CAPE TOWN – South Africa clearly has its work cut out if the country is to realise the progressive accretion of its talent base.
This is shown in the 2019 Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI) report that reveals that South Africa ranks 71, while Switzerland, Singapore and the US continue to lead the world in talent competitiveness.
Countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa are seeing a progressive erosion of their talent base, according to the report, which confirms that talent issues have become a mainstream concern for firms, nations and cities, with talent performance seen as a critical factor to growth and prosperity.
Among its BRICS peers, South Africa was bang in the middle coming in third while China continued to lead the pack with a global ranking of 45.
The report found that China was ranked in the top quartile in the Grow pillar, mainly as a result of having a top 10 Formal Education based on the reading, maths, and science competencies of Chinese students and the rise of Chinese universities in international rankings.
China is followed by Russia, with a global ranking of 49, which has a strong pool of Global Knowledge Skills as a result of the High-Level Skills available in the country. The country has a solid system of Formal Education, the report found.
The GTCI found that although South Africa’s system of Formal Education was not exemplary, its private sector did facilitate Lifelong Learning and Access to Growth Opportunities, which leads to a rank of 45th in the Grow pillar.
The country also makes it into the third quartile in the Attract pillar, boosted by well-balanced performances in External Openness and Internal Openness. The one dimension that drags down its overall ranking is South Africa’s weak ability to retain talent, where it is affected by poor Sustainability and Lifestyle.
Just behind South Africa in the GTCI 2019 is Brazil, with a global ranking of 72, which does its best job in growing and retaining talent. In the former case, its result is driven by decent Access to Growth Opportunities, while in the latter, it primarily performs well on indicators related to Sustainability.
India, with a global ranking of 80 remains the laggard of this group. It performs better than its lower-income peers when it comes to growing talent, primarily by virtue of the possibilities for Lifelong Learning and Access to Growth Opportunities. An above-average Business and Labour Landscape and Employability raise the scores of the pillars related to Enable and Vocational and Technical Skills that are otherwise hampered by the remaining sub-pillars, the report found.
This year's report had a special focus on entrepreneurial talent – how it is being encouraged, nurtured and developed throughout the world and how this affects the relative competitiveness of different economies.