By Charmaine Ndlela
Higher Education and Training Minister Buti Manamela has challenged industry to ensure that skills development translates into employment as Services SETA and the Takealot Group launched a three-year partnership on Tuesday, targeting 20,000 income-generating opportunities.
The partnership is backed by an initial Services SETA investment of about R103 million and aims to create pathways from training to workplace experience, entrepreneurship and income generation, particularly within South Africa’s growing digital economy.
Manamela said the initiative formed part of government’s broader “skills revolution” and responded to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s call for training to lead to employment.
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“Every training that takes place in the country must lead to employment,” Manamela said.
He said one of the biggest challenges facing the post-school education and training system was limited participation by employers in providing workplace opportunities to students and graduates.
While government had invested heavily in universities, TVET colleges, community education and training centres and other institutions, Manamela said the system could not succeed without employers opening their doors to young people.
“One of the major catalysts has been the absence of employers actively participating, opening up their doors, and hosting students either as entrepreneurs or as future employees,” he said.
The Takealot partnership is intended to address that gap by linking training to practical opportunities in the platform economy.
The programmes include work-integrated learning placements for TVET college learners, critical-skills bursaries, Personal Shopper training and tools of trade, driver development and training, Marketplace SME localisation and digital training for small businesses.
Manamela said the partnership was designed to go beyond conventional training and expose young people to different ways of participating in the economy.
“We’re not just going to be using this programme to train people to ride bikes,” he said.
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While driver training forms part of the initiative, Manamela said the broader objective was to enable young people to participate as entrepreneurs, connect customers with goods and use digital platforms to access economic opportunities.
He said the partnership could potentially be replicated with other companies and across different sectors of the economy.
Manamela said the success of the programme would depend on whether participants moved from classrooms and training programmes into internships, employment, entrepreneurship or other sustainable income-generating opportunities.
“If this programme becomes a success, we will ensure that not only do we expand, but we also replicate,” he said.
About 500 students from Gauteng community colleges are also expected to participate, broadening the programme beyond TVET students and graduates.
Manamela said this would expose community college students to digital opportunities and help connect different parts of the post-school education system to the changing demands of the economy.
“We want to call on industries to partner with us so that we’re able to train for the skills that industry itself requires,” he said.
He acknowledged concerns from employers about the complexity and time involved in government systems, saying these were issues that needed to be addressed.
Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training Yusuf Cassim said the launch represented a shift from signing agreements to implementing them.
The relationship between the department and Takealot dates back to a strategic memorandum of understanding signed in September 2025. The agreement established a framework for collaboration around workplace learning, bursaries, learning materials and support for township entrepreneurs and small businesses in the digital economy.
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“An MOU is a commitment. A partnership is a mechanism. But implementation is where the commitment becomes real,” Cassim said.
He said the R103 million investment would support workplace learning for TVET learners, critical-skills bursaries, Personal Shopper training, driver development, Marketplace SME localisation and digital training for small businesses.
Cassim said the initiative should ultimately be measured by its effect on individual participants.
“Did they acquire a skill? Did they gain meaningful workplace experience? Did they earn an income? Did they gain access to a market?” he said.
He said township-based entrepreneurs should be able to participate in the modern economy without necessarily having to leave their communities.
Through technology, skills development, market access and private-sector partnerships, young people could be connected to larger markets while small businesses gained access to new customers, Cassim said.
Services SETA administrator Lehlogonolo Masoga said the partnership was intended to bring training and economic opportunity closer together.
“We have entered into this partnership with Takealot to translate the skills revolution into employment creation opportunities,” Masoga said.
He said the three-year programme would combine training with employment opportunities and would be monitored to assess its impact on participants.
Services SETA regards the initiative as a pilot that could be expanded if it produces the intended results.
Takealot Group CEO Frederik Zietsman said the partnership would connect young South Africans with an existing digital economy and a range of income-generating activities.
Zietsman said more than 18,000 personal shoppers were already earning income in their communities, with most based in townships, while more than 20,000 independent contractor drivers and more than 18,000 small businesses were operating on the platform.
“This is change in action,” he said.
He said the partnership was not simply about funding but about creating opportunities that were practically accessible to young people.
He highlighted personal shoppers, drivers, township-based marketplace sellers and work-integrated learning opportunities for TVET students as pathways connecting learning to earning.
“The partnership with the Services SETA does not bring to us just money,” Zietsman said. “It brings to us the faces of youth that is looking for opportunities that are practically accessible to them.”
Zietsman also committed Takealot to measuring the programme’s impact, saying that failing to do so would mean failing the people it was intended to benefit.
He said Takealot had grown over 13 years into a business generating about $2 billion in revenue and that its approach to the partnership would be based on implementation rather than promises.
“There is an ocean between saying and doing, and we are on the side of doing,” he said.
Manamela said the programme’s success would not be judged by the amount of money invested or the number of people enrolled, but by what happened to participants after entering the programme.
“The only measure of success is that a significant number of those who participate as students in this programme must lead to some form of employment or internship,” he said.
He said government would monitor the commitments made under the partnership, including the R103 million investment and the target of 20,000 opportunities.
According to Manamela, about R4 billion from the National Skills Fund and SETAs is being directed towards partnerships with industry, with more than 100,000 students expected to be placed in work-integrated learning programmes.
He said the Takealot programme was separate from those 100,000 placements.
Manamela also called on more employers to participate in skills development partnerships with government.
He said companies contribute to the skills development levy, with portions of the funds flowing to SETAs and the National Skills Fund, while employers can claim back a portion of their allocation under existing legislation and regulations.
The partnership comes as Services SETA expands workplace opportunities for unemployed young people. Its separate To The Power of X² programme is targeting 20,000 structured, 24-month internship opportunities for unemployed university and TVET graduates.
The department has also identified workplace-based learning and stronger employer participation as key components of its 2026/27 delivery priorities, with the broader system expected to increase opportunities for students to gain practical experience.
