The news headlines made for grim reading this week, highlighting a climb in the unemployment rate to a concerning 32.9% in the first quarter of 2025. The numbers tell a startling story. The youth labour market not only reflects age-based disparities but also entrenched gender inequalities. Women continue to face greater barriers to employment, particularly among the youth. In Q1 of 2025, the NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training) rate for young people aged 15–24 stood at 37.1%, with young women slightly more affected than young men. However, the disparity widens in the broader 15–34 age group, where the NEET rate reached 45.1%.
Barriers to Employment Persist for Many Young Africans
Many barriers prevent matriculants and youth without further education from accessing meaningful employment. Even graduates often struggle more than anticipated to secure jobs. The lack of opportunity, combined with limited resources to pursue further study or find entry-level work, blocks youth from careers with genuine growth potential. A fluctuating global economy further compounds the factors stacked against African youths.
CareerBox Africa Offers a Positive Outlook
However, CareerBox Africa takes a more positive view for motivated and resourceful youth, impact sourcing and workplace readiness training can open the doors to sustainable employment and change the employment statistics in the short and long term. This situation also directly benefits SMME owners by reducing training costs, providing access to job-ready talent, and allowing them to focus on business growth.read more here
Impact Sourcing Provides a Gateway into Employment
One of the greatest advantages of the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry is that this is a sector where individuals with varied educational backgrounds and qualifications all have an opportunity to enter the workforce. Youth with minimal to no experience or tertiary training can succeed and thrive in an industry where the right attitude, good communication skills and an aptitude for working with people are highly valued.
Better Gender Parity and Opportunities for Disadvantaged Youth
Impact sourcing is a powerful tool to provide work opportunities for highly driven skilled young people who come from disadvantaged backgrounds, and the industry offers better gender parity than many others. In South Africa, for example, industry body BPESA notes that female contact centre agents and knowledge workers make up about two thirds of the BPO sector.
Work Readiness Training Builds Employability
Work readiness training is an important part of impact sourcing, as it bridges the digital divide by providing digital, technical and soft skills development for NEET youth. Uplifting these youth through demand-led training is just one way of delivering long-term solutions to the continent’s youth unemployment crisis. And once one has embarked on a career in the BPO industry, adding to one’s skills set with accredited training means going further and higher.
Accredited Training Helps Build Careers
On-the-job training and a mindset of continuous learning helps the youth to grow and build successful careers. Here, accredited training is an invaluable asset. It offers peace of mind to both students and employers alike that the training they are undertaking provides them with comprehensive and well-planned training that ties into the general requirements of most certification boards. Accreditation also provides employers with an easy way to determine if an employee or job candidate has a qualification that has equipped them with the knowledge and skills to do a particular job this is a huge advantage in the competitive job market.
Accreditation Strengthens Trust and Marketability
The benefits of completing accredited training programmes are diverse. Employers are guaranteed that accredited programmes and institutions are competent to provide training to an industry standard and calibre, while the learner can rest assured that future employers will recognise the value of their certification.
Developing Industry-Specific Skills for the BPO Sector
As an impact sourcing specialist working in the BPO sector, CareerBox Academy offers NQF level training in Contact Centre Support, Contact Centre Operations, Business Administration Services, and Contact Centre Management, among others, to develop further skills in the BPO industry. To date it has trained more than 5,000 learners. The benefits show in the numbers 80.7% of CareerBox entrants have been empowered and employed.
Accredited Training as a Steppingstone to Leadership
For those talented and determined young people who want to pursue a career in the BPO industry, not just as a contact centre agent, but as a team leader, a floor manager, or even a director, accredited training is an important part of the career journey. Work readiness training is a crucial first step, and for anyone with aspirations for career advancement that leads to a brighter, more secure future, accredited training will always be a priority.
