JOHANNESBURG - 12 months ago, Rendani Netshivhale was an unemployed BCom graduate, today, she’s the top consultant at a Johannesburg-based recruitment agency.
Netshivhale is one of more than 40,507 young South Africans to have benefited from a 12-month work experience from the Youth Employment Scheme (YES).
YES is a non-profit organisation (NPO) that works with business, government and labour to build economic pathways for black youth.
Originally sponsored by Nestlé, Netshivhale joined the Inyosi Empowerment work experience programme in November 2019. She was placed with SelectONE as a recruiter and is about to be employed full-time when her work experience ends.
“Being part of this initiative changed my status from an individual who was part of the unemployed youth, to an employed person who is ready to kickstart her career. I have grown and learnt so much. I’m more confident, independent and responsible, not only with my workload, but my finances as well,” said Netshivhale.
Bruno Olierhoek, Chairman and Managing Director of Nestlé East and Southern Africa Region (ESAR), said, “We have invested R1,6 billion in job creation, skills development and community upliftment projects in the past year. This figure included investments of R52 million to support emerging black farmers through our dairy projects in the Eastern and Western Cape, as well as incremental spend of R100 million on black rural development projects across the country”.
These skills development investments played an important part in their recent achievement of a Level 3 Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) certification. Nestlé’s new score is a two-level upward improvement, from its previous Level 5.
YES chief executive Dr Tashmia Ismail said Nestlé’s certification highlighted the ability of B-BBEE scorecards to stimulate job creation and drive economic growth.
“YES offers South African businesses a way to improve their B-BBEE levels, over and above the standard B-BBEE scorecard elements, while driving impactful transformation. Companies that create a target number of work experiences can benefit with a B-BBEE rating increase of one, or even two, full levels,” said Ismail.
YES has created over 40,507 new work experiences in just 22 months with more than 1200 private sector partners, including Nedbank, Absa and VW. Tis has resulted in more than R2,2 billion being poured into local economies through youth salaries.
BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE