Platform to boost SA job creation
FOURWAYS – The annual event aims to find creative solutions to address unemployment in South Africa.
National Treasury recently hosted its annual Jobs Fund Knowledge Exchange event at the Riversands Incubation Hub which focuses on increasing job creation in South Africa.
The Jobs Fund is a
R9-billion fund launched by the National Treasury in 2011 to create jobs by supporting initiatives that generate employment in innovative ways. The fund offers grants in the areas of enterprise development, infrastructure, support for work seekers and institutional capacity building.
To date, the fund has demonstrated that it is possible for the private sector, public sector and civil society organisations to collaborate, share risk and achieve greater social impact by implementing innovative models for job creation and thereby catalysing broader participation and inclusion in the economy.
The head of the Jobs Fund, Najwah Allie-Edries, said, “Every year we bring together all the Jobs Fund partners, the people that are running projects with us, academia, researchers and industry people where we create a space for people to talk about the work that they do and share their knowledge and ideas and think through new solutions for job creation.”
Initiatives supported cover a wide range of interventions from micro-financial support for rural women to agricultural support for smallholder farmers thus contributing to food security and more resilient farmers.
The fund has also supported initiatives that have improved the skills match between unemployed youth and existing vacant positions and have thereby accelerated the transition of youth from education into employment.
This year’s conference had the theme ‘Harnessing South Africa’s Youth Dividend: Catalysing new opportunities in new spaces’. Last year the Jobs Fund created a platform for conversations around the changing nature of work as they navigate the 21st century. This year, the fund focused on practical solutions towards harnessing the potential of the demographic and securing employment for South Africa’s youth population. The discussions had a particular bias towards the innovation and tech space.
Discussions focused on topics including township economies and how these can significantly contribute to South Africas unemployment challenge and identifying talent youths on a large scale in order to offer them a variety of opportunities including further education, training or employment.
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