Cultural Affairs and Sport
Given the challenges of youth unemployment and the national government’s disinvestment in youth service:
- How is the Province (i) sustaining and (ii) expanding the Year Beyond Programme in 2025/26 and (b) what tangible impact is this programme having on young people across the province?
12. National government has increased its investment in youth service which is now one of the four pillars of the PYEI Phase 2 programme. This is very exciting as we, the Western Cape, have always believed that youth service is a key programme to address both youth disengagement and youth unemployment. We are delighted that YearBeyond, our flagship programme, has been awarded 4 000 opportunities, 3 000 of which will be in the Western Cape, under NYS 4.
12.(a) How is the Province (i) sustaining and (ii) expanding the Year Beyond Programme in 2025/26.
12. (a)(I,ii) Notwithstanding the national investment Western Cape Government continues to invest in YearBeyond. This year we increased our investment, to specifically grow the libraries programme and step up efforts to build a nation of readers and to support communities with digital access, and received an extra R3 million from Growth 4 Jobs.
12.(b)what tangible impact is this programme having on young people across the province?
12.(b) YearBeyond has numerous benefits including:
- Increasing the confidence of youth with 97% exiting the programme more confident about their future
- Building youth’s competencies with 93% feeling more prepared to enter the economy
- Increasing youth’s hopefulness with 70%+ of youth exiting the programme hopeful, compared to 44% on entry.
- In addition to these generic benefits the programme provides a bridge into the economy for youth with 70%+ transitioning into economic activity. Another benefit is that youth remain active in civic life, and are 45% more likely to be active citizens.