How you can help defuse the time bomb

REUTERS

HEAD START: Students need qualifications that lead to employment. Picture: REUTERS/Eric Gaillard

There are no quick fixes. But there are a few simple things that we can do to help defuse the jobless youth time bomb everyone is talking about.

This is the word from Ari Katz, CEO of Boston City Campus and Business College.

“Youth unemployment is caused by a variety of factors,” he says. “It is obvious that we cannot address or eliminate all these factors simultaneously – there is no magic wand that can do this. However, as organisations, we also cannot sit back and do nothing in the meantime.”

He believes that colleges, universities and other training institutions can help reduce youth unemployment by taking greater responsibility in making students employable and addressing the country’s skills needs.

“Tertiary studies must serve a purpose, it is not just about getting students through a course as fast as possible,” he says. “Rather, our aim should be to arm students with qualifications that lead to employment or make it possible for the young to start their own businesses.”

This is not pie-in-the-sky talk, Katz points out. Every education and training institution should, like Boston City Campus and Business College, focus on offering qualifications that the economy needs and that employers find useful.

“We want our students to finish college and walk into a job. We at Boston invite industry experts to give us their insights on a regular basis so that we can make the necessary adjustments to our courses. In terms of content as well as in terms of the technology used, every course needs a little updating every now and then to keep pace with changes in the economy and society. We are associated with a number of accrediting and professional bodies that help ensure our courses remain on track.”

Katz wouldn’t go as far as to say that there are useless qualifications out there, but he does believe there are qualifications that need updating and revising, and institutions that are “not worth a time or money investment”.

Furthermore, to make a real difference in addressing youth joblessness, educational institutions need to go beyond providing good, in-demand qualifications.

“We have to consider that a majority of the youth come from fragmented families and orphaned households, and these young adults have not received the necessary adult guidance in terms of discipline, motivation and work ethic,” he explains. “They do not all have the exposure to a nuclear family with two working parents, which gives kids a professional advantage at college and at work. As a college we keep a close watch on pass rates and where we identify a problem we take rectifying steps immediately. It is no use waiting until the last semester before approaching a student whose performance is not up to standard.”

Monitoring attendance goes hand-in-hand with performance. Although young adults should not have to be watched and guided as much as school pupils, there is good reason a college should keep a close watch over student attendance.

Students must be serious about their studies because they are filling seats that could be taken up by others who are serious and motivated. And once again, assistance can be offered to those who experience problems that can be surmounted, such as transport or accommodation problems.

Last, but not least, Katz believes that to give young people a better chance at finding or creating employment for themselves, every employer, individual, corporate company and educational institution in SA should become involved in a job shadowing or work readiness programme.

“Young people often have good qualifications but their lack of exposure to workplace practices hold them back,” he says.

“We launched our Experience It programme which places our final-year students in companies for a short working stint so they can get workplace exposure to add to their CVs.”

Boston City Campus and Business College offers more than 80 dynamic career qualifications at 40 branches nationwide. Unisa degrees and media studies are also available at selected branches.

For more information call Boston at 011 551 2000, e-mail info@boston.co.za. Visit them at www.boston.co.za, or on Facebook.