This paper explores the obstacles that prevent young people from accessing higher education. Inadequate and unequal access to higher education internationally and in South Africa, in particular, has undermined young people’s potential to contribute to national development. In South Africa, limited access to higher education for the majority remains a major problem. Hence, young people are underdeveloped socially, economically and academically. Thus, lack of educational opportunities relegates young people to the periphery of the mainstream socio-economic development. This paper uses Kenneth Gardens as a case study to interrogate a lack of access to higher education and its implications for youth vulnerability and non-participation in their own development. The research was qualitative in nature. The imperial data were solicited from semi-structured interviews with Kenneth Gardens youth. In addition, participant observation was used as a research instrument. The major findings from the research were the lack of aspirations as one of the major obstacles that hinder youth from accessing higher education, and the research also found that lack of funding, lack of awareness and inability to meet the minimum university entry requirements were underlying factors. Additionally, a lack of career guidance in schools and unemployed graduates were found to be fundamental for poor access to higher education.
{"title":"Aspirations for Higher Education: Evidence from Youth Living in Kenneth Gardens Municipal Housing Estate (Durban)","authors":"Ndwakhulu. Stephen Tshishonga, Z. Mseleku","doi":"10.25159/2663-6549/2693","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25159/2663-6549/2693","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explores the obstacles that prevent young people from accessing higher education. Inadequate and unequal access to higher education internationally and in South Africa, in particular, has undermined young people’s potential to contribute to national development. In South Africa, limited access to higher education for the majority remains a major problem. Hence, young people are underdeveloped socially, economically and academically. Thus, lack of educational opportunities relegates young people to the periphery of the mainstream socio-economic development. This paper uses Kenneth Gardens as a case study to interrogate a lack of access to higher education and its implications for youth vulnerability and non-participation in their own development. The research was qualitative in nature. The imperial data were solicited from semi-structured interviews with Kenneth Gardens youth. In addition, participant observation was used as a research instrument. The major findings from the research were the lack of aspirations as one of the major obstacles that hinder youth from accessing higher education, and the research also found that lack of funding, lack of awareness and inability to meet the minimum university entry requirements were underlying factors. Additionally, a lack of career guidance in schools and unemployed graduates were found to be fundamental for poor access to higher education.","PeriodicalId":159147,"journal":{"name":"Commonwealth Youth and Development","volume":"44 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116199885","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The primary feature of NGO development intervention is the role that organisations play in extending access to services and opportunities to marginalised populations. Participation, however, as an ideal and central organising principle in these efforts, comes with a host of complexities that requires careful navigation of the cross-cutting contexts within which organisations exist and function. This paper discusses the intricacies of NGO participation within the context of youth-centred initiatives carried out in Makhanda in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province. In particular, the paper outlines the dynamics and trends of NGO participation among school-going and out-of-school youth living in a context of acute inequity and socio-economic exclusion. Data collected from young people, parents, teachers and community members in the Makhanda-east township of Joza, indicate that access to NGO services and consistent participation therein are differentiated and unequal in ways that sustain existing inequities in prospects and opportunity. A network of pre-existing features at an institutional, community, family and individual level sustains unequal access to non-state support that replicates dominant trends of inequity among the youth in this context. Consequently, this bears heavily on the choice and likelihood of who—among the youth in Joza—participates in NGOs; and more significantly, why, and why not? In an age where “popular participation” is heralded as the hope for a more egalitarian society, this paper proposes more careful consideration of the fact that NGO intervention exists within a dense and multi-layered network of inequities that, if not met with equally unbridled mediation, will persist and find refuge within a sector that seeks to confront the existing orders of inequity and exclusion.
{"title":"Unpacking the Complexities of NGO Participation among the Youth of Makhanda, South Africa","authors":"S. Nomsenge","doi":"10.25159/2663-6549/6720","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25159/2663-6549/6720","url":null,"abstract":"The primary feature of NGO development intervention is the role that organisations play in extending access to services and opportunities to marginalised populations. Participation, however, as an ideal and central organising principle in these efforts, comes with a host of complexities that requires careful navigation of the cross-cutting contexts within which organisations exist and function. This paper discusses the intricacies of NGO participation within the context of youth-centred initiatives carried out in Makhanda in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province. In particular, the paper outlines the dynamics and trends of NGO participation among school-going and out-of-school youth living in a context of acute inequity and socio-economic exclusion. Data collected from young people, parents, teachers and community members in the Makhanda-east township of Joza, indicate that access to NGO services and consistent participation therein are differentiated and unequal in ways that sustain existing inequities in prospects and opportunity. A network of pre-existing features at an institutional, community, family and individual level sustains unequal access to non-state support that replicates dominant trends of inequity among the youth in this context. Consequently, this bears heavily on the choice and likelihood of who—among the youth in Joza—participates in NGOs; and more significantly, why, and why not? In an age where “popular participation” is heralded as the hope for a more egalitarian society, this paper proposes more careful consideration of the fact that NGO intervention exists within a dense and multi-layered network of inequities that, if not met with equally unbridled mediation, will persist and find refuge within a sector that seeks to confront the existing orders of inequity and exclusion.","PeriodicalId":159147,"journal":{"name":"Commonwealth Youth and Development","volume":"145 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126713505","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mobile phones are now being used by all members of society, men, women and the children. When members of society use them it affects their lives, thus the research is interested in exploring how mobile phone usage affects the lifestyles of female university students. The study explored the dependency and effect of mobile phone usage among female students at a university of technology. A cross-sectional survey was carried at Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), Soshanguve South campus. The study focused on the following objectives: exploring the classification of female university students who own cell phones, establishing the general phenomena influencing the use of mobile phones by female university students at a university of technology and perceived gratification and finally establishing the patterns of mobile phone use by female students and the lifestyle patterns generated thereafter. The study collected data from 100 female students at the institution using a survey. The findings indicated that the main reasons female university students at TUT use a mobile phone are for socialising, sharing academic work and solutions as well as for safety and privacy purposes. The major reason for choice of brand was seen to be usability and price. The respondents showed some signs of addiction to their mobile phones. The findings of this study are beneficial to marketers of mobile phones in Pretoria and the rest of the country; it is also useful to mobile phone developers, universities, parents, and researchers exploring mobile phone adoption and usage pattern in a developing country such as South Africa.
{"title":"Mobile Phone Dependency and Effect on the Academic Lifestyle of Female Students at a University: A Case Study of a University of Technology","authors":"Josephat Muntangadura, Barbra Mazarire","doi":"10.25159/2663-6549/6908","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25159/2663-6549/6908","url":null,"abstract":"Mobile phones are now being used by all members of society, men, women and the children. When members of society use them it affects their lives, thus the research is interested in exploring how mobile phone usage affects the lifestyles of female university students. The study explored the dependency and effect of mobile phone usage among female students at a university of technology. A cross-sectional survey was carried at Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), Soshanguve South campus. The study focused on the following objectives: exploring the classification of female university students who own cell phones, establishing the general phenomena influencing the use of mobile phones by female university students at a university of technology and perceived gratification and finally establishing the patterns of mobile phone use by female students and the lifestyle patterns generated thereafter. The study collected data from 100 female students at the institution using a survey. The findings indicated that the main reasons female university students at TUT use a mobile phone are for socialising, sharing academic work and solutions as well as for safety and privacy purposes. The major reason for choice of brand was seen to be usability and price. The respondents showed some signs of addiction to their mobile phones. The findings of this study are beneficial to marketers of mobile phones in Pretoria and the rest of the country; it is also useful to mobile phone developers, universities, parents, and researchers exploring mobile phone adoption and usage pattern in a developing country such as South Africa.","PeriodicalId":159147,"journal":{"name":"Commonwealth Youth and Development","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130531699","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article analyses a brochure of the Soul Buddyz club, which elaborates the core focus of the organisation, the duties of the Soul Buddyz clubs as well as success stories of actual club members and leaders. The literature review expands on health promotion through edutainment, social behavioural change communication theories, namely the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) and the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA)/Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), Empowerment Theory, and Social Cognitive Theory (SCT). A qualitative semiotic analysis was conducted of the brochure, Children Taking the Lead, to establish the meaning-making and use of edutainment via health promotion. The findings indicate how the brochure makes use of a variety of visuals to create meaning, as illustrated throughout the text. Health literacy is core when communicating health promotional messages to the youth. The Soul Buddyz clubs have established a welcoming, secure environment for the youth by creating opportunities such as learning about life skills and health aspects, among other social ills affecting children within rural and urban areas.
{"title":"“Soul Buddyz Clubs are for Children, about Children and by Children”: Youth Empowerment through Edutainment","authors":"Sabihah Moola, Christiaan P. Cilliers","doi":"10.25159/2663-6549/6322","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25159/2663-6549/6322","url":null,"abstract":"This article analyses a brochure of the Soul Buddyz club, which elaborates the core focus of the organisation, the duties of the Soul Buddyz clubs as well as success stories of actual club members and leaders. The literature review expands on health promotion through edutainment, social behavioural change communication theories, namely the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) and the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA)/Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), Empowerment Theory, and Social Cognitive Theory (SCT). A qualitative semiotic analysis was conducted of the brochure, Children Taking the Lead, to establish the meaning-making and use of edutainment via health promotion. The findings indicate how the brochure makes use of a variety of visuals to create meaning, as illustrated throughout the text. Health literacy is core when communicating health promotional messages to the youth. The Soul Buddyz clubs have established a welcoming, secure environment for the youth by creating opportunities such as learning about life skills and health aspects, among other social ills affecting children within rural and urban areas.","PeriodicalId":159147,"journal":{"name":"Commonwealth Youth and Development","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124809564","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article critiques the barriers to transformation in South African universities since the beginning of the democratic dispensation in 1994. The critique is informed by the historical background of apartheid policies, which were instrumental in perpetuating the social-economic exclusion of black people in higher education institutions. Moreover, this paper demystifies the meaning of transformation in the context of higher education in South Africa. To this end, a review of scholarly peer-reviewed and non-scholarly articles was undertaken as a method of collecting relevant data. On the basis of reviewed literature, it is argued that transforming an institutional culture is not a once-off process but requires constant reinforcement of the desired behavioural practices. Similarly, the patriarchal social ideology that is instrumental in creating gender disparities needs to be removed or spurned. Furthermore, universities need to take proactive measures to rescind policies that create polarisation between black and white people. The article concludes that solutions to barriers that impede transformation processes in South African universities are not elusive, yet a well-articulated vision on transformation, as well as decisive and responsive leadership at universities, is essential.
{"title":"Barriers to Transformation in the South African Universities: Are Solutions Elusive?","authors":"P. Hlongwane, E. Kgosinyane","doi":"10.25159/2663-6549/4794","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25159/2663-6549/4794","url":null,"abstract":"This article critiques the barriers to transformation in South African universities since the beginning of the democratic dispensation in 1994. The critique is informed by the historical background of apartheid policies, which were instrumental in perpetuating the social-economic exclusion of black people in higher education institutions. Moreover, this paper demystifies the meaning of transformation in the context of higher education in South Africa. To this end, a review of scholarly peer-reviewed and non-scholarly articles was undertaken as a method of collecting relevant data. On the basis of reviewed literature, it is argued that transforming an institutional culture is not a once-off process but requires constant reinforcement of the desired behavioural practices. Similarly, the patriarchal social ideology that is instrumental in creating gender disparities needs to be removed or spurned. Furthermore, universities need to take proactive measures to rescind policies that create polarisation between black and white people. The article concludes that solutions to barriers that impede transformation processes in South African universities are not elusive, yet a well-articulated vision on transformation, as well as decisive and responsive leadership at universities, is essential.","PeriodicalId":159147,"journal":{"name":"Commonwealth Youth and Development","volume":"48 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114071274","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article contends that, in the same way as some postcolonial literature, the latter third generation Nigerian literature is a product of the writer’s experience. When the writer does not reproduce his sociopolitical experience, he reshapes his expectations into literature. The writer manipulates his experience into creative activity that fulfils his innate desire – this is the same desire which he is ordinarily unable to achieve in reality. This article argues further that even though the literature is a product of the writer’s experience, it is harmless and beneficent. Using Camillus Ukah’s Sweet Things as a representative text of the fiction produced by a latter third generation Nigerian literature writer, emphasis is made on the way in which Camillus Ukah has recreated his experience. It concludes that through the novel, Ukah expresses his bitterness towards a certain matrimonial experience that is of his particular concern.
{"title":"Recreating Experience in Nigerian Fiction: Camillus Ukah’s Sweet Things and the Politics of its Production","authors":"Solomon Awuzie","doi":"10.25159/2663-6549/6356","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25159/2663-6549/6356","url":null,"abstract":"This article contends that, in the same way as some postcolonial literature, the latter third generation Nigerian literature is a product of the writer’s experience. When the writer does not reproduce his sociopolitical experience, he reshapes his expectations into literature. The writer manipulates his experience into creative activity that fulfils his innate desire – this is the same desire which he is ordinarily unable to achieve in reality. This article argues further that even though the literature is a product of the writer’s experience, it is harmless and beneficent. Using Camillus Ukah’s Sweet Things as a representative text of the fiction produced by a latter third generation Nigerian literature writer, emphasis is made on the way in which Camillus Ukah has recreated his experience. It concludes that through the novel, Ukah expresses his bitterness towards a certain matrimonial experience that is of his particular concern.","PeriodicalId":159147,"journal":{"name":"Commonwealth Youth and Development","volume":"317 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133806935","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this article we explore the paradoxical centrality and marginality of the black male body in the legal, moral and ideological matrix of apartheid. We read the white female body as an imagined index for regulating the black gaze and policing the performative consumption of the same white body. Enclosure and silencing, enacted through the law’s closure on a legal case, is the metaphor that defends apartheid laws’ legitimation of entrapping black male bodies. Policing the white female body against the “lascivious clasps” of an orientalised male Othello becomes an obsession under apartheid, leading to the enactment of the Immorality Act in 1957. Upon arrest by the police, the courtroom contains and twists black male bodies into its tiny caverns and grand-panelled auditoria, with walls built to ensure the painful silencing of already terrorised bodies. Our reading of Can Themba and Lewis Nkosi exhibits the entanglement of a racialised normativity with the legal, ideological and supremacist designs that complemented the architecture of apartheid.
{"title":"The Immorality Act in Apartheid South Africa: Storying the Legal Architecture under a Racialised Normativity","authors":"Hove Muchativugwa Liberty, Philden Ndlela","doi":"10.25159/2663-6549/8026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25159/2663-6549/8026","url":null,"abstract":"In this article we explore the paradoxical centrality and marginality of the black male body in the legal, moral and ideological matrix of apartheid. We read the white female body as an imagined index for regulating the black gaze and policing the performative consumption of the same white body. Enclosure and silencing, enacted through the law’s closure on a legal case, is the metaphor that defends apartheid laws’ legitimation of entrapping black male bodies. Policing the white female body against the “lascivious clasps” of an orientalised male Othello becomes an obsession under apartheid, leading to the enactment of the Immorality Act in 1957. Upon arrest by the police, the courtroom contains and twists black male bodies into its tiny caverns and grand-panelled auditoria, with walls built to ensure the painful silencing of already terrorised bodies. Our reading of Can Themba and Lewis Nkosi exhibits the entanglement of a racialised normativity with the legal, ideological and supremacist designs that complemented the architecture of apartheid.","PeriodicalId":159147,"journal":{"name":"Commonwealth Youth and Development","volume":"244 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114440504","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Article Title: “Genocide Survivor as Witness and Archive: Rupert Bazambanza’s Book, Smile through the Tears: The Story of the Rwandan Genocide”","authors":"K. Khan","doi":"10.25159/2663-6549/7453","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25159/2663-6549/7453","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":159147,"journal":{"name":"Commonwealth Youth and Development","volume":"43 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116405301","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The interdisciplinary “spatial turn” (and “mobilities turn”) within sociology and the social sciences and humanities has given rise to renewed interest in the conceptual frameworks and theorisation of place, space and locality (localities). In contemporary child (childhood) and youth research, immediate place, space and localities are powerful frameworks for understanding and examining young people’s everyday lives, realities, biographies as well as meaning making, construction of their identities and sense of belonging or exclusion. The emplaced hierarchies, inequalities, power relations and differentiations—in combination with innate, biographical, proximal and distal influences—will shape and direct young people’s interactions, activities and networks within and across different places, spaces and localities. There remains a lacuna regarding such research in developing countries, including South Africa post-1994. This paper examines how and why the concepts of space, place, and locality are of significance and contribute to an understanding of urban young people’s diverse everyday lives, challenges, needs and experiences. This paper focuses, firstly, on a discussion of the contested, conflicting and varying constructions of the concepts place, space and locality. Secondly, there is a discussion on some of the themes, debates and discourses shaping knowledge production in this area.
{"title":"Thinking through Urban Place, Space and Locality in Youth Research","authors":"S. Rama, Thereso O T Mathonsi","doi":"10.25159/2663-6549/3457","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25159/2663-6549/3457","url":null,"abstract":"The interdisciplinary “spatial turn” (and “mobilities turn”) within sociology and the social sciences and humanities has given rise to renewed interest in the conceptual frameworks and theorisation of place, space and locality (localities). In contemporary child (childhood) and youth research, immediate place, space and localities are powerful frameworks for understanding and examining young people’s everyday lives, realities, biographies as well as meaning making, construction of their identities and sense of belonging or exclusion. The emplaced hierarchies, inequalities, power relations and differentiations—in combination with innate, biographical, proximal and distal influences—will shape and direct young people’s interactions, activities and networks within and across different places, spaces and localities. There remains a lacuna regarding such research in developing countries, including South Africa post-1994. This paper examines how and why the concepts of space, place, and locality are of significance and contribute to an understanding of urban young people’s diverse everyday lives, challenges, needs and experiences. This paper focuses, firstly, on a discussion of the contested, conflicting and varying constructions of the concepts place, space and locality. Secondly, there is a discussion on some of the themes, debates and discourses shaping knowledge production in this area.","PeriodicalId":159147,"journal":{"name":"Commonwealth Youth and Development","volume":"124 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128049956","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article investigates whether graduate unemployed youth from the Mankweng area in Limpopo Province are aware of small, medium and micro-enterprise support programmes. The article also explores the unemployed youth’s interest in starting their own business ventures. This study is premised on the understanding that youth participation in the activities of small, medium and micro-enterprises (SMMEs) can reduce the high rate of unemployment in the country and can contribute towards bettering the economy of especially rural areas. This article applied a qualitative research method. The study focused on 15 unemployed youth graduates based in the Mankweng area. Data were collected using semi-structured individual interviews. The main findings indicate that only 27 per cent of the participants are aware of some of the available SMME support programmes; and only 40 per cent show interest in starting their own businesses. The study recommends that these programmes ought to be publicised more and be made accessible to the youth, particularly in rural areas. In addition, entrepreneurial education needs to start early at primary school level. Such early awareness will help to build entrepreneurial acumen amongst the youth.
{"title":"Involvement of Unemployed Graduate Youth in SMME Support Programmes: The Case of Mankweng Area, Limpopo Province","authors":"Rabothata Lordwick Ramohale, M. Rachidi","doi":"10.25159/2663-6549/4865","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25159/2663-6549/4865","url":null,"abstract":"This article investigates whether graduate unemployed youth from the Mankweng area in Limpopo Province are aware of small, medium and micro-enterprise support programmes. The article also explores the unemployed youth’s interest in starting their own business ventures. This study is premised on the understanding that youth participation in the activities of small, medium and micro-enterprises (SMMEs) can reduce the high rate of unemployment in the country and can contribute towards bettering the economy of especially rural areas. This article applied a qualitative research method. The study focused on 15 unemployed youth graduates based in the Mankweng area. Data were collected using semi-structured individual interviews. The main findings indicate that only 27 per cent of the participants are aware of some of the available SMME support programmes; and only 40 per cent show interest in starting their own businesses. The study recommends that these programmes ought to be publicised more and be made accessible to the youth, particularly in rural areas. In addition, entrepreneurial education needs to start early at primary school level. Such early awareness will help to build entrepreneurial acumen amongst the youth.","PeriodicalId":159147,"journal":{"name":"Commonwealth Youth and Development","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116471605","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}