Turn disability inclusion into real careers

Disability Rights Awareness Month runs from 3 November to 3 December. It is a time to talk about dignity and inclusion. For South African employers, it should also be a time to act.

The numbers are stark. Unemployment among persons with disabilities is estimated at more than 90%, and close to 100% in rural areas. The South African National Council for the Blind reports that only 2% to 3% of blind people are employed. Most depend on social grants.

“Behind those figures are young people with real potential and nowhere to take it. They sit outside the networks that feed traditional recruitment, and without deliberate intervention, many face a lifetime locked out of the economy and society at large,” says Anton Visser, chief operations officer of SA Business School & Alefbet Learning.

The updated Employment Equity Regulations set a 3% target for the employment of persons with disabilities across all national economic sectors. In many businesses, representation still hovers around 1%. For a company of 50 people, 3% means at least two employees with disabilities. For large employers, the gap is far wider.

“Most employers support inclusion in principle. But what they lack is a credible way to deliver it. HR teams want to know where to find work-ready candidates and how to make inclusion last beyond a single reporting cycle. That is the gap that hosted learnerships for people living with disabilities can close,” explains Visser.

How hosted learnerships work

“SA Business School works with corporate sponsors to structure and deliver hosted learnerships for youth living with disabilities. These programmes are designed not only to help employers advance their Employment Equity objectives, but to do so in a way that creates real skills, real workplace readiness, and real pathways into employment.

“Importantly, the learnership model removes much of the friction that often prevents companies from acting. Corporate sponsors can fund fully supported disability learnerships, including training and learner stipends, while SA Business School delivers the programme through a purpose-built training environment designed for the accessibility, safety, development, and support needs of disabled learners.

“Over a 12-month learnership, learners gain practical exposure in a formal business environment, work toward a recognised qualification, and build the life skills, confidence, and workplace behaviours required to succeed in a corporate setting. By the end of the programme, they are not just trained – they are significantly more employable,” he says.

Certificates are not careers

Visser points out that one of the biggest failures in this space has been the over-reliance on training initiatives that produce certificates but not careers. When disabled learners are repeatedly cycled through programmes without a realistic path into work, it does little to solve exclusion. It simply creates a revolving door of participation without progress.

“Our approach is deliberately different. The end goal is not learnership completion. The end goal is absorption into permanent roles and long-term career growth, and a qualification to kick-start it. As part of the AlefBet Holdings Group, SA Business School is connected to a broader ecosystem of debt collection, sales, and customer service BPO businesses. This gives us the ability to bridge the gap between training and employment more effectively than training providers that operate in isolation. Learners are trained in a real-world business environment, with practical exposure that builds confidence and work readiness, while successful candidates can be absorbed into permanent roles where opportunities exist.” Visser explains.

Between 2024 and the current 2026 intake, SA Business School has facilitated learnerships for 2094 learners living with a disability, with an exceptional absorption rate across all its learnership graduates consistently between 70-80% – that’s graduated young learners that are absorbed into permanent jobs where they can build their careers from. Corporate sponsors from industries from manufacturing, engineering, financial services, food and beverage, BPO and healthcare have backed the programmes.

Compliance is the floor, not the ceiling

Businesses can treat the 3% target for the employment of persons with disabilities as a box to tick with minimum effort. Or they can use it to build stronger, more inclusive teams.

“The second choice matters far beyond the scorecard. Every placement means a young person earning a salary and building an independent life. That is good business. It is also how a country starts to change. Let Disability Rights Awareness Month be the start of making real, meaningful inclusion count,” concludes Visser.

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