Education

Educational concerns in South Africa

While they're growing concerns over the current education system, many young people feel that it's not equipping them with the skills they need to find jobs. According to an online poll conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers and UNICEF, over 40,000 participants from over 150 countries felt this way.

PricewaterhouseCoopers' head of HR technology and culture, Barry Foster, talks about the findings of the poll. Over 40,000 people from over 150 countries participated in it%, he says.%

I just think that there's been an exponential curve in what is required by industry and what universities are provided colleague of mine the other day said universities on average are about 40 years behind I'm not saying that that's true but I think we are behind and I even think that in countries like South Africa we even further behind great because I wanted to talk a little bit about what are the stats looking like it's sort of for the continent because this is a global actual a statistical conducting so what are the what is it looking like in the African context and what does it look like in a South African context so the one problem is is that we don't have as much good data as we'd have from OECD or Western countries.

According to current unemployment figures, which stand at around 55 to 53 to 55%, some of the people who are unemployed have failed to acquire the necessary skill sets. With the global economy becoming increasingly competitive, it is becoming more and more difficult for those with skills to find employment. Furthermore, there is a divide between young people and their employers- nearly two thirds (64%) of CEOs globally admit that they lack the skills needed to grow their businesses, and this figure is especially high in Africa and South Africa. It is then difficult for young people to find appropriate employment, as they do not necessarily possess the required education or experience.

two parts I think the the high education facilities and and and organizations are trying very hard to move towards that I think also there's a problem it's just the thing through that there a group of people who probably did not receive the amount of schooling they required to be able to complete or even into higher education I think for that for that group of people we have alternatives now I think the arm are substantial number of organizations now focusing on helping young people in robotics who perhaps didn't have the right educational background or all were able to do post maths and science but I do have the potential and I think some of those organizations I'm going to say one is somebody like the organizations like math space labs there are other organizations doing wonderful work with young girls like Tecna go where they are providing young women with opportunities to see what it's like to be in in STEM orientated world and then go on because they are motivated to do so and part of what we also need to see is is that it's not only a question of of Education but people who feel motivated and feel that they have that they can actually see their futures yeah are probably more prone to them go often and do these things and I think the aptitude grit part is probably just just as important as the skills themselves I mean when we're looking at the situation right now you're speaking about youth unemployment and how many young people are getting more and more despondent now we're going to bring in the curve of fourth Industrial Revolution right and we say we're gonna teach for our in school so that we can capacity to young people but those lessons need teachers adequate equipped teachers who are resourced enough so that they can take them through the various curriculums that are related to 4ir which obviously speaks to jobs of the future the question is do we have those individuals that are equipped enough and resourced enough to actually teach those skills so I I'd like to say yes but I don't think we have at this point in time III do think again there are organizations who are trying to work with groups of teachers and upskilling them around robotics around other parts of the technologies we associate with the fourth Industrial Revolution.

how would I just don't have enough of them yet I think we're at a point now where there's a there's a real imperative for substantial change required because the the children we're talking about and you need to compete with in a South African environment but they really do need to compete globally yeah and looking at it I just want to have a frank conversation around where we are standing in terms of youth skills and ability to compete globally how are we faring in that can we send a child from South Africa and say to them listen you're quite equipped enough and you're a resource definitely capacity enough to get a job in Denmark for example I think there are children like that I I personally work with a group of young children and from some of them come from rural South Africa have been through a difficult school schooling career but made it to university and are exceptionally smart and they could go and work any way in the world but they are probably in the minority if we absolutely honest about that so I do think that if we want to do that on mess and and and and and do it at scale then we as a country and I really mean everybody that means government the corporate sector and the non-governmental organisations we really need to think at a level that we've never done so before do I think we have the potential I'm absolutely convinced about that