Employability Skills Required amongst Unemployed Youth: A Case at Beverly Hills in the Sedibeng District, Southern Gauteng

Abstract

The numbers of highly qualified, skilled and unemployed youth are increasing even though companies claim to be looking for skilled employees. The researcher is of the opinion that by assessing youth skills with the purpose of empowerment, the youth would broaden their options, revealing to them domains that they might not have thought of. It is in this regard that the paper intend to discover the skills required for employment purpose among school going youth. Quantitative and qualitative research approach was applied in this study, while the population for the study was four key target groups. The four key target groups of the target population consisted of the grade 11 and grade 12, unemployed graduates and matriculates at Beverly Hills in the Sedibeng district. A total number of 180 young persons were selected from a possible 7391 young people, to form part of the study. In analyzing the data, the researcher collected questionnaires and structured interviews for triangulation purposes. The study established that 60% of the unemployed youth are in possession of Grade 12 certificates, while 29% are either furthering studies at Universities or Further Education and Training Colleges. Only 11% have no formal education in the form of completing their grade 12 certificates. The argument that the increase in the rate of unemployment is as a result of lack of basic education is not a valid argument.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n3p132