Description

Youth development in South Africa is currently missing the mark. The current high investment in youth development is not producing sustainable returns. This reality is not helpful to a South African economy that is in crisis and desperately in need of skills to help change the negative growth outlook. Youth skills contribute significantly to the South African labour pool, and how we develop these skills will stand us in good stead as we rebuild our economy.
The question is, are we getting a return on investment for youth development, and if not, what is missing in our approach? Therefore, this study aimed to understand the relevance of a psychosocial development framework in youth employability development programmes in South Africa. The study further researched how evident the relationship between psychosocial development and youth employability is and identified gaps in current employability development programmes that can be addressed to attend to the psychosocial development needs of youth entering the world of work. Employing an exploratory qualitative approach, an interview guide was used as the data collection tool to understand if a framework can be created for youth skills development where psychosocial support/development is a key contributor. Participants included unemployed youth, employed youth, potential youth employers and youth skills training providers.
After analysis, the emergent themes from the interviews were: Coaching and Self- Management, development as an enabler, youth employability, psychosocial development and ways of closing the gap. The results of this study propose a review of the current approach to a more holistic approach. An approach where psychosocial development becomes compulsory in a holistic youth development approach in youth skills development in South Africa.