Seminar looks at finding employment when you’re young, black and poor, and just out of school

Roughly 60 people gathered for the seminar. In the course of the event, many seemed moved by what they heard.

Two young men, Wongama Baleni and Vusumzi Mamile from the Department of Coffee, spoke about entrepreneurship and creating opportunities for oneself.

The Department of Coffee is the first artisan coffee roastery in Khayelitsha. They both acknowledged that while education is important, it is not the only requirement for success.

Baleni spoke about how he spent time attending small business workshops to learn how to start a business. The Department of Coffee is his fourth business venture, with the first three doing moderately well and then closing. Baleni highlighted how much one has to learn about business, and how hard he had worked in order to start his business.

Mamil asked, “How do we turn the universities and colleges into sources of entrepreneurs, not a source of employment?”

Baleni said, “Companies like Old Mutual are sitting on millions, all they need is your idea and my idea … Let’s go to school guys, school is the number one [priority]… But out of school can you think broadly and creatively? Can you be wise?”

In a sobering presentation, Peliwe Lolwana, director of the Centre for Researching Education and Labour at WITS, explained that most young people blame themselves for being unemployed, however there is a bigger picture.

Lolwana provided national data on out of school youth who are Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET). Access to opportunities varies greatly across racial lines. Only 9.6% of young white men are NEET, while 37.5% of African women are NEET, and 33% of coloured men are NEET.

Lolwana attributed this to a number of factors — a history of poverty, poor education, and that black people are more likely to know employees in junior jobs, or to know very few people who are employed at all. White people are more likely to know people in senior and management positions. This, considered alongside the fact that 66% of jobs in South Africa are found through networks and informal methods, goes a long way to explaining why young black and coloured people continue to be marginalised and unable to properly access formal employment.