NATIONAL PATHWAY MANAGEMENT NETWORK INNOVATION FUNDING

The Department of Employment and Labour and the National Treasury’s Jobs Fund are pleased to announce the opening of the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention (PYEI)’s National Pathway Management Network Innovation Fund funding round.

The PYEI has identified several priority interventions to accelerate youth pathways into the economy over the next five years, including the establishment of a National Pathway Management Network (NPMN), delivery of agile workforce development (including skills development interventions and the strengthening of workplace experience), support for youth self-employment and enterprise in the township and rural economy and the Presidential Youth Service programme.

The National Department of Employment and Labour (DEL) will be responsible for the National Pathway Management Network and the Jobs Fund has been appointed as the Fund Manager for PYEI.

The NPMN is a “network of networks” aimed at facilitating the successful transition of young people into and through the labour market. The NPMN will provide active support to the entry, and retention, of young people into the labour market while providing greater alignment between the various networks and systems that exist to ensure access to a shared set of opportunities and services.   Part of this initiative is the creation of an Innovation Fund, a grant initiative seeking to identify and support innovative solutions to the barriers faced by young people to meaningfully participating in the labour market and the wider economy.

Operating on Challenge Fund principles, the NPMN Innovation Fund will support initiatives focussed on resolving barriers related to the 3 key focus areas of the NPMN:

1. Demand Activation: Identify appropriate opportunities for young people through establishing real market demand and developing enabling partnerships within the wider ecosystem.
2. Demand & Supply Linkages: Link young people to appropriate opportunities with Opportunity Holders through a streamlined process that effectively matches young person to Opportunity Holder across the networks.
3. Enabling Youth: Improve young people’s access to view and secure both learning and earning opportunities available in the market/ network.

The Innovation Fund will assist in capacitating successful applicants to pilot and/or operationalise and scale innovative models across the country in support of the NPMN. 

As the Fund Manager for the PYEI, the Jobs Fund invites proposals from private, public, and non-profit entities that can participate in the NPMN via the Innovation Fund.

The funding round will open on 29 October 2021 and close on 25 November 2021.

For more information please visit our website www.jobsfund.org.za