBC, Love Life, Phelo Phepha Train, and Department of Agriculture, Chief Albert Luthuli Municipality and Msukaligwa Local Municipality. As a result, 5588 participants took part in these training and support opportunities.

The feedback from this project has been largely positive as some of the participants found gainful employment and experience through the programme, used the stipend payments to further their career and educational goals, attained capital to start their own businesses and attained various training experiences that will assist for years to come.