Impact of social capital on youth employability in Johannesburg, South Africa

Abstract

Youth unemployment poses a major threat to the South African society. The relatively young population who were supposed to be part of the working population, find themselves unemployed, either because they lack the skills to match available jobs, or they miss the social capital that is required to match the job. Employability programs have been put in place to develop the human capital of the country’s youth. However, the job matching process in South Africa tends to be governed by social networking and therefore also social capital determines for a share the employment outcomes. Especially youth from a disadvantaged background lack the social capital needed to get access to relevant job information. This research investigates to what extent social capital has an impact on the employability of young South Africans who live under deprived circumstances. By looking at the Career Readiness program, organized by the NGO Afrika Tikkun in Orange Farm, one of Johannesburg’s townships, this study examines how this employability program stimulates youth to use their social capital for employment related purposes.

Qualitative data have been gathered by conducting interviews with the program’s participants, manager and facilitator to gain an understanding of the challenges Orange Farm’s youth face when looking for a job. An important finding is the creation of a social learning environment by the program in which youth stimulate and motivate each other to become better in life. The program encourages youth to get connected, so that they can benefit from their network in the future. Furthermore, by intervening in the youth’s social network, Afrika Tikkun becomes itself a major player in the provision of relevant job. Also, the internet and social media turned out to be useful advisors to participants. Although it has not been implied that internet replaces word-of-mouth communication, internet does facilitate the flow of information which was inaccessible by the participants before the program