Even as South Africa slowly emerges from the suffocating financial grip of the Covid-19 pandemic, lately released employment statistics proceed to make for grim reading, with nearly eight million people unemployed.
South Africa actually recorded improved economic activity within the fourth quarter of 2021, together with an expansion in actual GDP of 1.2% in comparability with the previous quarter, however unemployment still reached report ranges.
Denice Dumisa
According to the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS), unemployment in Q4 last year rose to 35.3% from 34.9% within the earlier quarter. This is the highest level for the reason that start of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey in 2008.
Even extra alarmingly, the youth unemployment price stood at a staggering 65.5%.
The newest employment information was launched on the finish of March by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), and came simply days after South Africa managed to draw R1.2 trillion in investment in the course of the fourth South Africa Investment Conference.
Analysts have described the country’s financial system as “producing jobless growth” and believe that even with upward financial growth in the medium term, South Africa will nonetheless have an general unemployment figure of round 30%.
Youth unemployment is a global issue, even more acutely pronounced in South Africa, where the most recent figures are sounding crucial alarm bells.
In late 2021, Stats SA reported that two out of each three young people beneath the age of 35 in South Africa are unemployed. For the age cohort underneath 25, this rises to a few out of each four, or a jarring 75%.
But in and amongst the dire unemployment statistics there are rays of light on the means to begin to successfully tackle this socio-economic crisis.
Education is vital
According to the QLFS report, of the 7,9 million unemployed persons within the fourth quarter of 2021, as many as 51,6% had training levels under matric.
This variety of unemployed drops the upper the education level. Those with a Matric move constitute 38.6% of unemployed and this figure drops substantially for those with other tertiary qualifications (6.9%) and graduates who represent solely 2.4% of South Africa’s formal unemployed.
Astron Energy’s Organisational Capability, Learning and Development Manager Lindiwe Ncongwane said: “It is an often repeated mantra that schooling is the key to success, however the labour drive survey definitely bears this out.
“Education allied to alternative is the golden key to breaking this cycle of unemployment and to create a future for young folks in the nation.”
Astron Energy, which operates South Africa’s second largest network of retail sites together with the Caltex model, runs a quantity of Youth Development Programmes masking both tutorial support and office and experiential learning alternatives.
Astron Energy’s Youth Development Programmes embody:
Learnerships
Bursaries
Apprenticeships
In-Service-Training
Graduate Internship Programme
Opportunities
According to Ncongwane, South African Corporates have a key position to play in offering opportunities for graduates and people with other qualifications to help scale back the number of unemployed, and likewise to assist construct a era of employable younger folks.
pressure gauge ดิจิตอล in coaching and expertise improvement, allied to education qualifications, will help construct a workforce that is multi-skilled and able to adapt to a mess of duties and industries,” she stated.
The 2020 Future of Work report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) found that 50% of all workers will want reskilling by 2025 as adoption of know-how will increase.
The report additionally listed crucial considering and problem-solving as leading skills employers consider shall be needed over the following five years, while newer tendencies centre on self-management skills similar to energetic studying, resilience, stress tolerance and suppleness.
According to Ncongwane, a key part of Astron Energy’s focus is to equip young individuals for the world of labor, not solely at Astron Energy and the petrochemical business, however the throughout a variety of disciplines to allow them to be globally competitive.
The firm also runs numerous school-level initiatives within the STEM space, but according to the 4th Industrial Revolution’s give attention to the 3Cs of Communication, Critical thinking and Collaboration, has broadened this to STEAM – Science, Technology, Arts and Maths – in a bid to develop problem-solving and process-based learning.
The method ahead
“As a country, we’ve to continue investing in the training of our young people, significantly within the critical abilities space, and then create opportunities for them to apply these expertise and develop in workplace environments,” Ncongwane stated.
“As corporates we need to design a spread of programmes and initiatives to satisfy not only the wants of the enterprise, but additionally the future of work – and critically the longer term employment prospects for our young folks.
“If we do this proper, we will start altering the outlook on the employment front and ensure that economic progress has a tangible influence on the futures and livelihoods of the generations to return.”
In the Youth Development area, Astron Energy runs the next programmes:
Learnerships
8 X Learnerships in chemical operations at the Astron Energy refinery in Milnerton, Cape Town
20 X Learnerships in Sales and New Venture Creation at Johannesburg places of work
The Learnerships run from 1 Oct 2021 – 30 Sep 2022
Bursaries
Astron Energy runs a full Bursary programme which covers both underneath graduate and publish graduate studies, from 1st year to Masters Level college students.
The bursaries include tuition charges, accommodation, books, meals, cash allowances and vacation work in the form of internship/in-service-training inside the company’s operations.
The programme began in 2020 and thus far over 440 college students have been funded.
There are presently 196 scholar bursars and 15 worker bursars as a half of this programme. A whole of 26 worker youngsters are part of the bursary programme for 2022.
The bursary covers a variety of study fields this yr together with:
BSc: Chemical Engineering/ BSc: Industrial Engineering/ BSC: Property Studies/ Masters: Industrial Psychology/ Honours: Financial Accounting/ Bcom: Economics/ BSc: Electrical Engineering/ Bcom/BA: Human Resources Management/ Bcom: Information Technology/ Bcom: Internal Auditing/ Bcom: Logistics/ Occupational Health and Safety/ Bcom: Supply Chain/ BSc: Analytical Chemistry.
Astron Energy additionally presents profitable bursars the opportunity to be a half of the Astron Energy Graduate Training programme.
Apprenticeships
Astron Energy offers 24-month Apprenticeships in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering and Instrumentation at the refinery in Cape Town. At current, the company has six apprenticeships in its manufacturing division.
Graduate Programme
The Graduate Internship Programme is run based on the varied disciplines required by the enterprise and runs for a interval of between 18-24 months. The present intake of Graduate interns is ready to finish on 31 December 2022.
Infographic
Astron Energy currently has 77 individuals in its Learnership, Apprenticeship and Graduate Internship programmes:
LogisticsGraduate Internship13
CFOGraduate Internship11
RetailGraduate Internship5
HRGraduate Internship3
HRLearnership20
C & IGraduate Internship2
CEOGraduate Internship2
ManufacturingGraduate Internship1
STOGraduate Internship3
Strategy Graduate Internship2
SHEQGraduate Internship1
ManufacturingApprentice6
ManufacturingChemical Operations Learnership8
Total77
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