INLSA
Last week I encountered two people in business who expressed real frustrations about the difficulty of finding suitably skilled staff. There is nothing new in this.
Four years ago a company complained to me about the calibre of graduate engineers which, in its experience, had declined to the point that the young people were virtually unemployable without extensive further training. Not too long ago, what is now UKZN had an enviable reputation as a training ground for professional engineers.
This reputation has been lost, apparently. From what I hear, this may apply to accounting graduates as well.
One understands that the modern era is very different in terms of the numbers of students requiring tertiary education and the schooling backgrounds from which they emerge. But, on the other hand, we now have Sector Education and Training Authorities (Setas) into which millions of rand pour each year.
In addition there is the National Skills Fund of billions.
Even without the extra money that progressive companies spend on training (many are not content with just 1 percent), there is more than enough to ensure that relevant skills may be developed.
There are two main reasons why this doesn’t happen. One is that the foundation of receptiveness to meaningful tertiary education and training programmes is simply too weak, and vast sums are wasted on students who fail or, as happens increasingly, get through by virtue of lowered standards.
The second reason is that the available money is often spent in pursuit of the wrong objective or, perhaps, with no consciousness of the value that will accrue.
Generally, the Setas have fulfilled the expectation that they would be new empires sustained by free money and the people employed there for their own welfare.
To be fair, some have done a good deal better than others, but none can claim the successes of the best of the former training boards which, along with apprenticeships and artisans, were abandoned in the interests of a new order.
What is abundantly clear in the 21st century is that education and training has to be seen in the context of the time. Years ago, graduate qualifications were just about all compatible with the jobs available; square pegs were prepared for square holes.
Now, there are not only a great many more job descriptions, but many are technologically advanced and far more specialised than before; we are still preparing square pegs, some not so precisely finished, but the holes are round or even other odd shapes. Against this background the decision taken several years ago to support general MBAs, rather than specialist ones, defies understanding.
The real concern that emerged last week is that in our city, where there are important industrial sectors, young people are not being adequately prepared to work in them. Surely, the workplace for which young people should be prepared first is the one that is closest at hand.
Thus, how many tertiary students are being prepared for careers that relate to the port?
(This question should not be construed to mean that I favour narrow vocational education or training for all, by the way. But education has little purpose unless it provides, or complements, a means whereby a person can earn a living.)
Durban is also the location of oil refineries and they, together with associated industries in the petro-chemical sector, are stand-out features of our local economy.
Most of the welders who are available for employment in the refineries are not sufficiently skilled to meet the higher levels of proficiency required there. And these companies are no better served by chemical engineers.
If there is a groundswell of effort to meet the needs of these industries, and the aspirations of young people who might like to work in them, I am unaware of it.
I suspect that there are employers in other sectors who are equally frustrated.
I spent enough time in education to learn that demand does not drive the curriculum or the mindset. Business, on the other hand, is slow to articulate what the demand is. Hence we tend to have a steady supply for which there is very limited demand. This is fruitless expenditure.
