As many students face their final year of studies, either in matric or tertiary education, the question on many minds is, what does the South African job market hold for them?
While formal qualifications are the cornerstone on which many successful careers are built, for many employers of first-time candidates, the soft skills required are just as important a consideration.
Recent research by the British Council surveyed employers working in public, private and non-profit organisations in nine countries found that employers recognise a clear business value in employing staff who can work effectively with individuals and organisations from cultural backgrounds different from their own.
The research, undertaken with Ipsos and Booz Allen Hamilton, asked employers to define intercultural skills. One of the key outcomes of the research was the belief that intercultural skills include the ability to understand different cultural contexts and viewpoints, demonstrating respect for others, and knowledge of a foreign language making the pupils truly part of an international workforce.
Employers reported that employees with these skills are more likely to bring in new clients, work well in diverse teams, and positively support their organisations’ brand and reputation. Employees who lack intercultural skills leave their organisation susceptible to risks, including loss of clients, damage to reputation, and conflict within teams.
“As a British and international organisation, we have seen a clear trend in the young people coming from the UK. Through time, the confidence of young people in the UK has been eroded, and although many are very bright academically, their core soft skills, such as confidence, teamwork, ability to work independently, self-initiative and the ability to overcome challenges, has been eroded,” said Tyrone Bennett, Global Vision International (GVI) programme manager.
“GVI is a small UK social enterprise which increasingly works internationally in partnership with British Council.
“We need our staff to have an international outlook, to be engaged global citizens and to have the skills required to work internationally.
“In our search for national and international staff, we turned increasingly to the graduates of our programmes, and moved to build an academic curriculum around our work based learning programmes.
“Now, 58% of our staff are our own graduates, so it’s evident that we believe in the work we are doing to help young people acquire the skills they need.
“As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, those students equipped with international understanding and fluency have a huge advantage over those who do not.
“We are seeing the same conversations around the world, in Far East, Asia, Africa, in the Middle East and the US – the topics are the same, although framed somewhat differently.
“At a recent higher education conference we attended in the US, many universities were looking beyond their cities and states and national borders, following the routes taken by our partners who have international programmes available to their students to help build their global engagement and competency.”
Bennett said South African employers identified that their most pressing business challenges are finding qualified candidates, with more than a quarter of organisations surveyed being concerned about a loss of clients and damage to brand and reputation because of cultural insensitivity and project mistakes.
With this in mind, GVI has partnered with British Council to harness its 80-year track record to develop intercultural training, coaching and consultancy to corporate, education, government and non-government markets in South Africa, with the first intercultural fluency course being offered in Cape Town this month.
“GVI has developed a new range of programmes that are academically robust, with clear learning outcomes, offering hands-on experience, alongside local experts. This concept takes classroom curriculum learning outside and into the real world.
“The programmes are designed to challenge the students and force them to overcome personal and professional challenges.
“We wish to equip and force the students to start thinking critically, and to come to their own conclusions and thoughts about the world, rather than purely believing what they are told.”
The GVI intercultural fluency course will be presented in Cape Town on July 23 and 24.
CAPE TIMES