EOH believes that all businesses should take responsibility for equipping our youth with the skills they need to become employable. With over five million unemployed people in the country - and 75% of them youth - the government alone cannot shoulder the burden of creating employment.
Businesses are obliged to step in to address the situation. Doing so is surprisingly simple and is not a costly exercise. It is simply a matter of giving young people work experience.
EOH launched a Youth Job Creation Initiative two years ago aimed at stimulating youth job creation by interacting with its customers, business partners and government.
The initiative aims to:
* Promote internship and training programmes
* Repatriate jobs offshored to other countries and the creation of jobs by offshoring services to other countries
* Work with government to mobilise business to take advantage of government incentive schemes for job creation
* Encourage business to invest more in SA which will result in job creation (JSE listed companies have R600 billion in cash...)
In 2012 EOH, in partnership with the Media, Information and Communication Technologies Sector Education and Training Authority (MICT Seta), brought on board 620 learners and interns creating job and skills development opportunities for Youth. These learners and interns at the time made up 15% of the staff workforce, at the end of the year-long programme 80% of the learners and interns were offered permanent employment within EOH, placing the rest of the learners and interns in our clients and business partners environments.
In November 2013 EOH rolled out the second year of its initiative giving 200 interns and 400 learners in partnership with MICT Seta and 372 learners in partnership with the Seta for finance, accounting, management consulting and other financial services the opportunity to enter the formal working sector for the rest of their career lives. It's been proven that a youth with one years of experience has an 80% chance of receiving employment elsewhere. All 200 interns and 572 learners have been absorbed in the business after three months of work readiness training and orientation of the EOH business. Theoretically, if every business in South Africa were to do the same, it would mean the employment of hundreds of thousands young South Africans. The benefits are immense - for the youth, for society and ultimately for the very businesses that invested time and effort in passing on the skills. "After all, it is easier to run a business in a successful society," concludes EOH CEO Asher Bohbot.
EOH's objective is to create 28 000 jobs by 2016, through dialogue and idea sharing with its customers and business partners, the commpany not only believes it can achieve this but that it can do so much more. It estimates to date that through this interaction, its clients and business partners in their own capacity have created over 10 000 learning opportunities for the youth.
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