ࡱ> >@=7 2bjbjUU .>7|7|-l@@@@@@@8 &NN"pppppp$ @ppppp@@ppp4@p@pp :,@@pB lfs<& 00RTJ6@@@@INNOVATIVE PROGRAMMES AND PROJECTS AROUND YOUTH EMPLOYMENT PROMOTION A Review of Best Practice Initiatives in South Africa BACKGROUND For a number of young people in the Southern African Region the transition from school to work poses considerable challenges. The educational, labour market and youth policy has in the recent years placed its focus around unemployed youths in various ways. As a main component of these policies projects and programmes have been set up to give young people a sense of direction about their futures. If we take youth employment and development initiatives as necessary components to improving the lives of young people by giving them the tools to develop self reliance, adjust to change and as a result become active members of society then initiatives that are in the business of changing the lives of these young people need to take the responsibility for improving their own capacity. As such youth employment and development initiatives need to engage in continuous improvement of their programmes and projects in order to improve their products and services to the participants. It is important then to note that improvement is not only limited and located to incremental changes but also includes radical and innovative changes. It is only with the right tools that the youth sector can be in a better position to better examine and improve its activities. INTRODUCTION The past 8 years have seen a dramatic change in funding practice in South Africa and as such youth development initiatives have been forced to redefine their roles hence reshaping the nature and form of their programmes and projects in order to meet the needs resonated by the current context. As South Africa moved from confrontation to negotiation in the early 1990s the entire South African situation changed dramatically both politically and socially. During this time most international donor agencies began channelling their funds directly to the government, the new ministries in place were thus mandated to meet different needs hence the change in NGO donor relationships. This shift has in the long term resulted in diminished funds being invested directly to programmes hence placing increased pressure on development organisations to find alternative resources, which will ensure their survival. This renewed pressure has resulted in a need for development organisations to begin to think creatively about their initiatives and as such explore alternative ways of doing things that will best meet the needs of the changing socio economic environment and the sectors involved. This has meant crystal visions, missions and expectations on the part of the non- governmental organisations (NGOs) and has thus placed greater responsibility on the organisations to improve their programmes and projects. Again organisations have had to explore new strategies that would ensure greater sustainability and this has taken various forms and direction. Most organisations are aware of the acute need to determine what works and at the same time make what works available to the sector as a whole so that all youth will become productive and involved citizens. Again there is also a need to strengthen and support local systems in building comprehensive youth development initiatives. In additional to that it is assumed that this approach will lead to an identification of common patterns that will emerge with the hope that this will enable the youth development sector to draw informed conclusions, determine lessons learned as well as test lessons for the future. It is hoped that this knowledge base will be the basis for empowering and sustaining youth development initiatives. It is also assumed that sharing information will help the sector better determine what constitutes lessons learned and thus guide future action. Having said that the YDN is aware that there is a whole continuum of different kinds of research both locally and internationally that have already placed their focus on identifying effective practices in the youth development sector particularly on employment focused programmes and projects. This publication compliments the work done by many regional and local national youth development organisations that are doing sterling work in the area of employment promotion and creation. It highlights their effective and dynamic approaches to meeting the youth unemployment challenges. This publications draws on a number of different programs in the field of employment creation and promotion in order to bring greater clarity on the difficult task of identifying best practice initiatives in socio-economically and politically diverse societies within the region. The youth sector currently does not have a wide pool of people with technical skills who are able to effectively evaluate and monitor youth programmes and projects around youth employment creation, hence the need for these initiatives to seek ways to demonstrate to the government and the donor agencies that their programmes are effective still abounds and thus continues to force the sector to think of ways of sustaining itself. INNOVATIVE PRACTICES OVERVIEW This publication is not a complete overview of best practice initiatives in the Southern African Region but is merely a window to the kinds of initiatives that are presently taking shape in the region. We hope that this snap overview will highlight common trends that are taking shape in the region as well as spark progressive debate as we begin to explore ways in which these youth initiatives can be further strengthened and or incorporated for future policy recommendations on youth employment creation. We also hope that the readers of this publication will take up the issues highlighted in the publication. The best and innovative practices highlighted in this publication provide for a framework and guide for the youth development sector while setting up a knowledgebase of good practices that have made valuable contributions in the region HOW THE STUDY WAS CONDUCTED This publication set out to explore innovative practices in the field of youth employment. It moves away from anecdotal knowledge about what works but rather by laying out standard criteria for best practice initiatives is able to identify working initiatives. We looked at programmes and organisations doing work in employment creation in order to get some understanding of their practices and what they considered to be effective within their organisations. We also reviewed existing literature on best practices in youth employment programmes, both locally and internationally to further strengthen our understanding of best practices. The study was conducted through a series of workshops in the major cities of South Africa as well as country visits. The workshops were held with youth experts working in the field of youth employment creation and promotion with input from business, the education sector and general youth development practitioners. They were given a framework within which to work with as well as tease out what they thought was working effectively and could pass as credible youth employment practice. The working group discussion also helped the practitioners to critically think about how their local programmes accurately responded to the diverse needs of young people. The study did take into consideration the overall socio economic policy environment and explored the issues within that ambit. What came out from the exercise was that many organisations lacked formal standards with which to measure their impact. The process was guided by four set themes identified as elements that help us identify an organisation doing effective work: Relevance, monitoring and evaluation, the young person and the organisation were identified as key tools to help tease out evidence of success. Organisations needed to demonstrate exceptional strength in the above areas demonstrating how these elements were managed giving specific examples to inform how success was achieved. The organisations profiled at the workshops worked on a varied range of programmes and approaches in an effort to enhance the employability of young people. DIFFICULTIES EXPERIENCED Moving from abstract youth development challenges to practical and specific examples of what was working was initially difficult.This publication merely scratches the surface on the variety of effective initiatives throughout the region. The publication focuses on Technical Skills Training programmes, Enterprise/entrepreneurship training and Job Preparation programmes that increase the employability of young people. To date there is no comprehensive resource book or point of reference on innovative practices around youth employment programmes in South Africa.However there have in the past years been conferences and workshops devoted to best practice initiatives in youth employment programmes in an attempt to legitimise the field. The programmes covered in this publication serve a variety of young people. Some of the programs have become an integral part of the school curriculum while others serve unemployed graduates and out of school youths. All these programmes provide a diverse learning setting while making connections with the world of work. The publication looks at 12 organisations and showcases what is working and making a difference in these programmes. We look at school to work programmes, technical skills training programmes, enterprise development programmes and job preparation and placement programmes mainly because intervention occurring throughout all the stages. Managing the diversity of the different organisations represented at the workshop tended to be difficult since the scale of the programmes differed with some organisation serving younger participants and other working with older or larger numbers of youths. However there was some value in the diversity because it served as a testimony that effective youth programming manifested itself in different forms and standards and began to reflect more specific commonalities. We hope that this publication will provide guidance and support for organisations in the youth sector hoping to strengthen and better their programmes, services and results. With more workshop at regulated intervals, visits to other organisations, would hopefully lead to strengthened and promising programmes. COMMON FEATURES Overall the organisations profiled served youths between the ages 18 and 35 however there were organisations that were trying to bridge the gap from as early as 14 years but typically the emphasis was on older youths and on young people with disadvantaged socio economic backgrounds. There were interesting parallels between the organisations. The organisations did demonstrate an extended service approach as a key element to demonstrating success. Most organisations recognised the need to look after the young person after he or she had completed the training programme and this was demonstrated in various ways by the respective organisations either in the form of internships of follow up initiatives. The involvement of young people in all stages of the programme also surfaced as an important component for a successful initiative. Again the organisations creative approaches to their respective programmes and the ability to go beyond the traditional scope set the organisations as examples of best practice. The ability of the organisation to infuse an integrated approach to youth development in their programme content also served as an example of good practice. These organisations used a variety of innovative techniques in order for the programme to better respond to the holistic development of the young person. PAGE  PAGE 1 EF|}{  R;$2$,,,12222 2 22222220JmHnHu0J j0JUOJQJOJQJCJ5\ 5CJ\&EF|}z {   mn  RS;<$a$$a$12$$1$2$%%))++,,,,%.&.112 2 2222h]h&`#$$a$222,1h. A!"#$%  i8@8 NormalCJ_HaJmH sH tH 6@6 Heading 1$$@&a$CJ 8@8 Heading 2$$@&a$5\>@> Heading 3$$@&a$ CJOJQJ<A@< Default Paragraph Font,B@, Body Text$a$0P@0 Body Text 2$a$, @, Footer  9r &)@!& Page Number4Q@24 Body Text 3$a$CJ.>!"&!"&!"& "& "&'.OcqEF|}z{  m n  RS;<  1 2 !!%%''((((%*&*--.00000000000000000000000000(00%00%0%0%00%00000000000 2222 !!T a"o"%%-. -.:o{yz{{ "!#!W"g"h"h"%%,,c-c----. ....YDNCC:\Projects\Active\YES2002\Regional Research\Best pract Draft 1.docYDNVC:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Word\AutoRecovery save of Best pract Draft 1.asdYDNVC:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Word\AutoRecovery save of Best pract Draft 1.asdYDNVC:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Word\AutoRecovery save of Best pract Draft 1.asdYDNVC:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Word\AutoRecovery save of Best pract Draft 1.asdYDNVC:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Word\AutoRecovery save of Best pract Draft 1.asdYDNVC:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Word\AutoRecovery save of Best pract Draft 1.asdYDNA:\Best pract Draft 1.docYDNA:\Best pract Draft 1.docYDNA:\Brief overview.doc|o0OdUar5h ^`OJQJo(h ^`OJQJo(oh ^`OJQJo(h   ^ `OJQJo(h SS^S`OJQJo(oh ##^#`OJQJo(h ^`OJQJo(h ^`OJQJo(oh ^`OJQJo(h ^`OJQJo(h ^`OJQJo(oh pp^p`OJQJo(h @ @ ^@ `OJQJo(h ^`OJQJo(oh ^`OJQJo(h ^`OJQJo(h ^`OJQJo(oh PP^P`OJQJo(dUar|o                  @%% %%.P@UnknownG:Times New Roman5Symbol3& :ArialCFComic Sans MSW&Copperplate Gothic Bold?5 :Courier New;Wingdings"qh]+h&]+h&8f%P-a"20d.5 2QDINNOVATIVE PROGRAMMES AND PROJECTS AROUND YOUTH EMPLOYMENT PROMOTIONYDNYDN Oh+'0 0 <H d p | EINNOVATIVE PROGRAMMES AND PROJECTS AROUND YOUTH EMPLOYMENT PROMOTIONNNNOYDNDNDNNormalIYDN2NMicrosoft Word 9.0E@@=p@-Ks<@-Ks<% ՜.+,0D hp  %Youth Development NetworkMP. EINNOVATIVE PROGRAMMES AND PROJECTS AROUND YOUTH EMPLOYMENT PROMOTION Title !"#$%&'()*+,./012346789:;<?Root Entry F gs<A1Table WordDocument.>SummaryInformation(-DocumentSummaryInformation85CompObjjObjectPool gs< gs<  FMicrosoft Word Document MSWordDocWord.Document.89q