Programme to create 10 000 jobs for rural youth

[newsroom]

Pretoria - An estimated 10 000 jobs are expected to be created for unemployed rural youth through a recently launched programme by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform.

The National Rural Youth Service Corps (NARYSC) will be targeting youth from deep rural areas, including those living with disabilities between the ages of 18 to 35 and who have passed Grade 10.

The department’s head of communications, Eddie Mohoebi, said the NARYSC is a two-year programme aimed at empowering rural youth from each of the 3 000 rural wards across the country.

He said the programme is expected to create job opportunities for at least three youths in each of those identified rural wards.

However, Mohoebi said successful candidates would undergo an intensive training programme, based on needs identified during the induction by the department and they will receive a monthly stipend for the two year duration of the programme.

After the completion of the two-year training programme, candidates will work in their communities providing services in local socio-economic development.

“The recently developed NARYSC will complement the department’s job creation model, which targets and ensures that at least one person per household in the rural areas where the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme (CRDP) is being piloted, gets employed for two years with an employment linked to skills training,” he said.

Mohoebi further said they have initiated these job creation and skills development programme in line with its rural development mandate to create vibrant, equitable and sustainable rural communities throughout South Africa.