Even as South Africa slowly emerges from the suffocating economic grip of the Covid-19 pandemic, lately launched employment statistics continue to make for grim studying, with almost eight million people unemployed.
South Africa actually recorded improved economic exercise in the fourth quarter of 2021, including an expansion in real GDP of 1.2% in comparability with the earlier quarter, however unemployment still reached document levels.
Denice Dumisa
According to the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS), unemployment in Q4 final yr rose to 35.3% from 34.9% within the previous quarter. This is the best stage for the reason that begin of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey in 2008.
Even extra alarmingly, the youth unemployment fee stood at a staggering sixty five.5%.
The latest employment information was launched at the finish of March by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), and got here simply days after South Africa managed to attract R1.2 trillion in investment during the fourth South Africa Investment Conference.
Analysts have described the country’s economic system as “producing jobless growth” and imagine that even with upward financial progress within the medium time period, South Africa will still have an total unemployment figure of round 30%.
Youth unemployment is a global issue, much more acutely pronounced in South Africa, the place the newest figures are sounding critical alarm bells.
In late 2021, Stats SA reported that two out of every three young people beneath the age of 35 in South Africa are unemployed. For the age cohort under 25, this rises to 3 out of each four, or a jarring 75%.
But in and amongst the dire unemployment statistics there are rays of sunshine on how to begin to successfully tackle this socio-economic crisis.
Education is key
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 number of unemployed drops the higher the education level. Those with a Matric pass represent 38.6% of unemployed and this determine drops considerably for these 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 usually repeated mantra that schooling is the key to success, but the labour force survey actually bears this out.
“Education allied to alternative is the golden key to breaking this cycle of unemployment and to create a future for younger people within the nation.”
Astron Energy, which operates South Africa’s second largest community of retail sites together with the Caltex brand, runs numerous Youth Development Programmes masking each tutorial support and office and experiential learning alternatives.
Astron Energy’s Youth Development Programmes include:
Learnerships
Bursaries
Apprenticeships
In-Service-Training
Graduate Internship Programme
Opportunities
According to Ncongwane, South African Corporates have a key role to play in offering opportunities for graduates and those with other qualifications to assist reduce the number of unemployed, and in addition to assist build a era of employable younger folks.
“Investments in training and abilities improvement, allied to training qualifications, will assist build a workforce that is multi-skilled and in a place to adapt to a mess of duties and industries,” she stated.
The 2020 Future of Work report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) discovered that 50% of all workers will want reskilling by 2025 as adoption of expertise will increase.
The report also listed crucial thinking and problem-solving as leading expertise employers believe will be wanted over the subsequent five years, whereas newer tendencies centre on self-management skills similar to lively studying, resilience, stress tolerance and adaptability.
According to Ncongwane, a key a half of Astron Energy’s focus is to equip younger individuals for the world of work, not solely at Astron Energy and the petrochemical industry, but the across a spread of disciplines to allow them to be globally aggressive.
The company additionally runs a selection of school-level initiatives in the STEM area, but in line with 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 studying.
The way forward
“As a rustic, we’ve to continue investing in the education of our younger individuals, significantly in the important abilities house, after which create opportunities for them to apply these abilities and develop in workplace environments,” Ncongwane stated.
“As corporates we need to design a variety of programmes and initiatives to meet not solely the wants of the business, but in addition the method ahead for work – and critically the long run employment possibilities for our younger folks.
“If we do this proper, we are able to start altering the outlook on the employment entrance and be sure that economic development has a tangible impact on the futures and livelihoods of the generations to return.”
In the Youth Development area, Astron Energy runs the next programmes:
Learnerships
eight X Learnerships in chemical operations on 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 each beneath graduate and publish graduate studies, from 1st year to Masters Level students.
The bursaries include tuition fees, lodging, books, meals, money allowances and vacation work in the form of internship/in-service-training within the company’s operations.
The programme started in 2020 and so far over 440 students have been funded.
There are at present 196 pupil bursars and 15 employee bursars as a half of this programme. A complete of 26 employee children are part of the bursary programme for 2022.
The bursary covers a range of examine fields this 12 months 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 also presents successful bursars the opportunity to be part of the Astron Energy Graduate Training programme.
Apprenticeships
Astron Energy offers 24-month Apprenticeships in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering and Instrumentation on the refinery in Cape Town. At current, the corporate has six apprenticeships in its manufacturing division.
เกจวัดแรงดันไฟฟ้า is run in accordance with the assorted disciplines required by the enterprise and runs for a period of between 18-24 months. The current consumption of Graduate interns is set to end on 31 December 2022.
Infographic
Astron Energy presently has 77 members 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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