Youth unemployment poses a formidable policy challenge for South Africa. The unemployment rate of 25% in the fourth quarter of 2010 (Stats SA, 2011) is among the highest in the world. Significantly, unemployment is concentrated in the 14–35 age cohort, which accounted for 72% of the unemployed in 2010. Consequently, the country’s unemployment crisis is seen as a youth unemployment crisis in particular. South Africa’s growth trajectory in the 16 years since attaining democracy has not absorbed labour at the required scale, and the lack of access to the labour market and wage income has driven up poverty and inequality, despite a significant rollout of social grants and basic services. Against this background, this study contributes to the policy discourse on a new growth path for South Africa by providing a framework in which to design programme interventions to support a holistic development framework for the youth. It extends the discussion on youth unemployment beyond public employment programmes and into the realm of skills development and active labour market interventions, with the aim not only to support the absorption of young people into the labour market, but also to prepare them for the world of work. While “the youth” are defined as the 14–35 age cohort in South Africa, this paper focuses on the 15–24 age group with its very specific characteristics and needs in terms of the school-to-work transition. It is also a strategic group to target in order to change the pattern of low returns to education, which has arisen in the period of the country’s democracy, principally because young people are unable to find jobs after completing their education and training. Finding pathways to employment for the 15–24 age cohort is critical to transforming South Africa’s future employment and growth trajectory, if growing poverty and inequality are to be redressed.