Education employment initiative ends

The department of basic education (DBE) recently announced that the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative, which started in December 2020, has officially come to an end.

The initiative aimed at creating employment opportunities and supporting workers who had been negatively affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Using public investment, the department said that over 320,000 employment opportunities had been created for education and general education assistants around the country.

In addition, more than 27,600 school governing body funded posts in public and government subsidised schools were able to be saved.

These jobs were at risk due to the heavy financial pressures placed on the schools due in part to parents being unable to pay fees as well as the economic effects of the pandemic.

The employment initiative was funded to the tune of roughly R7 billion, R6.9 billion of which was distributed to provinces as an equitable share.

Another R4.47 billion was put aside at providing youth employment opportunities and roughly 1% of this was allocated towards training programmes. Another 1% went towards unemployment insurance for those employed by the initiative.

The department said that while contracts would not be extended, they were holding discussions with relevant parties about reviewing the initiative and repackaging it for a potential second phase which will begin later this year.

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