Johannesburg, 03 Jun 2014
The Rockefeller Foundation has announced a $1 million grant to EOH to spur job creation in the ICT sector for South Africa's disadvantaged youth.
The grant comes to support EOH's Youth Job Creation Initiative launched in 2012 which aims at stimulating youth job creation by enhancing interaction between youth and its customers, business partners and Government. It will farther promote internship training programmes, work with the South African Government to mobilise business to take advantage of their incentive schemes for job creation, and encourage business to invest more in SA which will result in job creation.
This grant comes under the Foundation's Digital Jobs Africa initiative which seeks to impact the lives of 1 million people in six countries in Africa by catalysing sustainable information and communications technology-enabled employment opportunities for African youth who would not otherwise have an opportunity for sustainable employment. Launched in 2013, Digital Jobs Africa is being carried out in six countries: Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa.
"Digital skills are fast becoming a requirement for gaining well paid employment, and ICT-powered jobs are critical in helping young people develop the required skills for the jobs of today and the future. We are pleased to support EOH in this venture to scale up jobs for South Africa's youth in the sector, and look forward to seeing the young people's lives , as well as their communities, improved due to their accessing these opportunities' said Mamadou Biteye, Managing Director, Rockefeller Foundation Africa Regional Office.
The grant will enable EOH build on the success of Youth Job Creation Initiative, and will place 1 750 unemployed youth in a Work Readiness Programme in 2014. The youth will combine theory training with practical placement of the learner at EOH partners or clients, enabling the learners to receive work experience and an increased chance to get employment. Furthermore, the grant will ensure that more of the EOH partners will get involved in the Youth Job Creation Initiative.
"It is our experience that once companies are involved and have experienced the initiative they will stay involved, thereby allowing us to scale up the initiative exponentially. It has also been proven that a young person with one year's work experience has an 80% chance of remaining in the formal working sector for the remainder of their career lives, it's not only good for business, but good for society," said Asher Bohbot, EOH CEO.
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