Samsung Charts Skills Pathway for South African Youth Through Decade-Long Investment Programme
A 280-million-rand investment vehicle, established with the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, forms the operational backbone of Samsung’s structured effort to build technical capacity and employment pathways for young South Africans.
The Equity Equivalent Investment Programme (EEIP), launched in 2019, is the delivery mechanism at the centre of the company’s youth empowerment strategy. Samsung has maintained a consistent focus on education-driven interventions since entering the South African market following democracy, with the ten-year EEIP framework aligned directly to national priorities around job creation, digital literacy and economic inclusion.
Nicky Beukes, Samsung EEIP and B-BBEE Manager, framed the company’s approach as fundamentally rooted in skills transfer. “The execution of these Samsung EEIP initiatives delivers tangible results in the areas of job creation, business growth, women empowerment and technical skills,” Beukes said. “Overall, Samsung’s view is that these EEIP projects have a sizeable rate of investment and measurable impact on the South African economy.”
The software development training pipeline demonstrates the programme’s operational scale. Samsung trained 510 unemployed youth as software developers through partnerships with previously disadvantaged universities. Results tracking shows that over 90 percent of graduates from the Introduction to Software Development and Social Digital Innovation Programme at the University of the Western Cape and University of Limpopo secured positions in the technology sector. The Samsung, Tshimologong and UWC Advance Industry Experience Internship achieved a near 100 percent industry placement rate, moving graduates directly into roles at established software firms.
That placement record points to a second, equally concrete delivery stream. Technician training addresses a documented shortage of consumer electronics repair specialists. Working with Ocule IT, Samsung has trained 162 artisans across KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and Gauteng. The programme currently has 40 unemployed youth enrolled for 2026, with another 40 positions planned for the following year’s intake.
The Samsung Innovation Campus (SIC) operates as a university-based coding and programming initiative. Partnerships with Durban University of Technology, Nelson Mandela University, Walter Sisulu University and Central University of Technology deliver instruction in coding, software development and artificial intelligence to youth from previously disadvantaged communities. Samsung has extended the SIC model into Kenya, signaling regional expansion beyond South Africa’s borders.
Samsung Solve For Tomorrow (SFT), a global STEM-based competition launched in South Africa in 2023, engages Grade 10 and 11 learners from disadvantaged public schools. Participants apply STEM methodologies to address local community problems. This year’s iteration, themed around social change through sports and technology alongside environmental sustainability via technology, marks a structural shift: the competition has been opened to all public schools, including quintile 5 institutions, broadening access and creating a more nationally representative participant pool.
Beukes was direct about the strategic logic underlying the portfolio. “As Samsung, our continued investment in education-focused and technology-driven initiatives is aimed at combating youth unemployment and fostering local entrepreneurship. We therefore 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.”
The EEIP framework addresses what Samsung identifies as critical developmental gaps linked to national economic transformation. The company operates through structured public-private partnerships involving universities, government agencies, non-governmental organisations and private sector actors. This collaborative infrastructure is designed to ensure programmes reach underserved communities and translate training into employment, not merely certification.
Samsung views education and technology as operational levers for systemic change. The decade-long investment horizon reflects a commitment to sustained, measurable impact rather than episodic interventions. Whether the placement rates achieved so far hold as the programme scales toward its conclusion will be the clearest test of that commitment.