South Africa stands to lose scarce skilled resources to other African countries as massive foreign direct investment projects in energy, mining, transport, telecommunications and water supply get underway on the African continent.
Tertiary education qualifications: Africa suffers from low numbers of adults with tertiary education qualifications. Across sub-Saharan Africa, only 0.38% of adults have a tertiary education compared with a South African average of 0.60%. Kenya leads the continent with 2%, against a global average of 3.94% of adults with tertiary education.
Attrition in Africa universities compounds the problem. The estimated university dropout rate across Africa is estimated at 50%, against 60% for SA, 46% for the US and 16% for the UK. "In SA, the pass rate of engineering students is 12.5%, compared to the international average of 25%. If we can increase the graduation rate, we can increase the supply of skills.
Female graduates: A recent global survey on women in emerging markets reveals that female enrolment in universities and graduate schools has increased dramatically. Accordingly, no data is available across the African continent, but female graduates have quadrupled in SA over the past five years, albeit off a low base. Women make up 65% of college graduates in the UAE, 60% in Brazil, and 47% in China – representing an outstanding way of expanding the talent pool.
Strategies for building the talent pipeline
Sustainable development demands that Africa develop its own skills base. Burmeister believes there is no quick fix solution to meeting the challenge of talent shortages and building a leadership pipeline. Instead, multiple, innovative strategies are required to buy, borrow and build the skills needed in core sectors.
People from different backgrounds, engaged in debating these issues can lead to groundbreaking solutions. Capturing new and expanding markets requires diversity among the leadership team. In any skills short market, effectively employing all available educated and skilled resources is an obvious choice to make. The business case for diversity is clear, whether gender-based or cultural.
Forward-thinking companies are systematically bridging the generation gap by creating work experiences that build leadership qualities and test resilience. Their models are custom-designed for the next generation, from building flexible career paths to creating compensation that match their values and work preferences.
Approaches to filling the talent pipeline include increasing bursary spend in core scarce skills areas of the business, increasing graduate hiring and training programmes, using objective assessment tools to assess potential of existing and prospective employees, using secondments for mentoring programmes, using contractors for short-term projects and implementing smart strategies like cross-functional project teams and offshore assignments for exposure and accelerated training.These strategies can assist in generating the skills base required by business in South Africa and Africa if it are to meet the challenges of a sustainable, expanding economy.