United Exports partners with Youth Employment Service to help young people in South Africa find work

United Exports and Yes have partnered to address youth unemployment in South Africa

United Exports and Yes have partnered to address youth unemployment in South Africa

Global agricultural company United Exports has created new employment opportunities in its South African operations to help alleviate the youth unemployment crisis facing the country.

The company has joined forces with Youth Employment Service (Yes) to create valuable work experience across its production and operational footprint in South Africa for talented youth over the next year.

Yes is a private sector-led, not-for-profit organisation that collaborates with government, through policy, to incentivise businesses to join the programme to create or sponsor jobs for unemployed youth.

United Exports has employed 15 young people between the ages of 21 and 33 as quality officers on OZblu farms. Founder of United Exports, Roger Horak, said the opportunity will afford the new recruits a springboard to launch into productive future careers.

“When it comes to quality, our company has set its true north as #QualityRight. The OZblu Quality Officer Programme has been designed to fulfil an essential function in our ongoing journey of continuous improvement,” said Horak. 

“The quality officers will record real-time quality data that is key to our feedback loops at every stage on the farms, supporting the production of top-quality OZblu blueberries and facilitating continuous improvement.”

Horak described the company’s continuous improvement philosophy as OTO – an acronym for one touch objective, on time objective, on temperature objective and one task objective.

“OTO has played a key role in creating awareness and driving our culture and process of continuous improvement and getting quality right across our end-to-end value chain,” said Horak.

Horak is based in Australia but grew up in South Africa and said he has always had a passion for sustainability and doing what is right.

“We operate in the oldest industry and one of the most competitive sectors in the global economy, just as we put quality front and centre of what we do, so to we embrace both our obligations and opportunities to make a difference when it comes to ESG. Ultimately, we are also aiming to empower individuals and teams for the agricultural sector,” said Horak.

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