RLabs and Naspers together, joined the YES (Youth Employment Services) For Youth Initiative to help diminish the unemployment rate amongst youth between 18 and 25 years old by employing 179 young people and placing them into various host companies that are willing to give them a chance to get work experience. The program allows for a paid working experience and exposure towards their potential career.
On October 17th, 2019 at the Eros School Hall in Bridgetown, Athlone; the first gathering started off with a bang! Having all the exponential young people, who have been placed through the YES Program all in one space. The young people had treats, gained motivation, inspiration and were reminded about the benefits of using Zlto. We had the founder of RLabs, Marlon Parker, share his personal journey about growing up, to the YES Candidates and how RLabs was started. Allan Van Der Meulen also inspired everyone and also shared about the benefits of using Zlto and what the young people have access to on the Zlto Mobile store and how they can Earn and Spend their points at various vendors within Cape Town.
As part of the Program each candidate received a mobile phone with 2 preloaded apps “1. Yes Life – used for their personal profile and data collection. 2. Yes for Youth – used for learning and completing new courses”. These phones they would use for the duration of their 12 month contract with RLabs.
The youth have a huge appreciation for approximately forty five host companies and the RLabs Team that made all the connections happen. The journey of four months this far was all about getting young people ready for work, then finding companies, and placing the young people into the various companies. The next eight months will be all about supporting young people with the challenges and good moments they will face at their places of work, as well as continue relationship building with companies for future candidates.
To the team, it is very significant that the young people get to see that they are part of a bigger picture, having that sense of belonging and not feeling alone on their journey is very important as well as having support structure being visible. The program deemed to be a success due to so many success stories that were uncovered on the day.
“I just personally wanna thank you for the day, it was memorable. Thank you for always going all out for us. I appreciate everything you do for me personally. Thanks for all the effort and things.” → John-Morgan Daniels
