Economic Opportunity

Combating High Youth Unemployment Rates Using Machine Learning

South Africa

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Challenge
South Africa has one of the highest youth unemployment rates in the world, with more than half of the population between 18 and 35 unable to find a job. Annually, 1 million youth enter the labor market, and 40% of them break through the barriers that keep young people excluded from South Africa’s economy – that leaves two thirds of these young South Africans’ potential, skills and capabilities remain untapped every year.

Solution and partner 
Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, a nonprofit social enterprise that participated in Google’s Data Solutions for Change program, matches young people in South Africa with entry-level job opportunities, using technology to help young people overcome the barriers they face when looking for work. To improve visibility of the South African job market as a whole, Harambee uses Machine Learning to identify relevant opportunities from external partner sources, and aggregate them for young people to browse. These efforts are furthered through their role as an anchor partner in SA Youth, an online platform that brings together many partners to create a single national network to allow young people to access a wide selection of jobs and skilling opportunities – and for employers to access young engaged work-seekers – for free.

Impact 
Over 3.9 million young people have used the SA Youth platform and more than 1.4 million opportunities have been enabled for work-seekers across South Africa. Additionally, Harambee is using the data from applicants to advance its mission and make more job placements, partnering with industry analysts to understand labor market dynamics, and working with organizations such as the World Bank to conduct cutting-edge research.

We use Google Cloud to host our SA Youth Platform to make job and skilling opportunities available to young people. Ensuring the SA Youth platform is always accessible and scalable allows Harambee to make an impact at scale.

Hanlie de Bod, Chief Information Officer Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator

3.9M+

young people in South Africa have used the SA Youth platform

1.4M

opportunities have been enabled for work-seekers across South Africa

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