Lulaway to establish 20 new Job Centres in Cape Town

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Lulaway is to establish 20 new Job Centres in areas within the City of Cape Town where youth employment is most needed. The opening of these Job Centres is part of Lulaway’s strategic expansion of its national network of over 200 Job Centres, and the appointment of Lulaway by the City of Cape Town to implement a city-wide outcomes-based, high-impact three-year programme.

The programme aims at addressing some of the key barriers identified by the City that bar the unemployed residents from accessing job and training opportunities. The programme aims to screen, train and place unemployed residents into temporary and permanent training and employment opportunities.

The programme will focus on residents, particularly youth, located in the high-density, traditionally marginalized areas of the Cape Flats, Khayeltisha, Gugulethu and Langa.

The project comes as a beacon of hope to a city where the general unemployment currently sits at 25% and a youth unemployment rate of 36%.

The goals of the programme include the assessment of 30 000 unemployed residents, provision of training to 6000 relevant candidates in work-readiness skills and the subsequent placement of 4050 residents in various employment opportunities.
The integrated programme will achieve the required outcomes by strategically addressing the unique challenges facing the City and its unemployed residents.

“A key challenge we were tasked to solve is the lack of an integrated and co-ordinated employment services eco-system. There is a disconnect between job seekers and employers and the services and programmes they require. The impact of this absence is most evident areas with high populations of unemployed youth such as in Gugulethu, Khayelitsha, Langa, Cape Flats, Atlantis, Samora Machel and its surrounds. As a result, discouraged youths often turn to crime and other destructive behaviours in order to support themselves and their families”, says Lulaway CEO Jake Willis.

“Another crucial challenge is lack of access to jobs and available opportunities. The City’s dispersed population means that certain areas are geographically excluded from the formal economy. This is a pattern we encounter across the country especially in the non-urban township areas.”

“Finally, the City experiences a lack of integration and communication between all relevant stakeholders. This leads to under-resourced employers, unspent funds by government and unemployed residents which results in overall socioeconomic despair”.

Speed Interview trend offers hope for job seekers

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On Friday 17 November 2017, Lulaway, in partnership with Boston City Campus embarked on an ambitious undertaking to facilitate the employment of over 200 Boston learners at a speed interviewing event.

Whilst speed interviewing is becoming increasingly popular in developed countries, the model has not yet been applied in South Africa where rampant unemployment threatens the nation’s social and economic future.

Lulaway CEO Jake Willis says speed interviewing has the potential to remove one of the most unsolvable and crippling socioeconomic barriers facing South African work-seekers.

“Youth unemployment continues to rise despite billions of Rands being spent on job creation initiatives. The only way we will increase youth employment rates is by thinking out of the box. We are constantly looking for practical high-impact solutions which are relevant to the market. Speed interviewing offers a simple way to eliminate obstacles as it brings all the candidates and employers to one place.”

Inflated transport costs compound the ‘spatial mismatch’ for work-seekers. With transport and other work-seeking costs at an average of R560 per month, many unemployed people cannot afford to actively seek employment. Much of the unemployed youth, who are not actively seeking work, say this is because their locations constrain them from looking for work. “

Willis says speed interviewing has the potential to create much-needed efficiencies in the entry-level labour market on both the supply and demand side. “Normally, we face huge challenges to get these learners to one interview. They cannot afford to go to four interviews. We send them to various employers at a high cost, while trying to balance the scheduling requirements of employers and work-seekers.

“The drop-off rates are enormous. Learners get lost or do not show up. On the employer side, the administrative efforts required to interview 250 people in one day would be overwhelming. The scheduling alone would take many hours.

“Speed interviewing normally involves one employer with multiple work-seekers. We have taken it a step further and invited several employers in the same industry to the same event. This is to limit the travel costs for the work-seeker to the bare minimum,” continues Willis.
Employers have responded enthusiastically to the event.

Employers present were Green Connect, Landau Attorneys and iTalk. Altogether, these employers have expressed interest in hiring 120 of the candidates.