CAPE TOWN - South Africa's high unemployment rate indicates that young people face extreme difficulties engaging with the labour market.
This is according to Stefan du Plessis, commercial director at Eiffel Corp, a technology solutions company which on Tuesday announced it has partnered with the United States-based global provider of higher education solutions, Symplicity Corporation who have assisted 26 million job seekers around the world to find meaningful and appropriate employment.
Eiffel Corp said more than one in every three young people in South Africa did not have a job in the first three months of this year. With unemployment rates close to 40 percent in youth and young adults between the ages of 15 to 34, solutions to aid employment are on the national agenda.
Du Plessis said unemployment was not unique to the under-educated and skilled. “The graduate unemployment rate was 33,5 percent for those aged 15 to 24 and 10,2 percent among those aged 25 to 34 years, while the rate among adults aged 35 to 64 years was 4,7 percent,” he said.
"For the last twenty years, Eiffel has been engaged in the student lifecycle and committed to student throughput, offering the best solutions and services to universities on the African continent. It made sense to partner with Symplicity given their global expertise in student engagement and employability. The partnership will enable us to add innovative employment solutions to our existing offering of learner management systems, content development services and analytics that support student throughput,” he added.
“We have been engaging with education stakeholders about the various components to education, digital skills, access via technology and employability, so this partnership supports our belief that we have a role to play in graduate placement.”
Du Plessis further said that partnering with Symplicity allowed Eiffel Corp to bring a new set of innovative and proven solutions to its clients that will help universities increase employability outcomes, employer engagement and rankings.
Vice President international of Symplicity, Thomas Jepsen, said that Symplicity is currently supporting more than 1,300 higher education institutions globally.
"We're helping universities to better manage all aspects of student life, to ensure that students have better chances for employment and success in the future world of work. We’ve assisted 26 million job seekers around the world to find meaningful and appropriate employment,” Jepsen said.
"I believe this partnership will bring exciting new opportunities to universities in South Africa that will support their employability initiatives. With Eiffel, we have found a fantastic partner that stands for excellence, best practice and expertise."