Even as South Africa slowly emerges from the suffocating financial grip of the Covid-19 pandemic, recently released employment statistics proceed to make for grim studying, with practically eight million people unemployed.
South Africa actually recorded improved economic exercise in the fourth quarter of 2021, together with an enlargement in real GDP of 1.2% compared to the earlier quarter, but unemployment still reached record ranges.
Denice Dumisa
According to the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS), unemployment in Q4 last 12 months rose to 35.3% from 34.9% in the previous quarter. This is the very best degree for the reason that begin of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey in 2008.
Even more alarmingly, the youth unemployment rate stood at a staggering 65.5%.
The latest employment data was released at the end 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 financial system as “producing jobless growth” and consider that even with upward financial growth in the medium term, South Africa will nonetheless have an total unemployment figure of round 30%.
Youth unemployment is a global concern, even more acutely pronounced in South Africa, where the latest figures are sounding critical 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 under 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 sunshine on tips on how to begin to successfully handle this socio-economic crisis.
Education is essential
According to the QLFS report, of the 7,9 million unemployed individuals within the fourth quarter of 2021, as many as 51,6% had schooling levels below matric.
This variety of unemployed drops the higher the schooling level. Those with a Matric pass represent 38.6% of unemployed and this determine drops considerably for those with other tertiary qualifications (6.9%) and graduates who constitute solely 2.4% of South Africa’s formal unemployed.
Astron Energy’s Organisational Capability, Learning and Development Manager Lindiwe Ncongwane said: “It is an typically repeated mantra that education is the key to success, but the labour drive survey definitely bears this out.
“Education allied to opportunity is the golden key to breaking this cycle of unemployment and to create a future for young individuals within the country.”
Astron Energy, which operates South Africa’s second largest community of retail websites together with the Caltex brand, runs numerous Youth Development Programmes masking both educational help and office and experiential learning opportunities.
Astron Energy’s Youth Development Programmes embrace:
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 different qualifications to assist reduce the number of unemployed, and also to help construct a generation of employable younger people.
“Investments in coaching and abilities improvement, allied to education qualifications, will assist construct a workforce that’s multi-skilled and in a place to adapt to a large number 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 important thinking and problem-solving as leading expertise employers consider might be needed over the subsequent 5 years, while newer developments centre on self-management expertise similar to energetic learning, resilience, stress tolerance and suppleness.
According to Ncongwane, a key a half of Astron Energy’s focus is to equip younger folks for the world of work, not solely at Astron Energy and the petrochemical business, but the throughout a spread of disciplines to allow them to be globally aggressive.
The company also runs a variety of school-level initiatives in the STEM house, but consistent with the 4th Industrial Revolution’s focus on 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 method forward
“As a country, we’ve to proceed investing within the schooling of our younger individuals, notably in the important expertise space, after which create alternatives for them to apply these expertise and develop in workplace environments,” Ncongwane mentioned.
“As corporates we have to design a variety of programmes and initiatives to fulfill not solely the wants of the enterprise, but additionally the means ahead for work – and critically the lengthy run employment prospects for our younger folks.
“If we do that proper, we can start altering the outlook on the employment entrance and make sure that financial development has a tangible impact on the futures and livelihoods of the generations to come back.”
In the Youth Development house, Astron Energy runs the following 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 workplaces
The Learnerships run from 1 Oct 2021 – 30 Sep 2022
Bursaries
Astron Energy runs a full Bursary programme which covers both under graduate and publish graduate research, from 1st year to Masters Level students.
The bursaries include tuition fees, accommodation, books, meals, money allowances and trip 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 part of this programme. A whole of 26 employee youngsters are part of the bursary programme for 2022.
The bursary covers a range of examine fields this year 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 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 company has six apprenticeships in its manufacturing division.
Graduate Programme
The Graduate Internship Programme is run based on the assorted disciplines required by the enterprise and runs for a period of between 18-24 months. pressure gauge ราคา ถูก of Graduate interns is ready to end on 31 December 2022.
Infographic
Astron Energy at present has seventy seven 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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