As June draws to a close and the Youth Day parades and banners are all but rolled up until next year, we remain without resolutions, other than the rhetoric we hear year after year, from our politicians.. Youth Unemployment is at untenable levels and it’s up to all of us to do something about it.
The simple truth is that, in spite of the vanity metrics and the government initiatives applauded in June 16th speeches across the country, youth unemployment continues to rage on, fuelled by a poor economy and a global pandemic.
One of the saddest tragedies we face is the large number of young people who leave school with such promise, full of hopes and dreams, who are without tangible prospects.At the same time, many of the lucky few who are accepted into South African tertiary education institutions, stumble and fall out of the system, along the way, with little or nothing to show for their efforts, due to the socio-economic barriers they continue to face. . We, as a society, need to work harder to break down these barriers and enable and unleash the potential of the future.
Today, we are excited to announce that, in partnership with the University of Cape Town, we are launching the UCT Digital Bootcamp; A programme specifically targeted at UCT students whose studies have been interrupted at the university.
Interrupted learners will be offered the opportunity to apply for a seat on an Umuzi digital learning pathway bolstered by tech global giants; Google, AWS and Meta. UCT Vice-Chancellor, Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng, believes that “The success of our university depends on the success of all of us within our special community. For this reason, we continue to introduce interventions that can support current and past students to continue their journey of learning. This forms part of our social responsibility, to find and offer excellent and innovative educational programmes to help our students succeed”.
More details on the programme are outlined here. This is a pilot programme that seeks to support interrupted students at UCT to get back onto a learning journey that will unleash their immense potential. Our hope, as Umuzi, is to roll this out to all the tertiary Universities across the country in phases 2 and 3 of this programme.
The South African tech sector needs to build more learning pathways for in-demand jobs, and we believe that untapped youth potential offers a part of the solution to this challenge. Together we can deliver on the promises, hopes and dreams South Africa and young South Africans have for themselves.
If you are an interrupted learner from UCT, apply below.
Andrew Levy got to sit with Oliver Dickson, from SAfm to talk more about the intricacy’s of youth unemployment in South Africa & what UCT in partnership with Umuzi are doing to combat it. Listen to the interview below.
If you are a corporate partner looking to invest in this program please email Andrew Levy at Andrew.levy@umuzi.org
