Overview of Internet use among Developing Countries

This research used the CA framework to analyse and explain how the youth uses the Internet to find employment. Unemployment among youth living in low-income communities is high (Cloete, 2015). With limited resources and income, the majority of the youth from developing countries are forced to use the Internet to seek and access information about employment (Egdell & Graham, 2016). Internet use plays an important role in helping the youth get access to job opportunities. For example, Internet use among youth presents potential functionings. On the other hand, Internet use affords the youth with convenience and efficiency when seeking employment using online resources and career portals (Khan et al., 2016).

To address the research objective, the research questions were as follows:

How do the youth from a previously disadvantage township use the Internet to seek employment?

85 Factors affecting how the youth use of the internet among youth seeking employment, 2019

Sub-questions:

 What are the reasons the youth from low-income communities use the Internet to search for Jobs?

 What are the challenges affecting the use of the Internet among the youth seeking employment?

The research objectives are discussed in this section.

6.2.1. How do the youth in townships use the Internet to seek employment?

The youth from Mfuleni use the Internet as an alternative method to seek and apply for employment. In doing so, it was found that when seeking employment using the Internet, the youth use smartphones, tablets and desktop computers. Hjort and Poulsen (2017) stated that mobile devices enabled job seekers in Africa to access and use the Internet to search for employment. The local telecentres such as Internet café and the public telecentres as an alternative to the mobile Internet data. This is in line with the report by ITU (2014) that stated that youth from low-income communities seeking employment use telecentres and mobile phones to process the job application processes. Local telecentres in Mfuleni enabled the youth to access desktop machines that are connected to the internet as well as a connection to Wi-Fi hot-spot. Wallet and Melgar (2015), argued that limited access to ICT resources limits the number of users.

In using the Internet to apply for employment, the youth in this study stated that they first search for the job that they qualify and interesting. The next step was to check the company culture, as well as the information about the organisation. Some of the participants also checked the location of the job and if satisfied then draft a new resume or modify an existing resume to meet the job requirements. Once the resume was completed the job seekers either attached a resume letter using emails contacts or send the resume as an attachment using online career portals and social media platforms to potential employers or relative as referrals. This was also the case in a study by ITU (2014) where youth used emails to communicate with job recruiters.

Career portals and social media platforms such as Career24, Jobs Indeed, Gumtree and Facebook were used by the participants to conveniently search for employment using advance career portal services. Sam (2015) concurred that the marginalised youth with limited resources use

86 Factors affecting how the youth use of the internet among youth seeking employment, 2019

social media networking portals as cost effective tools to communicate and network with potential employers. Internet use affords youth from developing countries with convenience and efficiency when seeking employment using online resources and career portals as argued by Sam (2015). Khan et al (2016) in their research on tackling unemployment using ICTs hint at youth as the main victims of poverty and poses that using the Internet the youth find a convenient and efficient way of applying for jobs.

6.2.2. What are the reasons the youth from low-income communities use the Internet to search for Jobs?

Drivers that influenced job seekers in this study to use the Internet as a medium to search for employment included convenience, efficient process of applying for jobs. Job seekers that do not have sufficient means to travel and purchase mobile data, use the Internet as an alternative instrument to seek employment (Ebaidalla, 2014). Affordability, availability and convenience were identified as the main drivers of Internet use among youth from the townships:

Affordability: Internet affords people the ability to access information and at the same time it also enabled the youth to save on finances.

Availability: Internet is available 24/7, job seekers can search at any time of the day.

Convenience: Internet access also helps youth to save both time and money resources.

Job seekers do not have to spend time and money travelling.

The process of searching for employment using traditional methods has become hard and unsustainable for the youth coming from low-income communities. As highlighted by Mtsweni and Burge (2014) Internet use increases the chances of finding employment among youth from disadvantaged communities with limited access to financial resources. Similar to the other studies in literature, the use of the Internet did not only increase the chances of employment among youth, but exposed the youth to additional job opportunities (ITU, 2014). However, Chiwara et al. (2017) warned that youth should not only use the Internet to apply for a job but use the traditional methods in parallel to increase chances of employment. The online career portals facilitated and enhanced how youth job seekers create, process and store personal resumes when using the professional job searching portal services (Kuhn & Mansour, 2014;

Mang, 2012a). The advances in smartphones and mobile apps have greatly influenced the

87 Factors affecting how the youth use of the internet among youth seeking employment, 2019

adoption of the Internet among youth seeking employment. For instance, the ability to get notification, view and send emails instantly is one of the reasons the job seekers from the townships use the online process to find employment. Khan et al. (2016) concurred that illiterate job seekers use their smartphone features to communicate, read and share information using mobile apps.

The use of the Internet as highlighted in this study has the capability to empower the poor.

Chiwara et al. (2017) argued that even though the method of using the Internet to search and find employment is uncommon among youth located in the townships, the younger generation are increasingly adopting the Internet and online career portals to find employment.