Effects of poverty challenges on youth learnership success

Abstract

People who live in poverty struggle to focus on the future as they are forced to deal with their current challenges, which can impact the learner during learnership programmes. The study investigated the effect of poverty challenges on youth learnership success. This was a cross-sectional quantitative descriptive study where 156 responses were obtained from the youth in learnership programmes across the SETAs from 2019–21. Study results show that poverty challenges have a negative effect on the rate of learnership success. This relationship is moderated by personal development and enhanced employability. The results are influenced by socio-demographic and programme structure control variables. At current poverty levels, skills development is at the forefront of improving employment prospects in South Africa and alleviating a critical constraint to economic growth.