Structural impediments continue to shape the experience of youth and their prospects for future employment despite policies aimed at dealing with these challenges.
According to StatsSA, youth in South Africa continue to be disadvantaged in the labour market, irrespective of education levels, with an unemployment rate far higher than the national average. 
In the first quarter of 2022, the unemployment rate rose to 63.9% for those between the ages of 15 and 24, while the unemployment rate for the 25-34 age group stands at 42.1%.
The Gauteng Provincial Government emphasises its commitment to addressing youth unemployment and is investing in its development.
In 2014, the Gauteng government introduced Tshepo 500 000 as a flagship programme to facilitate the entry of young people into the labour market and fast-track entrepreneurship development. 
Tshepo 500 000 programme provided skills development, employment, and entrepreneurial opportunities to 211 642 young people between 2014 and 2016. However, it was clear that a more systematic and integrated approach was needed.
The provincial government then partnered with Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator between 2017 and 2021 to upscale the programme to Tshepo 1 Million. 
The partnership generated demand-driven learning, earning, and entrepreneurship opportunities for another 718 636 youth in Gauteng. In total, 930 278 young people benefitted from this flagship programme.
An independent review recently conducted by the Mapungubwe Institute of Strategic Reflection (Mistra) highlights the successes of the programme and how the provincial government could build on that going forward.
The report draws attention to the value-added of the programme realised through the 500 employers under the social compacting Public-Private Partnership (PPP).
This makes Tshepo 1 Million, the single largest partnership conceptualised and targeting youth economic development in South Africa. It rivals the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) and competes directly with the Presidential Youth Employment stimulus at a provincial level.
Mistra's findings show a need to harness the partnership's gains and improve programme management by institutionalising Tshepo 1 Million.
The paper recommends that the province establish youth community service organisations and introduce quantitative evidence.
Driven by the need to address the youth unemployment in Gauteng, Premier David Makhura in his State of the Province Address announced that Tshepo 1 Million will be taken through a compacting process across the jobs and economics war rooms.
"We are repackaging the Tshepo flagship programme into a bigger and wider integrated youth development intervention that brings all youth civil initiatives into one youth development focal point. Young people must be at the centre of helping government to respond to the current youth unemployment emergency," Makhura said then.
The rationale is to ensure young people are mobilised and their energies and ideas informing and driving all government, private sector and civil society initiatives.