Open government data support for the awareness of employment opportunities among the youth in a township in Gauteng Province in South Africa

Abstract

The lack of youth employment opportunities in South Africa is exacerbated by inadequacies in structures such as institutions, policies and ICTs which then lead to a lack of information (awareness of opportunities and requirements) and skills shortages. Open government data (OGD) is a potential resource to be used in meeting some of the information needs related to employment opportunities with few studies conducted in the South African context. Therefore, this study investigates how access to open government data can support the awareness of employment opportunities among the youth in Gauteng Province. Kleine’s choice framework presents an analytical tool for investigating ICTs for development towards a contextualised understanding of the relationships among the framework’s elements namely structure, agency, the dimension of choice and development outcomes. The research philosophy is interpretivism and the research design used is a single, exploratory case study. The study was conducted in the Alexandra Township of the Gauteng Province using a semi-structured interviews. Through purposeful and snowballing sampling strategies data was collected from 34 participants (between the ages of 18 and 35) who are currently looking for employment. The data was analysed thematically using Atlas.ti V8 and then unpacked in terms of the constructors of the Choice framework. The findings show there was limited awareness of OGD and several challenges in optimally using OGD for finding employment related information were identified. The theoretical contribution lies in the use of the Choice framework to operationalise Sen’s capability approach in investigating development outcomes regarding the use of open government data by South African youths in seeking employment. The findings provide a contextual understanding of the research problem including the challenges and recommendations towards overcoming said challenges of finding information on employment opportunities. The practical contribution is to empower the youth by improving their awareness of open government data and the range of choices when seeking employment information.