A conversation with Ryan le Roux, CEO of LEVA Foundation, about making opportunity visible, building practical pathways and why talent is rarely the problem.

People often ask me what keeps me awake at night. The answer is simple: we need more people getting jobs. Not only jobs for today, but work that gives people the opportunity to build a better future for themselves, their families and their communities.

The challenge is not a lack of talent. We see talent everywhere we work. The challenge is that many young people grow up without seeing where that talent could take them. If unemployment has become the norm in your community, it can be difficult to imagine yourself becoming a software developer, engineer, data scientist or entrepreneur.

We often tell young people they can be anything they want, but that is difficult to believe if you have never met anyone who has done it. Before we can help someone prepare for a job, we sometimes have to help them imagine a different future.

When possibility changes a decision

One of my favourite examples comes from a school in Cape Town. The school had never offered Pure Mathematics in Grade 10 because too few learners chose it. During one of our coding clubs, learners began meeting people who worked in technology and hearing about careers they had never considered before. They started to understand where mathematics could take them.

The following year, 30 learners asked to take Pure Mathematics. The principal’s response still makes me smile: “What am I supposed to do now? I don’t have a maths teacher for all these kids.”

That is exactly the kind of problem we want to help create, because it means something has changed. Learners who had not previously imagined themselves in STEM-related careers could now see a reason to choose mathematics. The experience did not simply teach them a new skill. It helped make a possible future feel real.

Practical experience builds belief

At LEVA Foundation, we have learned that possibility often comes before capability. Before people build skills, they need opportunities to see themselves differently. That may happen while solving a coding challenge, meeting someone working in an unfamiliar field, preparing for their first job or discovering that they can contribute something valuable to a team.

But seeing an opportunity is only the beginning. Confidence becomes more meaningful when it is grounded in experience. People build capability by doing: trying something, getting it wrong, adjusting their approach and discovering that they can solve a problem they once thought was beyond them.

That is why LEVA’s programmes are practical. Whether someone is learning to code, preparing for work or developing the skills to earn an income, the aim is not simply to tell them what is possible. It is to give them a way to begin and an opportunity to discover what they can do.

People need a next step

Skills and confidence do not change a life on their own. People also need clear pathways connecting what they have learned to a real opportunity, and those pathways will not look the same for everyone.

One learner may discover an interest in technology. Another may see a future in the service industry. Someone else may be preparing for their first job, further education or the chance to build a small business. We do not believe there is one route into the economy, so LEVA designs and supports different pathways that meet people where they are and help them understand what they can do next.

Across our work, we often see people move from thinking, “I didn’t know this was for me,” to realising, “I’ve learnt that I can do this.” The next step is knowing where to go, followed by the opportunity to earn, contribute and continue growing. That progression is what we mean when we say LEVA helps people enter the economy and stay there.

Why the system around the programme matters

A good programme can create a powerful moment, but if there is no pathway beyond that moment, much of its potential can be lost. This is why LEVA is more than a collection of individual programmes.

We design practical responses to real barriers, test them in real conditions and strengthen what works. We bring together schools, communities, employers, universities, government and funders because no organisation can open every door on its own. We also build the governance, partnerships, monitoring and learning systems that allow effective programmes to grow without losing what made them work in the first place.

Tangible, for example, can introduce a learner to coding and computational thinking. Its longer-term value lies in what that experience can lead to: greater confidence, different subject choices, further learning and, ultimately, new routes into economic participation. The programme opens a door, while LEVA works to ensure there is a pathway on the other side.

Talent has always been there

One thing gives me enormous hope: wherever we work, we discover talent. We have seen learners from under-resourced schools compete with, and often outperform, learners from schools with far greater resources. We have seen quiet learners become the ones who solve the problem when everyone else gets stuck. We have seen young people begin to imagine careers they had never encountered before.

The talent was never missing. What was missing was the opportunity to recognise it, build it and connect it to a next step.

Helping someone enter the economy is not one moment. It is a series of opportunities connected over time. Sometimes it starts with a teacher. Sometimes it is an employer willing to give someone their first chance. Sometimes it is a partner opening a door that did not exist before.

No one opens every door. But together, we can make sure more people find one.