Tag: work experience

2022 was a rollercoaster - I don’t think any of us could have predicted what was to come. The constant through it all was the importance of technology to overcome our near-term obstacles and to realise our long-term opportunities.

For millions around the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused immense workplace disruption and compelled many companies to reassess how they do business. By this time last year, about 50% of the South African workforce was working from home, while globally, this number was up to 76%.

Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) funded bursaries are the answer to South Africa’s staggering youth unemployment rate. How can we fix youth unemployment in South Africa? One of the greatest challenges we face, has been called a ticking time bomb on more than one occasion.

Make no mistake: it is a wonderful thing to do a good deed purely for the sake of helping someone else – this is altruism at its best. But, if that same good deed that helps another inadvertently benefits you in some way, then surely that’s even better?

The fact remains that training people to acquire the necessary future skills is essential. We need to have people equipped to not only do their work effectively but also to compete globally. However, skills alone are not enough – experience matters.

The government’s latest critical skills list includes the occupations of 'Tax Professional', 'External Auditor' and 'Forensic Accountant'. The full list comprises 101 occupation codes and these critical skills are open to South Africans and foreign nationals that meet the skills requirements.

The Statistics SA Quarterly Labour Force Survey for Q2 2021 paints a grim picture of the employment landscape in South Africa – the official unemployment rate is 34.4%. Most significant of all, the unemployment rate for youth aged 15 to 24 years stood at 64.4% and the unemployment rate for those aged 25-34 years was 42.9%.

A taste of freedom is an exhilarating thing. It brings a sense of wonder and clarity, and a peek into a world beyond what you know. Many people used to the fixed routine of office work have experienced that heady sense of freedom in the COVID-19 lockdowns, when working from home brought greater flexibility, more trust, a focus on output rather than input, and a significant time saving by not commuting.

A survey of 200 skilled professionals with degrees and solid work experience found that many would be willing to go independent soon if they had an initial contract to help them find their feet. Skilled professionals forced to work from home since the COVID-19 lockdown are finding themselves reluctant to return to the rigid corporate world.

When we talk about youth unemployment in South Africa, we often use words like ‘heart-wrenching’ and ‘major challenge.’ Then we look at the statistics, and we realise that it is an understatement. What we are living now is a national crisis.