The Presidential Youth Employment Intervention (PYEI) has facilitated nearly 295 000 earning opportunities for youth during the third quarter of this financial year.
This according to Deputy Minister in the Presidency Nonceba Mhlauli who released the PYEI 2025/26 third quarter results in Cape Town on Wednesday.
The results cover the time span between October and December last year and show, amongst others, that:
- Some 294 530 earning opportunity were secured
- Over 11 000 work experience opportunities were created through partnerships with higher learning institutions and the private sector
- More than 6 700 enterprise opportunities were provided to support youth entrepreneurship through the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA)
“Furthermore, our revitalised National Youth Service…continues to expand with 132 784 young people having been placed in paid service opportunities to date.
“These achievements show that the PYEI is not only growing in scale but also in length, diversity and sustainability of opportunities,” Mhlauli said.
She emphasised that the quarter’s most important milestone is the “continued success” of the Jobs Boost Fund.
The fund – which is in its pilot phase this financial year – is aimed at delivering high-quality jobs for previously excluded youth by incentivising skills providers to deliver appropriate skills development and support job readiness programmes and interventions.
“Over 9 170 young people have enrolled into this particular programme. Which means we have been able to exceed our target for this financial year.
“Of the young people enrolled in this programme, 7 200 young people have already been placed into jobs,” she said.
Young people are encouraged to take up the opportunities presented on the zero rated sayouth.mobi site where opportunities are listed.
“You will find all opportunities related to every and anything youth related. On [the site], you will find earning and learning opportunities, access to work experience and enterprise support. You will receive work readiness support and guidance.
“This platform is designed to ensure that no young person is excluded because of cost, location or lack of access to information,” the Deputy Minister said.
Since inception, the PYEI has reached more than 5 million young people with 2.36 million earning opportunities facilitated through SA Youth and an additional 402 515 opportunities through the labour department’s Employment Services of South Africa (ESSA).
“The PYEI is part of a broader national effort to remove structural barriers to job creation and economic participation. We are building a South Africa where young people participate in the economy with dignity, agency and hope.
“The progress report we present today is encouraging but our work is far from complete. Youth unemployment remains one of the biggest challenges that we face as a nation but through partnership, innovation and persistence we are steadily expanding pathways to earning for millions of our young South Africans,” Mhlauli concluded.