Work in the 'new normal'

The world of technology is surging forward, but too many of South Africa’s learners are being left behind thanks to poverty, lack of access and the burden of our history.

Our resolve here cannot just be technical and technological, it must also be human, writes Michaela Voller, Chief HR Executive at Dimension Data.

In South Africa, there is a widening (and worrying) gap forming between the requirements of the jobs of the future and the skillsets of South African learners. We know that traditional ‘literacy’ (as in reading and writing) has always enabled better employment opportunities.

But, increasingly, we recognise that stronger foundations in technology and numerical literacy are just as essential to the future world of work. STEM subjects – those that deal in science, technology, engineering and mathematics – teach a particular kind of problem-solving that is foundational to surviving the demands of the future, even if learners don’t pursue careers in the sciences specifically.

Given South Africa’s history of unequal education, and the present challenge of being a country split by access to resources and opportunities, it’s too reductive to simply say “teach more maths subjects” to solve the problem.

Too many of our schools don’t only lack access to enough teachers and textbooks, they lack the basic infrastructure to enable learning: a blackboard, running water and a warm classroom.

Learners are walking over four hours to get to school each day, they’re supporting their families, looking after their younger siblings, making breakfast and doing the washing.

They’re not just students, they’re also carers and providers. In these dual roles, it’s not just a question of revising the curriculum, it’s about understanding the social context of what an under-resourced and under-privileged learner faces when trying to access an education.

Imagine trying to work through new concepts in mathematics when your sympathetic nervous system is in overdrive because your next meal isn’t a certainty. When you’re coming off a poverty base, your mind isn’t primed for learning, it’s focused on just surviving the next day.

In Dimension Data’s Saturday School programme, which now celebrates 25 years of helping 100% of its students pass matric (93% of whom gain university exemption), we try to provide a safe, distraction-free environment where learners can show up and focus on their STEM education. Because understanding the sciences is iterative, we start with the foundations – never assuming that learners have grasped all the core concepts given the inconsistencies in their education.

This is where many learners are often left behind in the traditional schooling environment. If the basic tenants of a subject aren’t understood, then increased complexity eventually becomes unmanageable, which leads to frustration, feelings of unworthiness and the risk of simply giving up. Our job is to meet learners where they’re at, not just by plugging the gaps in knowledge, but by convincing them that they are worthy of an education. Our learners come from traumatic and chaotic circumstances. We need to impart knowledge as much as we need to impart healing.

It’s why we’re so encouraged when our Saturday School graduates give back and return to teach the next generation of learners. When learners see those from similar circumstances overcome similar barriers, there’s an empathy and connection that can’t be replicated in a curriculum and can’t be taught by someone who hasn’t experienced poverty.

As we prepare learners for the future world of work, we need to keep this tension in mind between educating for skills and educating for empathy. We need coders and developers to innovate in areas like artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, the fourth, fifth and sixth industrial revolutions. But we also need our technology to bring people together and foster the kinds of connections that make us human in the first place. A machine can compute massive inputs of data to hypothesise a solution, but it requires a human to innovate in applying that knowledge to everyday problems. As we think about how to better educate all South Africans, we cannot only think about a transfer of skills; we must transfer our humanity too.