Nicky Beukes has a straightforward answer when asked why Samsung keeps expanding its youth programmes in South Africa: “We remain dedicated to our goal of investing in programmes that contribute to skills development, education, job creation and entrepreneurship opportunities for the South African youth.” Behind that statement sits a decade-long, R280-million commitment and a growing number of young people whose working lives have changed because of it.
Youth unemployment in South Africa is not an abstraction. It shapes daily decisions for young people trying to enter technical fields where pathways are scarce and formal training is expensive. Samsung’s response has been direct intervention rather than broad advocacy, placing graduates into actual jobs, partnering with universities that serve disadvantaged communities, and running competitions that give high school students a first real encounter with problem-solving in science and technology.
The employment numbers are specific. The Software Development Training programme, delivered with the University of the Western Cape and the University of Limpopo, has trained 510 unemployed youth as software developers. More than 90 percent of beneficiaries from the Introduction to Software Development and Social Digital Innovation Programme secured positions in the tech industry. The Samsung, Tshimologong and UWC Advance Industry Experience Internship achieved near 100 percent industry uptake, moving graduates directly into roles at major software firms. These are not placement estimates. They are outcomes.
Meanwhile, the company has pushed into technician training across provinces where consumer electronics repair skills are critically short. Working with partner organisation Ocule IT, Samsung has trained 162 artisans in KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape, and Gauteng. The 2026 programme currently enrolls 40 additional unemployed youth, with another 40 positions planned for the following year’s intake.
This work sits inside a structure established when Samsung first opened its South African office after the country’s democratic transition. That long-term presence crystallised in 2019 with the launch of the Equity Equivalent Investment Programme (EEIP), developed in collaboration with the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition. The ten-year plan aligns with South Africa’s National Development Plan priorities around job creation, digital literacy, and economic inclusion.
The Samsung Innovation Campus extends that reach further. Operating through partnerships with Durban University of Technology, Nelson Mandela University, Walter Sisulu University, and Central University of Technology, the programme teaches coding, programming, software development, and artificial intelligence skills to youth from previously disadvantaged communities. Samsung has carried the model into other African countries, including Kenya.
For secondary school students, the Samsung Solve For Tomorrow competition offers a different entry point. Launched in South Africa in 2023, this global STEM-based programme engages Grade 10 and 11 learners from disadvantaged public schools, challenging them to apply science and technology to local community problems. This year’s edition, themed around “Social Change through Sports and Technology” and “Environmental Sustainability via Technology,” marks a concrete expansion: for the first time, all public schools can participate, including quintile 5 schools. That change broadens national representation and brings the competition to students who previously had no access to it.
Beukes, Samsung’s EEIP and B-BBEE Manager, frames the full scope of these initiatives as a response to a fundamental reality. “As Samsung, our continued investment in education-focused and technology-driven initiatives is aimed at combating youth unemployment and fostering local entrepreneurship,” Beukes said. “This is a clear reflection of our commitment to long-term, sustainable development in the country’s youth. As a company, we will continue using education and technology as tools for driving positive change in youth as well as their underserved communities.”
Samsung’s view holds that the EEIP projects deliver measurable returns in job creation, business growth, women empowerment, and technical skills development, with impact running across strategic partnerships spanning higher education institutions, government, NGOs, and the private sector.
The open question, as the 2026 technician intake gets underway and Solve For Tomorrow opens to every public school for the first time, is how far that model can scale before the structural gaps it is designed to fill begin to close.
For more information on Samsung’s youth empowerment initiatives, see https://news.samsung.com/za/editorial-samsung-celebrates-youth-month-re-affirms-commitment-to-empowering-young-south-africans.