Page 55 - IRMSA Risk Report 2020

P. 55

EXPERT OPINION

CHANDU K ASHIRAM
PRINCIPAL ASSOCIATE, LUCIDUM
• The Report “Economic Transformation, Inclusive Growth, and Competitiveness: Towards an
Economic Strategy for South Africa” summarises our skills challenges:
• “Improving educational outcomes throughout the educational life-cycle, with a particular
focus on early childhood development (which presents the greatest return on educational
investment) and enhancing the relevance of education systems by better aligning learning
outcomes to labour market needs.”
• “Implementing youth employment interventions such as continued support for government
programmes that incentivize job creation (e.g. learnerships) and apprenticeships that facilitate
school-to-work transition based on close cooperation between institutions of learning and the
private sector.”
• “Addressing the skills constraint through a combination of short-term solutions (such as the
easing of immigration regulations for individuals with tertiary qualifications from accredited
institutions) and long-term educational reforms.”

Aligning skills supply and demand is hampered by fragmented data and lack of integration between
SETAs (responsible to develop skills) and corporate SA (responsible to create employment). Thus,
Government risks training people in inappropriate vocations, at high cost. Absorption rates are also
low due to lack of workplace skills programmes and workplace integrated learning. SETAs cite access to workplaces to provide experience to newly
qualified people as a challenge. In the 2019 SONA, the President stressed the importance of youth employment, especially in tech-enabled platforms
Such efforts must be supported by better career development advice, aimed at encouraging the youth to take up vocational training.

Due to lack of social transformation in various areas, a large part of the population is ill equipped to take advantage of potential positive economic
reforms such as increase in investment (specifically in manufacturing), 4IR and artificial intelligence, which can be a competitive advantage if approached
sensibly by introducing enabling policy changes regarding technology supported by appropriate funding. Furthermore, data on skills losses due to
emigration is poor and is driven through aggregated statistics obtained from destination countries. Skills that are gained through returning South
Africans and immigrants are not readily available. The views on emigration and skills losses are therefore largely anecdotal. However, any loss of highly
skilled, employable South Africans that emigrate has the negative impact of losing the investment in educating them.

Lastly, capacity development in Government is crucial to service delivery. In the 2019 SONA the President announced that in order to strengthen the
capacity of the state and service delivery, the National School of Government (NSG) will introduce a suite of compulsory courses, including ethics, anti-
corruption, senior management training, supply chain management and deployment of managers to the coal face. To this end the National Treasury has
provided an additional direct financial allocation to the NSG for a three-year period (approved by the Cabinet).

Sources: “Economic Transformation, Inclusive Growth, and Competitiveness: Towards an Economic Strategy for South Africa”. Treasury Department, 2019.
Daily Maverick Article by David Bukham entitled “Are skilled white South Africans really emigrating at an alarming rate?” 1 Oct 2019.

This risk is getting worse because of the following:
• Talent development is hampered by an increasing gap between the standards of basic and
tertiary education (due to poor corporate governance; inadequate leadership by key role-
players who may not be fully competent/qualified; low standards of basic education; not
preparing potential students for tertiary education, especially in science and mathematics; and
a focus on pass rates at an undergraduate level which compromises standards of qualifications).
• This is causing another gap between undergraduate and post graduate studies leading to
failures at post graduate levels, which could further lead to South African qualifications not
being accredited internationally. Students who qualify have sub-standard qualifications which
are not accredited by leading practices/countries and will not be able to perform the functions
required from qualified graduates.
• Retaining qualified students pose a problem as they tend to leave the country due to negative
political views and incidents (e.g. low economic growth rate and high taxes influencing personal
wealth creation; poor infrastructure development (Eskom, Water supply, transport, etc)).

All the facts regarding this risk are being publicly debated, but there are no positive solutions, which
causes a negative view on the effectiveness of government and leadership. SA must:
• bridge the gap between basic and tertiary education by preparing students for further studies in crucially required focus areas;
• upgrade the standard of qualifications according to international standards instead of focusing on increasing pass rates, which has a direct influence
on the standard of education; and
• Create a golden thread of ethical values from basic to post graduate education levels. Students must accept responsibility for their academic careers
from an early stage and follow a disciplined path to academic and work maturity.

SA’s emerging economy has a lot of potential. The majority of the labour force is at blue-collar level and can be developed in vocational training areas in
mining, agriculture, etc., positively influencing the economy and employment rates.
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