Speaker 1: Now when we talk about the jobless crisis in South Africa,
Speaker 1: very very often and correctly so we spoke. We focus
Speaker 1: on jobless South Africans, young South Africans who are struggling
Speaker 1: just to get into the world of work at all,
Speaker 1: get that one first job or internship or even short
Speaker 1: term post that would allow them to put on their CV.
Speaker 1: I have experience a very interesting article caught my eye
Speaker 1: and it is a story that has been written about
Speaker 1: the importance of mentorship, the importance of mentors in helping
Speaker 1: young people get that all important job and to talk
Speaker 1: about it, we joined by Sinzelware Tembu, who is a
Speaker 1: researcher at the Center for Social Development which in Africa,
Speaker 1: which is based at the University of Johannesburg. But September,
Speaker 1: Welcome and thanks very much for your time. You've worked
Speaker 1: on the story co authored by your colleague Professor Lauren Graham.
Speaker 1: What made you guys stop looking at mentorship in the
Speaker 1: first place.
Speaker 2: I'm intrigued, Hi, John, thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 2: Just a correction there, I didn't write the article. It
Speaker 2: was Professor Lauren Graham and Professor Aria and de Len Nooish.
Speaker 1: I thought you have done some of the research on it.
Speaker 2: Yes, I am part of the research team.
Speaker 1: Yes, that was what I said the study.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so what made us, you know, kind of think
Speaker 2: about how to tackle this use unemployment issue. I think
Speaker 2: we've spent a number of years trying to understand from
Speaker 2: the supply side, what, you know, who are these young people,
Speaker 2: what are the challenges they experience? And from that we
Speaker 2: learned that they they struggle not only with looking for
Speaker 2: work and finding work itself, but there are multiple barriers
Speaker 2: that they experience. Some of that is around living in
Speaker 2: income poor households, not having enough social networks. We know
Speaker 2: about issues like the high cost of work seeking and
Speaker 2: so there's a real issue about connecting right to livelihood
Speaker 2: opportunities but also to learning, earning as well as other
Speaker 2: services that can help unblock these barriers. And so the
Speaker 2: basic package of support program is a coaching program and
Speaker 2: it provides one on one tailot support. There is a
Speaker 2: holistic assessment that is done. They receive coaching by trained
Speaker 2: child and youth care workers and in that way we
Speaker 2: try to understand the young person and give them that
Speaker 2: tailot support in order to connect them with the relevant
Speaker 2: localized services available. I could go on. There's another component
Speaker 2: of the program that focuses on connecting community stakeholders, and
Speaker 2: so it is an integrated approach to solving for the
Speaker 2: use unemployment issue.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'd like to get that in a moment, but
Speaker 1: I want to just share with people this because I mean,
Speaker 1: this was a substantial pilot program. You worked with seventeen
Speaker 1: hundred young people, Karten case it in and Western Cape.
Speaker 1: Was the footprint that you worked on as you unrolled
Speaker 1: the pilot project. What I'm sure you were learning as
Speaker 1: you were going and thinking, well, this worked really well,
Speaker 1: this worked less well, This is scalable, this is harder
Speaker 1: to do at large scale. I mean, what were the
Speaker 1: key learnings out of this? Because as people are listening,
Speaker 1: I'm sure a lot of people are saying, this sounds good,
Speaker 1: but can we roll it out at a larger scale?
Speaker 1: What did you learn about that?
Speaker 2: No, that's a very important reflection and one that we're
Speaker 2: also looking into now. We're currently taking part in a
Speaker 2: trace of study, so we're tracing young people over a
Speaker 2: longer period of time and that will allow us to
Speaker 2: one understand the different profiles of young people. We're very
Speaker 2: clear that you know unemployed young people are not a
Speaker 2: homogeneous group. Within that you know, big number, that three
Speaker 2: point four million of young people who are not in education,
Speaker 2: employmental training. There are various subgroups. Some of them have metric,
Speaker 2: some of them have post metric qualifications, and some of
Speaker 2: them have dropped out, you know, before finishing the trick.
Speaker 2: All these young people will require different types of support.
Speaker 2: I will say though that this this approach by coaching
Speaker 2: young people and having this very intensive approach to looking
Speaker 2: at a young person and seeing them holistically, right beyond
Speaker 2: them just being a job seeker, I think it has
Speaker 2: yielded a lot of positive results. We're seeing for this
Speaker 2: particularly vulnerable group of young people who are neat not
Speaker 2: in employment, educational training, that they do tend to need
Speaker 2: a little more support and someone to walk that journey
Speaker 2: with them, understand them, understand their challenges. You know, the
Speaker 2: young people when they came into the program, they were
Speaker 2: apprehensive at first. A lot of them didn't understand, you know,
Speaker 2: what is coaching going to do for me? And I
Speaker 2: think they realized after a few sessions this was the
Speaker 2: thing they kind of didn't know that they needed, right,
Speaker 2: having someone to be a listening ear, having someone to
Speaker 2: guide them having someone who builds on their agency and
Speaker 2: builds upon where they are now. Right, So a very
Speaker 2: asset focused, an asset approach to our assisting young people
Speaker 2: and providing relevant referrals for them. So I think when
Speaker 2: we think about scale one, we need to understand the
Speaker 2: different subsets of young people that we're dealing with and
Speaker 2: provide tailored support. Some will need more intensive support, some
Speaker 2: will need shorter term interventions. But I do think for
Speaker 2: those who are particularly doundle that coaching and having a
Speaker 2: very intensive in person, you know, very close relationship with
Speaker 2: the young person yields positive results.
Speaker 1: Just finally, and and a brief summary, if you can
Speaker 1: give us one with some temper, I mean, where do
Speaker 1: you go next with this? Presumably there are people like
Speaker 1: ourselves who are reading this and finding it interesting, more research,
Speaker 1: more pilots, or do you think you're at a stage
Speaker 1: now where you can say, actually, we have a model,
Speaker 1: let's see if we can build on that.
Speaker 2: So absolutely, I think we've we've done the groundwork, both
Speaker 2: qualitatively and quantitatively to kind of give us, you know,
Speaker 2: proof of concept that there's definitely something to work with here.
Speaker 2: I think the next steps one is completing that trace
Speaker 2: of study so that we can profile young people and
Speaker 2: also get a better sense of what are the longer
Speaker 2: term effects and impact of this program. We are looking
Speaker 2: as well at how can we institutionalize a basic package
Speaker 2: of support approach to supporting young people. So what are
Speaker 2: the elements within this program that we can scale up
Speaker 2: in different forms and using what exists? Right, we have infrastructure,
Speaker 2: we have different government departments, there are different programs that
Speaker 2: are rolling out, but it really is for all of
Speaker 2: us in the youth sector to look at what is
Speaker 2: working and what is giving us the best results and
Speaker 2: to make sure that all of our programs are aligned
Speaker 2: with those program elements that yield the best results.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much. I mean, I really recommend people have
Speaker 1: a read of this. It's on the conversation website. Send
Speaker 1: zelwere Tambu is a research at the Center for Social
Speaker 1: Development in Africa based at the University of Johannesburg. But
Speaker 1: let's do some research of our own. I mean, firstly,
Speaker 1: have you had a mentorship relationship with someone mented you
Speaker 1: that you benefited from and you may want to just
Speaker 1: tell us what are the key elements of that, what
Speaker 1: really worked? And secondly, if you either as an organization,
Speaker 1: or you as a part of an organization, shall I say,
Speaker 1: or maybe you as an individual, have been involved in
Speaker 1: mentoring people. Because what I liked about this story is
Speaker 1: often when we deal with the numbers, we then refer
Speaker 1: ourselves to other numbers, like the extent to which the
Speaker 1: economy is growing or not, which sector is growing or not.
Speaker 1: But this seems to focus on getting people ready to
Speaker 1: take opportunities where they exist. So I found it fascinating.
Speaker 1: I hope you found it interesting, and in particular, if
Speaker 1: you've got something from your own experience to add another
Speaker 1: layer to what we've just heard, well, I'd love to
Speaker 1: get that from you. Oh seven two, seven oh two
Speaker 1: one seven oh two, it's four o'clock.