THRIVE ISSUE 6 DECEMBER 2025 22 The Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr. Nomusa Dube-Ncube, has hailed DIAGEO’s Learning For Life Programme as a transformative intervention that bridges a persistent gap in South Africa’s academic qualification-to-employment pipeline. The DIAGEO Learning for Life Programme (L4L) is a business and hospitality skills development program designed to equip participants with practical exposure and knowledge for the tourism, hospitality and food and beverages services industries. Implemented in South Africa through the collaboration with the University of Johannesburg, this year the programme has been bolstered by the support of the Youth Employment Service (YES4YOUTH). Gerald Hamadziripi (STH), Thabo Moloi (YES4Youth), Dr. Nomusa Dube-Ncube (Department of Higher Education) and Andrew Ross (Diageo) DIAGEO’s L4L Soars Speaking at the programmes’ launch of the 2025/26 cohort, Deputy Minister Dube-Ncube lauded the programme, which she described as a shining example of what is possible when the public and private sectors work together, particularly in light of the statistics on youth unemployment. Andrew Ross, General Manager of Diageo SA, noted the importance of this expanded collaboration: “A big reason for that success in South Africa is our growing partnership with the Youth Employment Service and the University of Johannesburg. Together, we’ve been able to not only train young people, but also place them into structured, realworld work experiences, where they can grow, contribute, and build momentum in their careers.” Thabo Moloi of YES4YOUTH underscored the economic necessity of job creation. Using a fitting analogy, he likened unemployment to the lack of skilled professionals to represent the country in a global mixology contest. “Having enough bartenders will come from the creation of jobs. Jobs will allow young people to participate meaningfully in the economy. And to achieve this, services like ours need partners to get young people working,” he said.
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