By Chanél Oldfield, Chief Executive of CAPACITI
I spent a lot of June in conversations I didn’t expect to have. Boardrooms, panels, comment sections, conversations with people I had never met before who felt strongly enough to reach out directly. Youth Month tends to do that, it pulls a usually quiet conversation into the open for a few weeks, and this year it pulled harder than most, with it being 50 years since the historic Soweto Uprising.
What stayed with me wasn’t any single exchange. It was a pattern. Almost everyone I spoke to, across very different rooms, agreed on the diagnosis. Hardly anyone agreed on who should act first.
That, I think, is the real story of this Youth Month. We are no longer arguing about whether the system is failing young people. Many already believe that. The uncomfortable conversation about whose job it is to fix it, and what it will actually cost, in time, money, and ego, is where we hit a roadblock.
At CAPACITI we sit close enough to this problem that we don’t get to theorise about it for long. Every cohort that comes through our doors reminds us that talent is not the constraint. What we spend most of our energy on, fifteen years in, is the unglamorous work of building the connective tissue between training and real employment. Relationships with employers and feedback loops tell us whether the skills we are building will actually land in the workplace. We have nurtured enough trust in our capabilities that our candidates, without possessing a conventional CV, will get the opportunity they would never have had in traditional circumstances.
Yanga Mdede, a candidate from Johannesburg, shared his experience: “I didn’t just learn how to code, I learnt how to think, work professionally, and navigate real-world challenges. I never had access to the right tools, guidance, or even a clear path to grow my skills. Through this programme I’ve learnt more about myself. Technology has the power to change lives, and I want to be a part of that change – not just for myself, but for those who come after me.”.
I noticed something else this month. The young people at the centre of these conversations were rarely in the room for them. We spoke about pathways, about employability, about the future of work, often without the people whose futures we were discussing. If June taught me anything, it’s that the rooms need to change before the arguments will. This is why we’ve made a point of having young people, including our own candidates, at the table for the next stage of this conversation.
There is also a quieter shift happening that I think deserves more attention than it got this month. Young people who display curiosity, who might not be as qualified on paper, are the ones exceeding expectations. Through their lived experiences they have learned to question rather than absorb, to push back on the tools and information in front of them, rather than accept them at face value. That instinct, more than any single credential, is what seems to be driving our candidates’ success.
None of these resolves neatly. I don’t think it’s supposed to. What I do know is that the energy and honesty I encountered this month, even when uncomfortable, felt like real progress compared to previous years. People argued. People disagreed. Some people got defensive, which is usually a sign you have touched something true. Identifying the problem is easy. We have years of statistics and insights to back it up. Finding the solution, in my opinion, requires the effort and action of each individual. If you’re able to shift your hiring practices, provide an opportunity to an equally capable young person. Allocate your CSI budget to amplify the efforts of organisations who are already effecting change.
The conversation about youth employment doesn’t end when June does. We are deliberately carrying ours into July, because the work in front of us was never going to fit into a single month, however loudly we talk about it. I’m grateful to everyone who showed up to argue, question, and sit with the discomfort this June. That’s where the real work begins.
