The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that there will be 1.2 billion new entrants to the world labour market by 2025. I could furnish mind-boggling statistics on current unemployed levels but instead I am going to focus on some forward-thinking scenarios.
At the outset I wish to introduce the concept of entrepreneurship, as this is where the future of employment lies. The national and global markets are not able to create sufficient employment for job seekers, so they are going to have to create their own opportunities.
Countries that have successfully embraced entrepreneurship are ahead of the game in both economic growth and the concomitant creation of jobs.
Entrepreneurship is the process of starting a business, a start-up company or other organisation. The entrepreneur develops a business plan, acquires the human and other required resources, and is responsible for its success or failure. South Africa is not developing entrepreneurs.
Furthermore we need to distinguish between entrepreneurs of necessity and entrepreneurs of opportunity. We have many entrepreneurs of necessity – people forced by circumstances to eke out a living however they can to survive.
This isn’t sustainable and doesn’t add value to economic growth and job creation. We need entrepreneurs who are able to create small sustainable businesses that can in turn create employment.
The macroeconomic climate has been shaped by “big government”, “big business” and “big unions”. Small business players have been given little space to participate in the economy. Many small business development initiatives have been introduced, but few have the necessary impact to create a critical mass of successful small businesses in the formal sector.
There are two important facets to creating and finding jobs. The one has to do with the macroclimate created jointly by the government and other social partners, and the other with the important initial decisions taken by job seekers when developing their skills.
At the macro level we need to provide more incentives for entrepreneurs of opportunity. A good starting point is to reconsider our education curriculum at secondary and tertiary levels and to introduce entrepreneurship as a compulsory subject. Most school leavers enter the job market as “unemployable youth”.
It is encouraging to see the creation of a ministry on small business development and it is here that we need to join hands from all spheres, and not only support their initiatives, but provide input into creative ways of job creation.
But we still haven’t succeeded in making it administratively easier for start-up businesses. We need some form of governance, but when benchmarked against other developing economies, we lag far behind when it comes to applying for a business licence to the time of actual start-up.
The time is long overdue for a national social pact that will take us out of our comfort zone and provide help to bring our many unemployed into the job market.
We need social partners to agree on some national action plans that will inter alia allow our youth to gain work-life experience.
Is it too big a challenge in the short term to create a scheme that will allow for all unemployed youth to be given a two-year contract to experience the world of work?
I am aware of the challenges that have been debated about creating “cheap labour”, “a second-tier labour market” or “that it will be too costly”. The bigger cost to our country will be to not find a solution. Just ask Egypt.
We have labour centres throughout the country that are ready, willing and able to be a vehicle for any agreement reached.
We can’t keep shooting down initiatives saying they won’t work.
The time has come for bold leadership and bold decisions.
We also have low-hanging fruit that we do not even try to pick. For example we have the National Lottery. Why don’t we create a series of small kiosks in existing malls that can be managed and run by young graduates as a means of them entering the job market?
Add onto that the selling of prepaid electricity, and we have the makings of a small business that requires little capital investment but will generate about R5 000 profit a month. We have taken the lottery rights and given them to existing retailers, who don’t need them, at the expense of creating thousands of jobs. We keep supporting the same old few large corporates even in non-core business areas.
We can turn this around.
What about the job seeker? First of all the onus is on the job seeker to prepare him/herself for the job market. The most important start to obtaining a job is the correct subject choice at school, and then to complete your schooling.
It doesn’t help to choose subjects that are simpler to study, and then find at the end of the day that they don’t open doors to further education or job opportunities.
Most important are subjects like maths, science and biology. Subject choice at school does matter.
In taking up further education, once again the choice of a study direction is important. Some homework in determining what the market wants is key. School leavers need to broaden their research into future careers and include looking at technical and artisanal training as this is where many opportunities lie in future job markets.
This, with the right attitude and hard work, will allow job seekers to have a more optimistic future in the world of work.
Even though there is a gap in the education system relating to entrepreneurship, youth must take the initiative and acquire skills in this area.
An easy starting point is to use the internet and research the topic and seek out initiatives and opportunities in the field of entrepreneurship.
It is never too late to make things happen. We have an amazing country with equally amazing people who have overcome major stumbling blocks in the past, yet we are not able to make a significant dent in our unemployment.
We need a national debate on youth employment.
Often when we start a debate it takes a few years before we arrive at an end point, and then the output is so watered down that the impact is minimal. The solution to effective implementation is to have the debate and not allow anyone out of the room until we have an agreed and urgent way forward.
* Vic van Vuuren is the director of the International Labour Organisation in Pretoria
THE STAR