Survey highlights educational failures
July 1, 2007
By Wiseman Khuzwayo
Johannesburg - Survey after survey in South Africa bemoans the shortage of skills, especially among black people, to help propel the country to economic growth.
The government, under the stewardship of deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, has set up the Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition (Jipsa).
Jipsa is meant to be one of the building blocks for the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa. It aims to address log jams, some of which are systemic and entrenched in post-apartheid South Africa.
While everyone is still engrossed in the problems encountering the country's accelerated economic growth, in comes Jimmy Manyi, the outspoken chairman of the Employment Equity Commission, who says the notion that a skills shortage among the black population is delaying employment equity is an "urban legend".
Manyi, who is also the president of the Black Management Forum (BMF), said there was an underutilisation of skills, and that black skilled people wereg ignored.
"The only skills all these people are talking about are those of artisans and welders. We cannot take these isolated cases to represent the whole," said Manyi, adding that 80 percent of the economy was not in manufacturing.
On the BMF database, he said, there were hundreds of people who were qualified and experienced but were not getting anywhere. Those who were employed were just used as "window dressing", he claimed.
A survey conducted by the development policy research unit of the University of Cape Town perhaps falls in between the two extremes.
It has found that unemployment among graduates in South Africa was insignificant in the context of broader unemployment.
The survey found that fewer than one in five of the tertiary unemployed - those who have had some level of tertiary education - hold degrees. In contrast, 82 percent of tertiary unemployed persons hold diplomas. The majority of these are black people.
The study says: "This evidence is indicative of the fact that black students, or students studying at historically black institutions, tend to graduate in fields of study with lower employment prospects, often because they do not meet the minimum requirements for enrolling in mathematics, science and engineering courses.
"This raises questions about the quality of secondary school education in South Africa, as well as the quality or relevance of education offered at historically black institutions (and perhaps tertiary institutions in general)."
The survey found that the actual unemployment rate among black people with diplomas was significantly higher than among other racial groups.
The survey attempted to acquire practical insight into the graduate unemployment problem through a series of interviews with some of South Africa's largest companies across a range of sectors.
As part of the project, databases of unemployed young people were evaluated from Umsobomvu Youth Fund, which contained more than 130 000 individuals, and the South African Graduates Development Association, which contained about 2 500 unemployed individuals with post-matric qualifications.
The study says technical skills shortages are partly explained by declining enrolment in engineering sciences at tertiary institutions during the 1990s, while graduation in "softer" non-technical fields of study has been on the rise. Related to this trend was the premium placed by students on obtaining university qualifications as opposed to qualifications in more practical further education and training colleges.
"Students would rather obtain a human science degree than a technical diploma, despite the lower employment prospects attached to the former," says the study.
Many graduates lacked soft skills such as communication, listening ability and assertiveness, and were not workplace ready when they started their careers in the corporate sector. This was highlighted as a reason why many graduates were unsuccessful at the recruitment phase.
The study concludes that while the graduate unemployment problem is not substantial in relative terms, it is a concern as it goes against expectations and suggests there are serious problems in the South African education system.
"Tertiary unemployment can also be regarded as a structural problem," the study says. "As enrolment at tertiary institutions has increased during the last decade, especially among black students, more young graduates have become unemployed.
"This implies that the shift towards greater demand for skilled labour has either been insufficient to absorb new graduate labour market entrants, or that these graduates are not suitably qualified for the jobs that are available.
"Given the prevailing skills shortage ... the latter is more likely to be the case - graduates do not possess the right qualifications and often these qualifications are not of a standard ... required by employers."
The study says a proper investigation into the quality of lecturers and institutions in general is needed. "Good education starts with properly trained lecturers who are able to continuously modernise and adapt their courses so that they may remain relevant," it says.
"Poor funding and management are often to blame. Many students study at poor institutions without knowledge about the quality or perceived quality (from the employer's perspective) of the qualification that they will receive, which often leads to disillusionment and disappointment when they fail to find employment."
The study says research is needed to identify needs in the labour market with regards to technical and non-technical training.
"Universities are traditionally institutions where students receive more general education of a highly academic nature, while colleges and technikons focus more directly on the technical training of students," says the study.
"These lines seem to have been blurred, with universities trying to introduce more job-relevant training, while technikons and colleges are enrolling more students in general fields of study, such as arts and humanities. It needs to be debated whether this situation is ideal."
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