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Job creation pointless without skills development

Job creation remains a key priority, but skills development is equally critical to ensure employment sustainability, says Johann Kunz, Managing Director of WNS South Africa.


Cape Town, 13 May 2016

South Africa has one of the world's highest unemployment rates, nearly four times the average of that found in other countries monitored by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

At its highest since 2008, South Africa's unemployment rate, which excludes discouraged job seekers, currently sits at a staggering 26.7% or 5.7 million people.

With one in four South Africans in the country's labour force failing to find employment in the first quarter of 2016, job creation remains a key priority, but skills development is equally critical to ensure employment sustainability, says Johann Kunz, Managing Director of WNS South Africa, a leading global Business Process Management company.

Kunz says that focusing on job creation alone won't adequately address the country's unemployment problem. "In order to create sustainable employment opportunities that can benefit the ardent South African workforce, job creation needs to be paired with rigorous skills development efforts as well as public-private partnerships," he says.

As one of the fastest growing sectors in South Africa, the Business Process Services industry, which includes customer contact centres, finance and accounting services, and analytics, has the unique potential to significantly bolster job creation and skills development by bringing international work to the country.

"In India, the Business Process Services industry is responsible for creating over 2 million international jobs and over a million in the Philippines," he adds.

In 2015, the South African Business Process Services industry created approximately 4 400 new jobs, but this figure has the potential to increase considerably if the development of the industry is prioritised.

"Over the past 24 months, WNS added just over 2 000 new jobs to our South African workforce. Our current staff complement totals more than 4 000 employees, a large portion of which comprises of youth aged 18-35," Kunz says.

A worrying trend in the South African labour market is the high unemployment rate for job seekers under the age of 35, many of whom have never worked before. This concerning development highlights the importance of skills development, particularly among the youth of South Africa, to create sustainable employment opportunities as opposed to dead-end jobs.

"Corporate South Africa has a big role to play and should not shy away from its responsibility to foster a working environment where learning and development is not only a priority, but a culture too. As part of this responsibility, businesses are required to conduct the necessary skills planning to adapt to the changing demands of their respective industries and create a pipeline of skills for the future," says Kunz.

"Recognising this, and the country's ailing state of unemployment, we have established the WNS Learning Academy to empower our employees with the latest skills that the industry demands. As a registered Further Education and Training (FET) college, the WNS Learning Academy provides our employees with the opportunity to build their career profiles with accredited qualifications aligned to the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) while gaining valuable work experience," he adds.

"I firmly believe that by equipping our youth with the right skills we can grant them access to a previously unattainable pool of skilled employment opportunities and tackle the scourge of unemployment currently gripping South Africa," concludes Kunz.

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WNS

WNS (Holdings) Limited (NYSE: WNS) is a leading global business process management company. WNS offers business value to 200+ global clients by combining operational excellence with deep domain expertise in key industry verticals including travel, insurance, banking and financial services, manufacturing, retail and consumer packaged goods, shipping and logistics, healthcare and utilities. WNS delivers an entire spectrum of business process management services such as finance and accounting, customer care, technology solutions, research and analytics and industry specific back office and front office processes. As of 31 March 2016, WNS had 32 388 professionals across 40 delivery centres worldwide including China, Costa Rica, India, Philippines, Poland, Romania, South Africa, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom and the United States. For more information, visit www.wns.com.