Companies that partner with the Youth Employment Service (YES) to provide quality work experiences to unemployed youth would see their efforts boosted when it comes to tracking their youth development programmes and reporting their impact.
YES recently collaborated with TIMU, a local software services provider that provides software solutions to help organisations run and report more effectively on youth development programmes.
The software provider custom-built a platform for the YES turnkey solution that assisted in the efficient management of the youth, host and corporate journeys throughout the year, resulting in accurate and reliable data that could be used for verification and impact reporting.
YES chief operating officer Leanne Emery Hunter said essentially, companies sponsored the youths’ salaries in one of the host partners, which ranged from underserved social sectors like health care and education to digital economies with high absorption rates and potential for self-employment.
“While it’s a powerful tool to upskill and provide critical work experience to youth, it’s hard to manage all the moving parts,” Hunter said.
The YES turnkey solution worked with 33 host partners across South Africa to place youth.
TIMU said the platform created a safe and easy way to track youth throughout the year, manage drop-offs and replacements, collate and manage documents required for verification, and report real-time information to stakeholders, in one place.
TIMU CEO Danielle Geddes said it had made the process more convenient, allowing partners to free up time that they would previously have had to spend on admin.
“Our system is fully customisable, allowing for the development of various dashboards or reports that are required. We host and maintain the platform on behalf of the client, while providing support and training to the team responsible for utilising the tool. Any costs related to the hosting and management of the system can be claimed under a company’s skills development spend,” Geddes said.
Zarina Parker from ORT SA, which has implemented TIMU ,said the tool had assisted with daily operations, especially with payroll management and drop-offs and replacements.
“The ability to view the programmes at a glance has made access to information quicker and less cumbersome. Updating information is quicker and seamless and has replaced the monthly Excel uploader,” Parker said.
The youth unemployment rate in South Africa decreased to 61.4% in the second quarter of 2022 from 63.9% in the first quarter.
BUSINESS REPORT