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oday I am pleased to lead a picket at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) as a part of our pressure campaign to lobby the Higher Education Minster to implement the DA Youth’s proposal to introduce a service to state loan repayment model for willing National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) students.
The picket today is part of an on-going campaign on this issue currently being run by the DA Youth on campuses across the country. The campaign includes a petition, a social media presence and the distribution of thousands of posters and leaflets at tertiary institutions.
The focus of the campaign is a proposed model whereby willing graduates can repay their loans through service to the state in a field related to the area of study on a year-for-year basis. Thus a civil engineer would, for example, be able to pay off most of his or her study fees over three years by working for the state for a period of three years after completing their National Diploma.
Not only would this provide relief to cash-strapped new entrants to the labour market, who often become trapped in the debt cycle once completing their studies, but will also provide a means for graduates to obtain vital on the job experience.

With 600 000 graduates currently unemployed, supporting students through innovative proposals such as this is essential if we are to address the scourge of unemployment in South Africa.

The business sector has repeatedly highlighted the fact that new graduates often lack the practical skills and experience necessary to make them employable. This proposed initiative would therefore act to bridge this skills gap by giving graduates an opportunity to obtain real, on the job experience through service to the state. While these graduates obtain this experience, the ailing, under-skilled public sector in turn benefits from a massive influx of new talent and skills.

This initiative has numerous benefits to students, the state and the unemployment rate, and we will continue to actively lobby the Higher Education Minister in the coming weeks to support it.