ABSTRACT South African communities have a high rate of unemployment. Graduates, skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled people in communities are still in an unstable situation as they look for work, jeopardizing their social, financial, and economic stability and creating a ripple effect of social issues in communities. This study aims to explore the experiences of communities with high unemployment and assets that are inaccessible to the community. These assets can be used to address the social issues in the community. This study will employ a qualitative research approach to understand the experiences of communities in South Africa about the barriers to employment and existing assets in the community. Participants who will take part in this study will be selected through the snowballing technique. Semi-structured interviews will be used to collect data from participants face-to-face. Data will be analysed using thematic analysis whereby codes were generated from the responses of the participants the after themes were created. The findings of this study revealed that the lack of access, lack of experience and skills development results to high unemployment of people in the community.
Key words: unemployment, social issues, skills development, community development practitioners.
