Browsing by Author "Booyens, Margaret G"
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- ItemOpen AccessAn exploration of Lavender Hill's youth pathways to employment(2016) Kanengoni, Miriam; Booyens, Margaret GThe world is confronted by a worsening youth unemployment crisis. Young people are more likely to be unemployed than adults. Youth employment is important for economic and social stability and growth. Though youth face numerous challenges, many are determined to succeed and are using varied approaches to ensure their 'survival'. The purpose of this qualitative research study was therefore to explore these varied approaches employed by young people to gain access into the world of work. Seventeen face to face interviews were conducted with young people who matriculated from Lavender Hill High School in Lavender Hill community. The study focused specifically on how the research participants negotiated their pathways to employment in the labour market. The study indicated attitudes and sources of motivation for youth towards finding employment which were driven by several factors. The main factor was the need to improve standards of living and escape the socials ills that are plaguing Lavender Hill community. Such ills include gang violence, crime, substance and alcohol abuse, lack of positive role models, financial constraints, school dropouts as well as teenage pregnancies. These ills also came up as the challenges faced by the young participants on their pathways to employment. The participants managed to utilise a range of support systems that were available to them, from government interventions, social networks from school, churches, NGOs and private companies, to recruitment agencies for them to be able to access employment. The importance of personal and technical skills was highlighted as the youth needed to have those skills to be able to get jobs. Recommendations included the need for, NGOs to advance their services for youth in career information and support them with instant education and training decisions; private companies partnering with local schools and post-secondary institutions to create platforms where the companies can speak to students about career opportunities and expected skills as well as mentoring them and offering placements that give young people the much needed skills and experience while they complete their high school, college, university or apprenticeship programs. Additionally, it was recommended that community members play their role in their societies through caring, serving, connecting, supporting and helping; government ministries to strengthen safety nets for youth in poor townships for them to counter the hindrances they face towards accessing jobs.
- ItemOpen AccessAn exploration of the experiences and business related aspirations of youth running their own informal hair salon businesses in Gugulethu, Cape Town(2016) Ramafikeng, Likenkeng Adelinah; Booyens, Margaret GYouth are able to respond to their needs for an income through entrepreneurship. However, some who operate informal businesses face challenges that may hinder the progress of their businesses and ultimately their income generation. In the light of this, there are support initiatives by the government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for small businesses to address some of the challenges they may meet. The question remains whether young people have knowledge of these initiatives and whether they benefit from them. The current study explored the experiences as well as business aspirations of young people running their own informal businesses in Gugulethu. There were fifteen (15) salon owners who participated. These participants were identified using purposive and snowball sampling. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data as part of a qualitative, explorative approach. The findings revealed that participants face a number of challenges during the start-up and the running stage of their salons. These challenges differed in nature; but there was a common challenge of the lack of financial support by the government. Those that had no financial problems were those who received financial and emotional support from family and friends. Even though young people were faced with these challenges, they came up with strategies to deal with each identified challenge. These showed how determined these hairdressers were to see their businesses succeed and grow. There are indeed policies, programmes and organizations aimed at ensuring the smooth running of informal businesses. Despite this, most young people were not aware of any association, programmes or service that they as hairdressers could benefit from. The findings also revealed that in spite of their struggles, young hairdressers aspired to expand their businesses, but to do this they required both financial and emotional support.
- ItemOpen AccessAn exploration of the perceptions of young unemployed graduates in Lusaka, Zambia, of the factors contributing to their unemployment(2016) Mungule, Maureen; Booyens, Margaret GAmong the problems that youth face, youth unemployment is more pronounced (Moleke, 2005; Annamária, 2013). Exclusion of youth from participating in the economy affects their wellbeing, and that of society. The objective of this study was, therefore, to explore the perceptions of young unemployed graduates in Lusaka, Zambia, of the factors contributing to their unemployment. To achieve the objective of the study, a qualitative research study was conducted with 20 unemployed tertiary level youth graduates in the field of humanities and arts studies. A qualitative study helped to gain an understanding on how the unemployed youth graduates interpreted their daily experiences and the meaning they gave to their status of being unemployed. Meanwhile, Tesch's eight-step approach for data analysis was employed. The study revealed that although the participants were actively job-seeking, a mis-match between their qualification and labour market skills demand; dependence on a formal or public sector post; lack of career guidance; lack of work experience; lack of social connections in the labour market; lack of merit based job recruitment practices which then promoted nepotism and corruption; lack of employment opportunities due to low levels of economic growth and high retirement age policy; and the unsuccessful government policies and programmes to promote self–employment through entrepreneurship skills and start-up capital for selfemployment, were believed by the graduate participants to be the factors contributing to graduate youth unemployment. The study also revealed that exclusion of youth from employment affects the social and economic wellbeing of not only the unemployed youth themselves but also their family. In this study, it was further revealed that the youth, the government, and the NGOs and the private sector, have roles to play in promoting youth graduate employment. The researcher in this study recommended that there was a need for youth graduates to be willing to venture into self-employment, to continue to demand for their right to employment opportunities from various stakeholders, to take responsibility to inform themselves about the existing government programmes and projects that relate to their employment, and to seek career guidance before embarking on their studies. On the part of government, they were to sensitize the graduate youth on and promote access to programmes that promoted youth employment, to provide and promote equal access to employment opportunities in all the sectors of the economy, to improve the macro-economic policies to attract foreign investment, to promote economic growth, to be able to conduct monitoring and evaluation of internship programmes, and to inculcate an entrepreneurship spirit and skills in the youth of the country. The NGOs and the private sector needed to continue playing their role of promoting and also providing employment for the youth through empowerment and providing skills development opportunities through internships, and to improve partnership with government.
- ItemOpen AccessAn exploratory study of collaboration among early childhood development non-profit organisations in the Western Cape Province(2015) Kusikwenyu, Schwarzenegerr; Booyens, Margaret GCollaboration among Early Childhood Development Non-Profit Organisations (ECD NPOs) in South Africa is an unexplored area of research. Little is known about the ECD NPO sector, let alone the strategies they employ to remain viable, effective and efficient in the face of a declining resource base. Collaboration is one of these strategies and it is hoped that this qualitative research will make a contribution to the understanding of the state of collaboration among ECD NPOs in the Western Cape Province. The study explores how ECD NPOs and government participants understand collaboration in this sector, and investigates the factors that are considered before entering past and present collaboration initiatives. The study further explores the value of collaboration, and the factors enabling and those inhibiting collaboration among ECD NPOs in the Western Cape Province. Nineteen (19) face-to-face in-depth interviews were conducted with participants from sixteen (16) ECD NPOs and three (3) government departments. The study revealed that ECD NPO and government participants had a common understanding of collaboration. ECD NPOs considered various factors such as capacity, time/time frame, cost and benefit analysis, partner's track record and the need for service before engaging in collaborative initiatives, while government participants only considered capacity (human resources and expertise) and collaborating partner's track record before engaging. The study indicated that there were more benefits than challenges to collaboration among ECD NPOs. In addition, the study established that the factors enhancing collaboration among ECD NPOs in the Western Cape include shared or similar vision, good working relationships, networking, common knowledge and understanding of the ECD sector and an open mind approach. On the other hand, the factors inhibiting collaboration among ECD NPOs include shortage of resources, competitiveness, time constraints, organisational culture differences, fear of the unknown and geographical location. Participants spoke positively about their collaboration experiences and noted how this would be a strategy to pool resources and enhance their survival, effectiveness and efficiency in service delivery in the ECD NPO sector.
- ItemOpen AccessInnovative practice of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) working with out-of-school, unemployed youth in Cape Town : an exploratory study(2009) Mutongwizo, Nyasha; Booyens, Margaret GThe following study is an exploration of the innovative practice of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) that work with out-of-school, unemployed youth between the ages of 15 and 24 years in Cape Town. The current study meets three research objectives: describing the key characteristics of innovative practice; exploring the nature of NGO's engagement with out-of-school, unemployed youth (15-24 years) in Cape Town; and investigating the factors that promote or constrain innovative practice in these youth NGOs. The first objective of the current study is met through a literature review. Key characteristics of innovative practice are reviewed and the views of NGOs as innovators, as well as the voices of the skeptics of this view, are presented. Two key organisational conditions of 'learning' and 'organic' organisations are presented as being optimum for innovative practice. The literature review also explores the issue of youth unemployment from a global to a South African context; policies and strategies that the South African government has put in place to promote skills development, training and employment creation; the promotion of small business development as a viable employment strategy; and the role of NGOs in youth development. A survey among ten NGOs fulfils the second and third objectives of the current study. The survey's findings revealed that all the participating organisations considered their programmes to be innovative and to be providing both immediate and long-term benefits to their programme participants. It was one of the researcher's main findings that while these respondents claimed that their programmes were innovative and unique, some similarities could be found between them. The main obstacles to innovative practice were found to be funding constraints and the lack of human resource capacity. Despite these challenges, most respondents felt that the NGO sector was more innovative in comparison with both the government of South Africa and the private sector. Based on the findings, recommendations are offered to government, NGOs working with unemployed youth and research bodies. Recommendations for the networking of youth NGOs (for improved service delivery) and a recommendation on further research into the area of out-of-school, unemployed youth (to facilitate appropriate interventions) were found to be fitting. Includes bibliographical references (pages 89-95).
- ItemOpen AccessThe nature and utilisation of the stock of social capital among the youth in selected areas in the Western Cape Province, South Africa(2016) Petersen, Virginia Lenore; Booyens, Margaret GThe backdrop of this research is the developmental state which requires government to make interventions. These interventions and programmes have to take into account the constitutional dispensation of the human rights culture which requires consultation and a responsive government in respect of the poor and vulnerable. The researcher selected to embark on a descriptive research journey using the quantitative approach to engage the concept of social capital, the youth and the public sector. The researcher used the 3 types of social capital, bonding, bridging and linking to assess the stock of youth social capital. The hypothesis posited is that the public sector is a key contributor to the significant stock of social capital among the youth in the Western Cape. The researcher will respond to the following research question: what is the nature and utilisation of social capital among youth in the following six geographical areas of the Western Cape: Khayelitsha, Manenberg, Gugulethu, Mitchell's Plain, Beaufort West and Oudtshoorn?