daniel chigunwe
Moneyweb
The launch of the second phase of the Presidential Employment Stimulus this past week represents great progress in our quest to create job opportunities for hundreds of thousands of currently unemployed South Africans.
We established the employment stimulus last year to create as many opportunities as possible in the shortest possible time. This required new and innovative ways of working to implement programmes at an unprecedented speed and scale.
The recruitment process of the many people who were unemployed made use of digital platforms to reach as many eligible participants as possible. For example, small-scale farmers were able to apply for support via USSD and receive input vouchers to their cellphones.
Since the Department of Basic Education opened applications for the next cohort of school assistants just two weeks ago, over 940,000 young people have applied via the zero-rated recruitment platform called SAYouth.mobi, which forms part of the national Pathway Management Network.
The use of new technologies in offering employment opportunities has made recruitment much easier, quicker and more transparent.
Bongani Ndlovu