Mobilising Future Careers for South Africa's Youth

Rural youth in South Africa face many challenges.  A recent article states that "Companies are closing shop and abondoning entire towns in South Africa" and shared that 3.4 million out of 10.2 million young people (15-24 years), in South Africa, were not in employment, education or training (NEET), at the end of Q3 2021.  This alarming reality necessitates an intervention such as the Mobile Career Café. 

Since my last update to you, the Mobile Career Café (MCC) has visited the following communities in the Western Cape: Swellendam, Hout Bay and Darling.  We only have 4-5 hours with a group of young people during a visit and the two main outcomes we can realistically achieve, are helping youth identify opportunities in their immediate communities; and equipping them to compile a professional CV, and preparing for a job interview.

It’s important for AVA to know our input and delivery is on target.   Therefore, a baseline evaluation questionnaire is completed at each MCC to measure the impact of the workshops on the young people. A summary of the key success indicators from the last 4 MCC events, reflect remarkable results:

• 86% could identify potential employers and learning opportunities in their communities and online, even opportunities where they could volunteer to develop skills to increase their employability; compared the 15% prior to attending the MCC event.
• 97 % of youth felt confident that they now know how to prepare for a job interview; compared to 46% who knew what to say and do in a job interview at the start of the workshops.
• 100% of the youth were glad they attended the career café workshops.  No wonder that NONE of the youth leave any of the events before the end of the day.  Even in pouring rain in Swellendam and a scorcher in Darling, not a single young participant, left the event pre-maturely. 

The organisations we collaborate with always have positive feedback after the event.  The coordinator of the event in Hout Bay wrote the following comment to us after the MCC: “It was a great experience and beneficial for the youth of our communities. The feedback was very positive from those that attended. We would be delighted to host again …”. There is no doubt that the Mobile Career Café is a VERY impactful initiative that can change the future trajectory for many of our young people across South Africa. 

THANK YOU SO MUCH for enabling AVA to deliver this much needed and unique service to unemployed young people in underserved communities in South Africa.  We really want and need to expand the MCC. Please consider sharing the project link within your network of friends, family and colleagues.  From 4-8 April 2022, every small donation between $10 and $50 will be matched with 50% by GlobalGiving.  Again, thank you for your generous support! 

Links:

• Article on factors that exacerbate unemployment for rural youth