This Youth Month, join the Future of Change

Their future. Your business: The biggest risk to your business: More than half of South African youth are unemployed.

If more than half of South Africa’s young people aren’t earning an income, how will they buy from your business now and in the future?

The Youth Employment Service (YES) is the largest private sector youth employment programme in the country, affecting broad-based change across South Africa.

As a private sector led initiative, we address the country’s youth unemployment crisis by empowering businesses to create jobs for our unemployed youth. We’re youth focused and business-led.

YES is a non-profit organisation that is not reliant on government funding and our jobs are 100% private sector funded. We work with leading businesses in various sectors to provide 12-month quality work experiences for unemployed young people to be future managers, skilled employees, professionals, change-makers, and entrepreneurs who will drive their communities and the South African economy forward.

For many youth, this is their first employment in the private sector and YES provides a vital first step on their journey to long term employment.

Let’s face it. If you lead the youth, you lead the market.

For business, YES is a key pipeline through which you can select, develop and de-risk undiscovered, standout talent, previously locked out of the economy. We provide businesses with a route to sustainability and long-term value.

Businesses can improve their B-BBEE scorecard by up to two levels while affecting broad-based transformation. Beyond B-BBEE, many businesses are also integrating YES into their environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategies to have a meaningful and measurable impact on communities and the environment.

YES is a national movement of over 1,700+ companies tackling the unemployment crisis and creating the future of change.