Lack of skills and experience killing south african youth

 

                          Lack of skills and experience  killing south african  youth

                                        

                                Unemployment amongst youth remains South African greatest concern, youth are still struggling in the labor market. According to the statistic from the Trading economics, regardless of school level, the youth unemployment rate increase rapidly, South Africa’s youth unemployment rate stayed steady in the 4 quarter of 2021, at 66, 50 %, Graduate unemployment rates were 40, 3 percent for those aged 15-24 and 15, 5 percent for those 25-34 years, with a rate of 5, 4 percent for elder people aged 35-64. As the rate of unemployment remains high in youth it is therefore assumed that youth unemployment also contribute into the crime rate in South Africa. When people struggle to find employment, of course they need to feed their families and them, them then opt for criminal activities such as heights, robberies, human trafficking, drug dealings and etc.

 There are multiple reasons for youth unemployment, however some of these factors contributing to unemployment are the high population rate which includes teenage pregnancy, lack of work experience, inappropriate ways of job hunting, and lack of career guidance in schools. as the population rapidly increase , therefore the unemployment rate also increase , most teenagers have to drop out at schools and take care of their babies leaving them depending only of social grants supports.  Most of job opportunities require experience, for example in a business sector most employees require 1-3 year job experience, most graduates are then left outside, and unemployed because they do not have required job experiences, the educational context in most institutions it is theory based, resulting in the institutions producing unskilled gradates.

In the labor market , education and job experience are very critical , employers frequently favor candidates with prior job experience and a higher academic level , unfortunately for most of youth with a lack of job experience , they experience a stumbling obstacle that make it difficult for them to get jobs . The south African educational system is not producing the skills for the labor market, learners are not trained and well equipped nor prepared to the work places , more especially in rural areas the education system in rural areas is poor , there are lack of infrastructure as well as resources  for instance there are many science schools with no laboratories , therefore learners have to dwell on theoretical learning and no empirical learning , they do not do any experiments , which disadvantages them. “South Africa’s continued skills defect is being compounded by lack of technical skills, which is having a negative impact on employment across many sectors of the country’s economy” said Lyndy Van Den Barselaar, managing director of manpower South Africa.

As we are approaching the 4IR, the 4IR skills, knowledge and competencies development will be necessary, proper training and education about the 4IR and the artificial intelligence should be provided to the youth, in the other side of the labor markets the use of disruptive technologies have already introduced, which is still a greatest concern to the society as they believe that shortage of jobs is also caused by the use of technological machineries which replaced human intelligence  for example , digital libraries ,cellphone banking’s / electronic banking etc. More companies in the future may hire specialized contractors or remote labor as a result of the 4IR. Employers may become more supportive of existing employees who desire to work remotely, or have interest in working under the technological world, or with a greater flexibility as a result of new technologies and shifts needs, also provide them with required skills and knowledge on how to cope in the 4IR world.  This not only apply on the labor market only , as well as on the educational system in other institutions there have been introduced programs to train students about artificial intelligence , this is also what many institutions had adopted in the few years , during COVID-19 , by adopting online learning , but however online learning at some point produces unskilled learners  as they have less learning on doing activities , since students are learning from home.

The most pleasing part in the Tvets is that they provide students with skills based courses, for example plumbing, civil engineering, and preparing students to work place and passing to them necessary skills needed for their courses or careers. Vets provides wide range of options for skills developments tailored to national and local circumstances , learning how to learn , developing literacy and numeracy abilities , developing transversal skills and citizenship skills , these are all important aspects of the TVETs.

 

 

REFERENCE

Cloete, Anita. (2015). Youth unemployment in South Africa. A theological reflection through the lens of human dignity. Missionalia, 43(3), 513-525. https://dx.doi.org/10.7832/43-3-133

Mlatsheni, C., & Leibbrandt, M. (2011). Youth unemployment in South Africa: challenges, concepts and opportunities. Journal Of International Relations And Development, 14(1), 118-126. doi: 10.1057/jird.2010.24

Mseleku, Z. (2021). Youth high unemployment/unemployability in South Africa: the unemployed graduates' perspectives. Higher Education, Skills And Work-Based Learning. doi: 10.1108/heswbl-06-2021-0114