The Department of Higher Education and Training placed over 5 000 graduates of Technical, Vocational, Education and Training (TVET) Colleges in employment opportunities between January and March.
Nonceba Mhlauli, the Deputy Minister in the Presidency, stated that the Department of Higher Education and Training placed 5 504 TVET graduates into employment.
Mhlauli was presenting and discussing the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention’s (PYEI) Quarter Four Progress Report (January–March 2025) at a media briefing on Monday.
The PYEI, which is in its fifth year, continues to be one of South Africa’s most important and creative solutions to the problem of youth unemployment.
Progress through partnerships
The briefing, held at the GCIS Media Centre in Hatfield, Pretoria, gave an update on significant accomplishments, lessons learnt, and strategies to increase the impact of partnerships between the public and private sectors.
According to Mhlauli, the report demonstrates that more than 1.67-million earning opportunities have been secured to date and that over 4.78-million youth are currently registered on the National Pathway Management Network.
“This reflects the strength of the PYEI’s approach in aggregating demand, coordinating partners, and enabling pathways that enhance young people’s economic participation. In quarter four alone, 76 569 earning opportunities were accessed by young people,” said Mhlauli.
“These earning opportunities are 60 444 opportunities through SA Youth and 16 125 through the Employment Services of South Africa.
“We also saw continued progress through our partnerships: the Youth Employment Service facilitated 15 137 workplace experience placements in the private sector, and the Department of Higher Education and Training placed an additional 5 504 TVET graduates into workplace opportunities.”
Youth unemployment figures
She said the Department of Small Business Development and the National Youth Development Agency provided financial and non-financial enterprise development opportunities to over 43 000 young entrepreneurs.
“Phase 3 of the Revitalised National Youth Service saw 2 048 youth recruited, bringing the total number of participants across all phases to 84 426.
“We are particularly proud of the continued momentum of the Jobs Boost Outcomes Fund, which uses an innovative pay-for-performance model to incentivise the placement of young people in sustainable, quality jobs and has made steady progress in its pilot phase.”
Meanwhile, the official unemployment rate for young people aged 15 to 34 is 46.1%, according to the most recent Quarterly Labour Force Survey published by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) for the first quarter of 2025 (January–March 2025).
According to Stats SA, 62.4% of young people between the ages of 15 and 24 were unemployed.
The youth unemployment rate for those between the ages of 25 and 34 was 40.4%.
