No Free Lunch - How to Address The Youth Unemployment Crises

In this episode of No Free Lunch, host Greg Stewart speaks with Evan Jones, CEO and board member of Collective X, and Rudi Dicks, who leads the Project Management Office in the Private Office of the President. The conversation focuses on how South Africa can create large numbers of work-ready jobs for young people, especially through demand-led digital skills programs and quality workplace experience.

They unpack the Digital Skills Impact Fund, the role of SMEs and larger employers, and why outcomes-based funding matters if training is going to translate into real employment. The discussion also broadens into South Africa’s wider investment climate, policy certainty, and how job creation models can be scaled beyond ICT.

Watch the Conversation Here:

Key Moments and Discussion Points

• Greg introduces the problem of youth unemployment in South Africa, citing figures as high as 42%, and frames the conversation around practical job creation rather than training for its own sake.
• Evan Jones explains that Collective X is demand-led, meaning it starts with real labour market needs and works backward from the jobs available in digital and ICT roles.
• The Digital Skills Impact Fund is described as an outcomes-based fund that co-invests with employers, but only if they can show they are hiring unemployed youth, giving them workplace-based learning, and moving them into earning outcomes.
• The pilot phase is close to completion with 4,000 beneficiaries across all nine provinces of South Africa, and 70% of them women, with an absorption rate of just over 95% into employment.
• Evan outlines the current ICT job demand picture, estimating about 120,000 vacancies overall, with around 40,000 at entry level that can potentially be filled by unemployed youth without full formal credentials.
• Rudi Dicks explains that the remaining scale to 500,000 jobs comes from a mix of qualifications-based roles, broader digital sector demand, global business services, and replication of the model into other parts of the economy.
• The speakers stress that quality work experience matters more than box-ticking internships, because well-designed entry-level roles can improve a young person’s future employability by as much as 30%.
• Greg shares a real-world example from his media company, where 20 young people came through an intern process in a year, with five retained permanently, and others moved on with stronger experience, illustrating how SMEs can contribute even without subsidies.
• The speakers tackle the concerns around current policy and policy decisions that also need to align with creating a more investable environment for businesses, so that the economy and job opportunities can expand.
• Evan stressed that the model must be easier for SMEs to access, with less red tape, more support for working capital, and practical help on what quality workplace learning looks like.
• Rudi expands the lens to South Africa’s broader economic environment, arguing that policy coherence, structural reform, and investor confidence are essential if job creation is going to scale sustainably.
• The conversation closes on AI and access, with Evan noting that young people can already produce world-class work with AI tools when given access and guidance.

Timestamps

00:00 - Why South Africa’s youth unemployment problem demands a new approach
03:00 - Why Collective X starts with labour demand, not training supply
04:30 - How the Digital Skills Impact Fund works as an outcomes-based model
05:41 - Pilot results: 4,000 beneficiaries and more than 95 percent absorption
06:31 - Where the 120,000 ICT vacancies are and which roles are entry level
08:23 - Why the digital skills model needs formal and informal pathways
10:09 - The difference between supply-side training and demand-led job design
13:07 - Greg’s SME example: interns, retention, and workplace value
14:58 - How the 500,000-job target is being modeled through 2034
16:10 - Why SMEs are central to scaling the employment model
17:41 - Measuring quality work experience instead of box-ticking internships
18:23 - The importance of job design and the long-term value of first jobs
20:13 - Jobs Boost and extending the model beyond ICT
21:35 - Why employers need incentives to commit to real training and jobs
22:35 - Building talent through mentoring, accountability, and workplace culture
24:01 - The broader investment climate and South Africa’s policy challenge
25:00 - How policy coherence and structural reform affect investor confidence
29:12 - Mining as an example of how policy decisions shape capital flows
30:46 - What it will take to scale the half-million ICT job target
31:38 - Supporting SMEs with capacity building, working capital, and access
32:07 - How AI is changing the skills conversation for young people
33:04 - Why the model can be scaled across sectors if the partnership holds