As South Africa continues to grapple with youth unemployment, there is growing focus on how education can translate into meaningful opportunities.
The Professional Provident Society (PPS) Foundation says its focus on education goes beyond bursaries, with an emphasis on supporting students from the so-called “missing middle” and helping them move successfully from university into the workplace.
The Group Executive for Mutuality, Ayanda Seboni, explained that these students are often overlooked by traditional funding systems, despite having the potential to become South Africa’s future professionals.
“… education is one of the biggest levers for social mobility. It helps people with talent who can then go out and go into the world and do great things.”
Seboni added that the foundation is also addressing the barriers young graduates face when entering the workplace, including a lack of networks and work-readiness skills.
Its LEAP programme provides training in areas such as CV writing and interview skills, while another initiative with the University of Pretoria is researching the factors behind persistent youth unemployment.
“We’re not only just looking at education from a bursaries perspective, but we’re looking at how we solve the problems of South Africa using the youth and using education as a tool for that social mobility.”
She stressed that student hunger is another barrier to academic success, with the foundation on track to provide between 120,000 and 130,000 meals this year.
The foundation also works with Grade 11 learners through its Cultivating Tomorrow’s Professionals programme, exposing them to professionals and career possibilities.
Seboni said seeing young people graduate and enter the workplace shows the impact of that early intervention.
“Cultivating Tomorrow’s Professionals is probably one of the initiatives that really touches my heart quite a lot. We look at those kids, and we’ve been following them. It’s now in its fifth year, and we’ve already got children who have graduated and have entered the world of work, which is phenomenal.
“… a young lady who is now doing her honours in actuarial science, and she would have never gone into that field had it not been for being part of Cultivating Tomorrow’s Professionals. We get the actuaries in the business to come in and teach maths, and they’re very passionate about maths. We get all sorts of other professionals to come in.
“So, when you hear stories like that, it’s really awesome.”
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