Johannesburg—The Rockefeller Foundation has announced a $1 million grant to EOH to spur job creation in the ICT sector for South Africa’s disadvantaged youth.
The grant comes to support EOH’s Youth Job Creation Initiative launched in 2012 which aims at stimulating youth job creation by enhancing interaction between youth and its customers, business partners and government. It will farther promote internship training programmes, work with the South African government to mobilize business to take advantage of their incentive schemes for job creation, and encourage business to invest more in SA which will result in job creation.
This grant comes under the Foundation’s Digital Jobs Africa initiative which seeks to impact the lives of 1 million people in six countries in Africa by catalyzing sustainable information and communications technology-enabled employment opportunities for African youth who would not otherwise have an opportunity for sustainable employment. Launched in 2013, Digital Jobs Africa is being carried out in six countries: Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, and South Africa.,
“Digital skills are fast becoming a requirement for gaining well paid employment, and ICT-powered jobs are critical in helping young people develop the required skills for the jobs of today and the future. We are pleased to support EOH in this venture to scale up jobs for South Africa’s youth in the sector, and look forward to seeing the young people’s lives , as well as their communities, improved due to their accessing these opportunities’ said Mamadou Biteye, managing director, Rockefeller Foundation Africa regional office.
The grant will enable EOH build on the success of Youth Job Creation Initiative, and will place 1,750 unemployed youth in a Work Readiness Programme in 2014. The youth will combine theory training with practical placement of the learner at EOH partners or clients, enabling the learners to receive work experience and an increased chance to get employment. Furthermore, the grant will ensure that more of the EOH partners will get involved in the Youth Job Creation Initiative.
“It is our experience that once companies are involved and have experienced the initiative they will stay involved, thereby allowing us to scale up the initiative exponentially. It has also been proven that a young person with one year’s work experience has an 80 percent chance of remaining in the formal working sector for the remainder of their career lives, it’s not only good for business, but good for society,” said Asher Bohbot, EOH CEO.
About EOH
Listed company EOH is the largest ICT services provider in South Africa and provides the technology, knowledge, skills and organizational ability critical to Africa’s development and growth. EOH is the largest provider of enterprise applications, technology, outsourcing, cloud and managed services solutions. With over 7000 people operating from 120 locations in South Africa and with presence in over 15 African countries www.eoh.co.za
About The Rockefeller Foundation
For more than 100 years, The Rockefeller Foundation’s mission has been to promote the well-being of humanity throughout the world. Today, The Rockefeller Foundation pursues this mission through dual goals: advancing inclusive economies that expand opportunities for more broadly shared prosperity, and building resilience by helping people, communities and institutions prepare for, withstand, and emerge stronger from acute shocks and chronic stresses. To achieve these goals, The Rockefeller Foundation works at the intersection of four focus areas – advance health, revalue ecosystems, secure livelihoods, and transform cities – to address the root causes of emerging challenges and create systemic change. Together with partners and grantees, The Rockefeller Foundation strives to catalyze and scale transformative innovations, create unlikely partnerships that span sectors, and take risks others cannot—or will not. For more information, please visit www.rockefellerfoundation.org
For more information contact:
Kedibone Sehume, Corporate Communications Manager. EOH, kedibone.sehume@eoh.co.za, Tel: +27 (0) 82 881 6099
Achieng’ Otieno, Communications Officer, The Rockefeller Foundation Africa Regional Office, aotieno@rockfound.org, +254 704848792