WeeklySA_AdminVISION: SA needs skilled youth to achieve goal of being globally competitive
By Isaac Moledi
Youth unemployment is not a problem to be solved, but an opportunity to maximize, says the LFP Group, one of South Africa’s leading organizations involved in accelerating job creation.
“With one in four people under the age of 24 in South Africa unemployed, this is a statistic that raises concern, but importantly, it is a statistic that should galvanize us into action to put all that wasted potential to work,” says Louise Pulzone, LFP CEO.
Quoting the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) which highlights Africa as the continent with the youngest growing population in the world, Pulzone believes a lack of technical and business skills leaves our future workforce largely unprepared for the current and future world of work, and by being unemployed, our youth are not learning the workplace skills that will make them successful.
Surrounding this ocean of untapped potential, says Pulzone, is a country and a continent ravaged by the Covid-19 pandemic. To recover, he argues, “our economy needs new thinking, fresh approaches and a real drive to encourage entrepreneurship. In short, our economy needs skilled young people.”
With this in mind, Pulzone believes that the South African economy “needs young people as desperately as young people need prospects for the future, be it a job or the opportunity to create a business and employ others”.
According to the UNDP, Africa has the youngest population in the world, and it’s growing fast. In fact, says the world development body, in about 30 years from now, the continent’s youth population (aged 15-24), is expected to be more than double the 2015 total of 226 million.
“The obstacle is a massive skills mismatch – and an unhealthy dose of pessimism about the 74.7% of unemployed young people.”
Pulzone says although too many decision makers both in the public and private sector believe that unemployment to be a problem that needs solving, his group takes a different view. “We see limitless potential wanting to be unlocked.”
According to Bianca Lima-Boekhoud, group head of transformation for Blue Label Telecoms’ Trust Blu Foundation, her company does not see a nameless mass of jobseekers. “We see individuals, capable of learning, growing and changing the world.” According to her, young people are agents of change, reform and recovery.
She says this view of young people informs her company approach – together with the companies with whom they partner – to skills development, learnerships and job creation.
“Far from ticking boxes and chasing numbers, our programmes are designed to alleviate poverty, create social cohesion and safer communities, and bring about economic inclusion and transformation – with the ultimate objective to create a globally competitive economy,” says Lima-Boekhoud.
Her company pursues these objectives through a variety of integrated training and business solutions. These include:
• Skills development and training across all sectors and industries.
• Learnerships for individuals and through corporates, public sector entities and SETAs.
• Custom-designed digital learning programmes that enable ongoing skills development and training, despite Covid-19 restrictions.
• Mentorship programmes.
• Consultation and facilitation to improve BEE scores.
Arguing that skills development is never an end in itself, Pulzone says his company believes it is its responsibility to mobilise a broad spectrum of role players to focus on the ultimate goal, which is “a South African economy that is globally competitive and that includes all its citizens in meaningful and rewarding economic activity. This can only be achieved if we stop solving the problem of youth unemployment and start unlocking the potential of millions of individuals who are our country’s most valuable asset”.
For skills development and training, the LFP Group can be contacted on 011 791 1602 or at info@lfpgroup.co.za.
