It has been ten years since the introduction of the Skills Development Act and South Africa is no closer to producing and retaining the critical skills needed to drive the economy. According to Johan Wasserfall, CEO of Edu-Loan, South Africa's dedicated educational financial services provider, the huge number of people leaving our shores, coupled with the devastating effect of HIV on the country's skills-base, is now having a tangible impact: "Our skills are being seriously undermined by SA's massive skills exodus and the staggering rate of HIV. In fact, according to a HIV-impact study on the mining sector by Kyereh and Hoffman, as of 2007 there were 5.3 million HIV positive people in South Africa within the economically active age group of 15 to 49."
According to Deloitte & Touche's National Remuneration Guide survey, released in February this year, about 81% of companies experience difficulty in recruiting staff due to a critical skills shortage, most especially in the accounting, information technology, sales and marketing, lecturing and science fields. The Department of Labour's 2007 National Master Scarce Skills list at the end of 2007, indicated that the ICT sector had been unable to fill 37 565 positions and in the 2008 IT Web-JCSE Skills survey, it was found that 100% of the responding companies stated that the skills shortage is either having a major impact on their business or is affecting their viability. In fact, according to Marius Roodt, researcher from South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR), they have found that every sector of the economy in South Africa - from healthcare to education and every sector in-between - requires specific skills as a matter of urgency.
What can we do? Johan believes that the optimal answer is for companies to start investing heavily in upskilling the staff they already have: "The benefits of upskilling are obvious - firstly, the staff are already there and don't need to be ‘shipped in'; accordingly, their key strengths, weaknesses and areas of skill have already been ascertained, and with a bit of human resourcefulness it is quite plausible to steer them into a position for which they are intrinsically suited by educating them, upgrading their skills and providing them with practical, ‘on the ground' experience." For example, perhaps some of your staff have very general degrees, and with a bit of focused training they could be brought up to speed relatively quickly to suit a higher-level position? Marius Roodt of SAIRR states that there are an approximate 200 000 unemployed tertiary graduates, with 36 000 of them holding degrees. That's an awful lot of manpower to be ignoring and a lot of human potential (and self-esteem) going to waste.
"By providing upskilling and continuing education for your existing staff," says Johan, "you foster the culture that your staff is valuable and you care enough about them to allow them to grow - and that you see education as an asset worthy of investment." The result is that staff is far more likely to be motivated to stay within the company, and new potential staff members will also be attracted and retained by this ethos.
Companies such as Edu-Loan - a private finance company focusing exclusively on educational finance - make upskilling and/or training staff members simple and accessible to employers and potential students alike.
Edu-Loan is firmly committed to contributing meaningfully to social and economic upliftment through education, and sees the need for upskilling existing South African workers as a matter of utmost urgency, and one that should be prioritized and implemented by companies without delay in order to bring the ‘rolling ship' that is South Africa's current economy back into balance. Since it's inception in 1996, Edu-Loan has collectively provided students with 500,000 study loans.
For further information, contact Edu-Loan's Client Services Department on 0860-55-55-44 or visit www.eduloan.co.za.
Editorial Contact:
Olivia Neves
Kezi Communications (Pty) Ltd
Tel: 011 616 1860
olivia@kezi.co.za
www.kezi.co.za
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