A plain guide to the Youth Employment Service for sponsoring businesses: the rules, the numbers and the timing.
The **Youth Employment Service (YES)** is a business-led initiative, run in partnership with government, that gives unemployed young South Africans a year of paid work experience. Businesses that sponsor those placements can earn B-BBEE recognition, but only when specific targets are met and the project can be verified. This guide explains how YES works, how targets and recognition are calculated, what it costs and where an implementation partner fits. > **Key facts (as at 4 October 2026)** > > - YES youth are Black South Africans aged **18 to 34 (under 35 when they sign their contract)** who are unemployed. Each gets a **12-month**, full-time, paid work experience. > - A large (generic) entity's target is the highest of **1.5% of headcount**, **1.5% of average NPAT divided by R55,000**, or a set number by revenue band. > - Meeting the target and absorbing **2.5%** of the youth moves a sponsor up **one B-BBEE level**. Double the target with **5%** absorption moves it up **two levels**. > - The sponsor must **maintain or improve** the B-BBEE level it held the year before. > - Youth must be paid at least the national minimum wage: **R30.23 an hour** from 1 March 2026. ## What the YES programme is YES connects unemployed young people with a year-long job. Businesses (the **sponsors**) fund the placements. The young people are employed on 12-month fixed-term contracts and paid, and they finish with a year of verified work experience and a reference. That is often the missing piece on a first CV. The jobs must be new. A sponsor may not replace existing positions with YES positions. More than 1,880 businesses have taken part so far, according to YES. ## Who can take part Eligibility is checked before any level-up is recognised. It depends on the size of the entity: | Entity | Annual revenue | Requirement on the priority elements | |---|---|---| | Generic | Above R50 million | 40% sub-minimum in each of the three, or a 50% average across them | | Qualifying small enterprise (QSE) | R10 million to R50 million | 40% in two of the three, with ownership one of them, or a 40% average across two including ownership | | Exempted micro enterprise (EME) | Below R10 million | None | The priority elements are ownership, skills development, and enterprise and supplier development. A business with little or no Black ownership can still qualify through the 50% average route. ## Is the age limit 34 or 35? The gazette says eligible youth are "between the ages of 18 and 35". In practice that means under 35. A young person must be at least 18 and must not yet have turned 35 when they sign their contract. There is a second check that catches sponsors out. YES allows a project to be registered a little after contracting, and the YES system tests each youth's age at the registration date. A youth who was 34 at contracting but has turned 35 by registration is rejected. The safe approach is to recruit youth aged 33 or younger. Take on a 34-year-old only if their 35th birthday is well clear of any possible delay in registering with YES. ## One YES project per young person A young person can take part in YES only once. Anyone who has already been on a YES project is ineligible for a second one. This matters because of the order in which things happen. If you sign an employment contract with a youth and only then find out they have been on YES before, you are still bound by that contract. You carry the cost of the employment, but the placement may not count toward your YES target. Check previous YES participation before contracting, not after. A good implementation partner makes sure this does not happen to you. ## How your YES target is calculated For a generic entity, the target is the **highest** of three numbers: 1. 1.5% of the entity's headcount in the preceding year. 2. 1.5% of its average net profit after tax over the preceding three years, divided by R55,000. 3. A fixed number by revenue band, from 6 youth (R50 million to R75 million) up to 15 youth (R450 million and above). The gazette's own example: a company with 10,000 employees and an average NPAT of R100 million gets 28 from the NPAT method and 150 from the headcount method. Its target is 150. QSEs and EMEs use a simple headcount table. A business with 1 to 19 employees has a target of 1 youth, and one with 100 to 119 employees has a target of 6. YES publishes a [target calculator](https://www.yes4youth.co.za/yes-b-bbee); confirm the result with your B-BBEE consultant or verification agency. ## How the B-BBEE recognition works YES recognition is added on top of the entity's existing B-BBEE level: | What the sponsor achieves | Recognition | |---|---| | Meets its YES target and absorbs 2.5% of its YES youth | Up one B-BBEE level | | Meets 1.5 times its target and absorbs 5% | Up one level, plus 3 bonus points | | Meets double its target and absorbs 5% | Up two B-BBEE levels | Two conditions sit behind the table. The entity must maintain or improve the level and scorecard perfor...