Now that the summer holiday is over and the hype of the
matric results is dominating the news, it is time to reflect on what 2014 may
hold.
News bulletins and talk radio content are full of scary
stories about the youth not having a future.
Questionable education quality, the bad economy, unemployment, poverty,
the inflexible labour policies of Government, donation fatigue and many other
factors are quoted as factors that make the plight of the youth unbearable. In addition, each year we hear about
universities being flooded with angry mobs who demand acceptance in an academic
program. Our minds roll back to that day
when a mother was trampled to death at the University of Johannesburg and we
wag angry fingers are a system that seems to have more failure than success.
As we are writing this blog, a radio station bleats in the
background about youth entrepreneurship and the fact that the National Credit
Act is failing youth who want to start a business because they cannot get a
business start-up loan.
In the same breath, the radio station bleats that more of
the youth should become artisans. Moreover,
many re-bleat to say that the quality of artisan training leaves much to be
desired. They also bleat that there is a
stigma regarding artisan training. In fact,
some voices that we encounter in our practice insist that artisan training and
possible apprenticeships harks back to the old Apartheid years.
Perhaps it is time to reconsider the situation.
Instead of demanding interventions from a Government that is
stressed beyond breakdown, it may be time to ask what else the country could do
to rectify the situation. It is true
that some matriculants have low marks that do not allow them access to traditional
tertiary education streams. It is also
true that many cannot afford tertiary education even though they have very good
marks. These arguments serve as a handy
excuse to avoid the real issues of getting people into the job market.
Once again, our practice often hears employers speaking
about “growing our own wood”. Our question
to those employers who bandy around that noise byte is simply:
“What does it mean to grow your own wood?”
The standard answer is that company wants to develop their
employees and to promote employees into jobs instead of appointing someone from
the outside into a job. For us, another
question emerges:
“What do employees do with the saplings around them?”
In other words, what do employers do to provide the children
of employees to get access to good education and to become part of the future
workforce of that employer?
Perhaps it is time for the employers in this country to
study the life and work of Milton Hershey and to transform this country into a
modern day Hersheyville.
Companies are quick to brag about Corporate Social
Investment programs that make them look good or feel good. The question, however, is how sustainable or
fashionable such programs are and whether such programs really make a
difference in growing the many saplings of today into the mighty forests of
tomorrow.
It is time for employers to unlock the potential of these
young saplings.
That is one of the main reasons why Skopus Business
Consultants joined forces with Workplace Integrated Training Solutions to form
the Growth Institute. Growth will focus
specifically on working with clients to unlock the potential that surrounds them
and to ensure that Workforce 2026 is not a nightmare.
