Assessing the role of the expanded public works programme national youth service in promoting youth employment

Abstract

Youth unemployment and skill shortages poses major challenges to the socio-economic status of South Africa. Making it worse is the fact that the South African youth unemployment landscape is complex and multi-faceted. As such, the country is grappling with a challenge of how to implement employment creation and skills development initiatives that will respond to this multifaceted challenge. This is not withstanding the fact that government is implementing interventions like the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) National Youth Services (NYS) programme aimed strengthening youth participation in service delivery and the built environment, whilst helping the youth to gain the work-related skills necessary to access opportunities for a sustainable livelihood (Department of Public Works, 2017). Despite government interventions to address the challenge of unemployment, the majority of young people are concerned that government is not doing enough to create jobs for them. Moreover, anecdotal evidence also suggest these programmes are less attractive to the younger age cohort because they are not well tailored for young people and fail to address their aspirations. While the EPWP has been implemented for years now and there is monitoring of the number of work opportunities created, there is no evidence to confirm the extent to which this programme contribute to youth employment. This paper then proposes to assess the role of the EPWP NYS in promoting youth employment. This paper proceeds by reviewing the literature on the public works programmes in order to get an understanding of the nature of the problem. Secondly, this research establishes frameworks that can interpret the empirical findings on the role of the EPWP NYS in promoting youth employment. Thirdly, based on the literature reviewed a conceptual framework for this study is developed. Fourthly, from data collected, the research analysed the role of the EPWP NYS in promoting youth employment. Lastly, this research has applied the established theoretical frameworks such as the theory of change and capabilities approach framework to interpret the empirical results with conclusions and recommendations for future research made.