At the start of 2024 YANDA made a bold contribution towards fostering authentic small, medium, and micro enterprise (SMME) growth through the establishment of a pioneering partnership with Signa Opportunity, a facilitator of the Youth Employment Service (YES) program, known as YES4Youth.

YANDA Consulting, known for providing custom, strategic and innovative solutions, embarked on a transformative journey to tackle the complex human resource challenges faced by SMMEs. This partnership not only equips SMMEs with essential human capital but also supports the broader goal of driving long-term economic inclusion for South Africa's unemployed youth.

Through our partnership YANDA Consulting provides vital resources and support to SMMEs in our database, allowing them to recruit skilled interns who bring enthusiasm and the fresh talent needed to elevate their businesses. Over the course of 2024, SMMEs who capitalized on the opportunity to procure interns, gained access to graduates who fit the job specifications requested by the businesses, across multiple industries, resulting in businesses hosting one and, in some instances, multiple graduates to join their team for 12months minimum.

These interns were carefully placed in companies where their qualifications are put to use and within industries they studied to be a part of. In 2024, we have introduced 22 SME’s to Signa to begin the process of finding and placing unemployed graduates with their company. One of these SMEs, Faithrich Logistics (From the YANDA Marketing Intervention program with Sasol ESD), onboarded multiple interns who occupied sales, marketing and operational roles. Since the graduate uptake, Faithrich Logistics has seen improvements in the growth of their business with the Managing Director quoted as saying “Without this opportunity from YANDA, there is No way my small, growing business could AFFORD to acquire 2 new full-time employees, no matter how much we needed them.”