Ahead of Youth Month, corporate South Africa rallied around volunteering as a pathway to employability

09 June 2026, Johannesburg, South Africa – Corporate leaders, global volunteer organisations, youth development practitioners and technology partners gathered at Discovery’s Sandton head office in May 2026 for a high-level dialogue focused on one of South Africa’s most urgent priorities: creating meaningful pathways for young people into the economy.

Hosted by Discovery in partnership with the International Association for Volunteer Effort (IAVE), the partner meeting, titled Force for Good: Corporate Volunteering to Catalyse Youth Futures, explored how corporate volunteering can evolve into a coordinated and scalable force for youth employability.

Opening the event, Barry Swartzberg, co-founder of Discovery, reinforced the need for business to play a more active and collaborative role in shaping South Africa’s future workforce. Acknowledging the important role our youth play in the future of our country, the forum unpacked how volunteerism, digital skills development, mentorship and cross-sector collaboration can help young people who are not in formal employment, education or training.

Andronica Mabuya, Head of CSI at Discovery, framed the imperative for collective action around youth futures and the “pandemic of unemployment facing South Africa”.

Highlighting the stark reality that 2 million young people are unemployed, she said, “The purpose of this platform is to co-create solutions for young people. We believe that many of them are without employment not because they lack talent, but because clear pathways have not been created for them. As corporates, we need to step up and take shared responsibility – not only in our own sectors, but by working together to find meaningful, scalable solutions. If we continue to operate in silos, we will not achieve the necessary impact or realise the true investment in youth initiatives.”

A central theme emerging throughout the day was the importance of combining technical skills with mentorship, real-world experience, human connection and visible economic opportunity.

Global insights shaping local solutions

Nichole Cirillo, Executive Director of IAVE, shared global insights from the Call to Action for the Future of Volunteering, IAVE's framework to strengthen the recognition, support and safeguarding of volunteers as part of accelerating sustainable development outcomes worldwide. Shaped by nearly 14,000 stakeholders across 164 countries and available in eight languages, the Call to Action reflects one of the most extensive consultations on the future of volunteering to date.

Cirillo also highlighted the growing momentum around the United Nations International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable Development (IVY 2026), positioning South Africa as an important market for demonstrating how volunteerism can directly contribute to employability, resilience and economic inclusion.

Technology and innovation driving scalable impact

The event featured a series of practical models already delivering measurable impact in communities across Africa.

IBM presented its global IBM SkillsBuild programme, a free education platform providing access to technology and workplace-readiness training in areas including artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data science and cloud computing. The programme supports multiple stages of development and aims to equip young people with internationally recognised digital credentials and practical skills for the future world of work.

IAVE puts that platform to work across Africa through its Reskilling Revolution Africa initiative (RRA), delivered in partnership with IBM SkillsBuild and local implementing organisations. To date, the programme has mobilised more than 54,000 learners across Africa, with over 2,000 digital credentials earned and more than 153,000 learning hours completed.

One of the day’s most powerful contributions came from Langelihle Gumede of Lungelo Youth Development, who shared frontline implementation insights from KwaZulu-Natal. The presentation highlighted the realities many young South Africans face, including lack of visible opportunity, limited access to devices and connectivity, and the absence of mentorship and guidance into unfamiliar industries.

“Not just skills. We need real pathways. Internships, learnerships, a first job. Without that visible destination, the journey feels pointless,” Gumede noted during the session.

Discussions reinforced that successful youth development programmes must be designed with communities, not simply for them, and that facilitator support, mentorship and local context are critical to learner retention and long-term success.

Innovation platform Zlto also showcased how technology-enabled volunteering and incentive systems are helping create measurable social impact at scale. Through its digital platform, young people are rewarded for completing community tasks, learning programmes and entrepreneurship activities, while corporates and development partners gain access to verified impact data and engagement insights.

To date, the Zlto platform has registered nearly 1.5 million users, facilitated over 3.3 million transactions and tracked approximately 2.7 million volunteer and learning hours across multiple initiatives.

The event concluded with a facilitated dialogue focused on defining a shared cross-sector purpose, as well as identifying practical steps for collaboration across corporate South Africa.

Driving impact through partnerships

Participants agreed that corporate volunteering has the potential to become a strategic driver of youth employability when it is intentionally structured around pathways to work, digital inclusion, mentorship and ecosystem partnerships.

The gathering also laid the foundation for future collaboration aligned to IVY 2026 and broader efforts to position volunteerism as a critical mechanism for inclusive economic participation and sustainable development.