Corporate youth training programmes play a pivotal role in driving meaningful employment and helping solve SA’s unemployment rate
In today’s society, many of us feel overwhelmed and under pressure to keep up and perform well—whether technologically, digitally, socially or in business. As everything around us continually evolves, so does the business landscape that millions of youth enter into each year. South Africa has a burgeoning youth population of around 20 million. Amongst those aged 15-24, the expanded unemployment rate is a concerning 70%. Addressing this longstanding important societal problem requires us to bring our humanity to the fore and work together.
“Our Humanity, or Ubuntu Bethu, is an important strategy that we follow at PwC Africa which communicates the importance of community, inter-reliance and working together,” says Dion Shango, PwC Africa CEO. “Every year, we run carefully crafted corporate youth training programmes to ensure we are making a meaningful impact on our country’s youth. We believe that business has a responsibility to help address the challenges faced by young people, and in helping solve this important problem, we understand that we are only half the story. To build trust and deliver sustained outcomes—in this case, in the form of upskilling and creating meaningful employment for our youth—we know that our people, clients and communities are critical contributors to solving this issue.”
PwC has been running several programmes over the years to train, upskill and employ promising youth around South Africa. These programmes align with our societal purpose, which involves using our business skills, knowledge and the tools at our disposal to promote greater opportunity for all, in the areas we are certain we can make a difference.
This year, the lives of two youth in particular, Kgomotso Setuke and Matome Mogale, were significantly impacted by PwC. Their journey at the firm began in 2022 when they were selected to enrol in PwC’s Youth Engaged Programme (YEP) which spans seven months.
“YEP is tailored to uplift talented young people who are grappling with youth unemployment. Through this course—which we are now running for the third year—youth are upskillied in key business modules and benefit from one- on-one mentoring sessions with PwC professionals who can empower and support their development. Upon completion of the course, candidates who perform at a high level have the opportunity to gain full time employment at PwC or one of our alliance partners.”
Showing much promise after completing the YEP course, Kgomotso and Matome were then nominated to enrol in PwC’s Foundation for the Future graduate programme. This 18-month rotational programme exposed them to diverse and highly skilled teams in various disciplines, including front office transformation, corporate function transformation, smart manufacturing, SAP and forensics.
Kgomotso says: “Having studied a BA, I never expected to be exposed to consulting services like procurement, SAP and smart manufacturing. Having the opportunity to work on a large client made me discover my passion for project management. This also allowed me to work with various teams and better understand how all the elements of a consulting project come together. I have gained invaluable skills at PwC and this is evident as in May, I secured a full-time role with PwC’s SAP team.”
Matome, who also completed the Foundation for the Future programme, has seen similar success. “When I first joined PwC, it was daunting as I didn't have any experience in the consulting space,” he says. “Through working with various skilled teams across the business, I learned more than I had anticipated, and fell in love with business process management. This all started because I said ‘yes’ to YEP. These opportunities have been life changing and opened avenues that I had never dreamed of.”
For Matome, leaving his home in Limpopo to move to Gauteng was daunting. However, two years on, he has secured full time employment with PwC’s South Africa Technology Innovation Centre (SATIC)—the firm’s new tech and innovation delivery centre that focuses on innovating, building and deploying digital business solutions to clients in South Africa and the United Kingdom.
SATIC, which launched in July last year, will have 120 youth permanently employed by the end of June 2024 (49% are female, 51% are male and 92% are African, Coloured and Indian).
“Since SATIC’s inception, we have maintained a key focus on employing young people with the aim to upskill them and create quality work opportunities. Through this centre, we are playing our role as a responsible corporate citizen in helping address the challenge of youth unemployment. By 2027, we aim to employ more than 1,000 people. A large contingent of this will be youth who will be supported by a number of development programmes that we are running. These programmes are geared towards helping our youth develop better social and business skills, gain relevant technical knowledge, and establish effective professional networks and relationships.”
“The private sector has a responsibility to contribute to the empowerment and advancement of South Africa’s youth as they will be our future policy makers and leaders. The youth-focused programmes that we run at PwC speak to our societal purpose strategy which is aligned to seven of the 17 United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). PwC’s programmes address several of these SDGs, including providing quality education, decent work and economic growth, promoting gender equality, and helping reduce inequalities.”
PwC wishes South Africa’s youth a happy Youth Month. May we all realise the potential and promise our youth hold, and play our part in ensuring they can succeed and make a meaningful impact for Africa.
Contact us
Shirley Machaba
Regional Senior Partner, PwC South Market Area, PwC South Africa
Tel: +27 (0) 11 797 5851
