Abstract
Youth unemployment is currently a critical issue to deal with in South Africa today. The future looks bleak for young women who are more vulnerable to unemployment and not being in education, employment or training (NEET). While the barriers that young people face as they either transition to work or study are complex, the burden of care many have to carry compounds the difficulties for young women. Through the burden of care, many women are left behind and stuck in the cycle of poverty and unemployment. This research considers how young female caregivers experience the transition to the labour market and how access to early childhood development (ECD) facilities might influence this transition experience. It is an important area to research since, despite widespread research on the youth unemployment challenge in South Africa, the research on the gendered nature of the transition to the labour market is limited.
The study used the theoretical framing of pathways to the labour market (Heinz 2009), which locates the connection between the individual and systems intended to facilitate transitions to work from school. It relates to the journey of the individual moving organically from one phase of life to another. The study connected the systematic connection between the education system and the labour market and how we understand that the education system’s role is to prepare young people for a smoother transition to the labour market. It points to a gap in the framing when the transition to work is viewed from a gender perspective.
The study used an explorative qualitative research approach in the research design. The qualitative approach considered the views of young, unemployed female caregivers by obtaining a deeper understanding of their perceptions and experiences on the burden of care and how access to ECD facilities for their children might influence their experience of care and thus their transitions to finding work or skills training opportunities.
The significant overarching findings are that young women face many of the same challenges as young men but also face additional challenges in accessing the labour market. The burden of care limits young women’s ability to pursue training and educational opportunities. This is compounded by the absence of men in their children's lives.
The significant implication of this research is that social policy approaches to addressing youth unemployment need to account for the additional care-related barriers that young women face and to ensure that access to care support through mechanisms like ECD facilities forms part of a coordinated transition system strategy. Key Words: Youth Unemployment, Burden of Care, transition systems, ECD Facilities, gender