Johannesburg, 22 Aug 2012
High unemployment is a national crisis, and yet the country is importing skills. Business has to step in and help fix this problem - and there's a great business case for doing it, too.
Depending on which statistics you use, just on 25% of South Africans are unemployed. The figure is more than double that in the 15- to 25-year-old bracket; according to the South African Institute of Race Relations, unemployment in this group runs at a staggering 51%.[1]
This growing pool of unemployed young people is widely acknowledged to be a powder keg with the potential to destabilise society. And yet, despite this widespread unemployment, the country continues to import skilled people from abroad.
This mismatch between the skills needed by business and the skills on offer creates a toxic brew.
"Business is hurting because it can't access the right calibre of skills, and the country is hurting because its youth are unemployable," says Ziaan Hattingh, managing director of IndigoCube, a company that focuses on improving the productivity and predictability of key business processes in large organisations. "It's clear that the education system isn't going to help any time soon, so we as business need to come up with a practical solution. Without our input, there is no hope that the IT industry will come even remotely close to creating a million jobs by 2020!"
Hattingh argues that the IT and other industries must use the professions as a model. After completing the necessary degrees, graduates serve an "apprenticeship" and are then ready to perform operations, audit large corporates or take on difficult cases.
"We need a more organised approach to turn young graduates into highly-skilled individuals within a year - and it's a process that makes sound business sense," Hattingh declares roundly.
Key to making the process work is choosing the right candidates. Young graduates seldom know enough about how the industry works to decide what they are best suited for; proper profiling, says Hattingh, can help them find their ideal career path much quicker.
Once that process is complete, each graduate would enter an intensive 12-month internship programme that exposes them to high-level, complex work. Each group of interns is mentored by a highly experienced coach who spends an hour a day with each, ensuring they are guided to perform at the requisite level, rather as a pupil advocate works alongside his or her pupil-master.
"If you factor in the intern's salary, training and recruitment costs, plus the salary of the coach, and compare it with the costs associated with hiring experienced resources (locally or internationally), you are in positive territory from year one," Hattingh says. "By the end of year three, you should be looking at a differential of 40% - and that's with giving your interns high salary increases in the 20% region to retain them!"
This approach, Hattingh stresses, means companies really get return from their training investment because graduates on this type of salary trajectory are highly unlikely to jump ship.
For companies, the benefits are huge: talented young people with the right skills at a senior level, aligned with the corporate culture, plus a massive cost saving. For the country, the benefits are equally compelling: a sounder tax base because the economy has the skills it needs, and fewer unemployed young people.
"This is a great model because it has a clear business case from every aspect - and it's contributing to society as a whole," Hattingh concludes.
[1] 2011 figures. See http://www.sairr.org.za/media/media-releases/One%20in%20two%20youths%20unemployed%20-%2031%20January%202011.pdf/view?searchterm=unemployment
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