“Exposure” is not enough for SA’s youth

South Africa has one of the world’s worst youth unemployment rates and it is a statistic that seems to worsen with every survey. These young people remain an untapped well of potential that could turn the tide of some of our troubled sectors, if given the chance to.

It’s for this reason that we at Esri South Africa launched the YES Internship Programme in 2020.

Through this programme, we have contributed to capacity building by providing unemployed youth a chance to attend Esri-accredited courses and an opportunity to study towards a Geospatial Diploma in Geoinformation Science and Technology (GISc&T). The diploma in GISc&T is southern Africa’s only geospatial diploma and is an entry level qualification in Geoinformation Science offering a mixture of online and face-to-face modules.

Education and training, however, is not enough. Our experience has found that recipients of bursaries and internships fare much better when they are provided professional guidance as well as actual opportunities to put their training into practice. For our YES Internship, Esri South Africa appointed mentors (senior staff members employed on a full-time basis at Esri South Africa) to support and develop interns during the programme. This aspect of our programme provides the mentees with someone in the industry they can consult and confide in while giving our mentors an opportunity to give back to the industry and develop the personal and leadership skills.

Another crucial component of the YES Internship Programme’s success is that we partnered with industry to place interns in new working roles via the Experiential Training Initiative. This enables YES interns to gain on-site professional learning experience outside of Esri South Africa and these internships are not just for the experience or ‘exposure’. It’s important to consider the expenses people have to undertake such as transportation and telecommunication when not just in search of but also when actually in employment. So, we made sure to structure our programme and partnerships to include salaries for participating interns.

With 46% of young people aged 15 to 34 years not in employment, education or training, companies, especially those in specialist fields, like Esri South Africa, have a vital role to play in creating and sustaining jobs and work opportunities for young people.

Through the YES Programme, we aim to set a better standard for what it means to be an employer and responsible corporate citizen in our sector, and are incredibly grateful for the partners who have joined us on this journey.

Esri South Africa believes that every young person in employment or being upskilled is an extra mind and pair of hands contributing to the development of the country, and is committed to creating as many opportunities to support this as possible.

For more information contact [email protected]