Even as South Africa slowly emerges from the suffocating financial grip of the Covid-19 pandemic, lately launched employment statistics continue to make for grim reading, with nearly eight million folks unemployed.
South Africa truly recorded improved financial activity in the fourth quarter of 2021, together with an expansion in actual GDP of 1.2% in comparison with the earlier quarter, but unemployment nonetheless reached record levels.
Denice Dumisa
According to the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS), unemployment in Q4 last 12 months rose to 35.3% from 34.9% in the previous quarter. This is the best level since the begin of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey in 2008.
Even extra alarmingly, the youth unemployment fee stood at a staggering 65.5%.
The newest employment knowledge was released on the finish of March by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), and got here just days after South Africa managed to attract R1.2 trillion in funding through the fourth South Africa Investment Conference.
Analysts have described the country’s economy as “producing jobless growth” and believe that even with upward economic development within the medium time period, South Africa will still have an total unemployment figure of round 30%.
Youth unemployment is a worldwide concern, much more acutely pronounced in South Africa, the place the newest figures are sounding important alarm bells.
In late 2021, Stats SA reported that two out of each three younger people beneath the age of 35 in South Africa are unemployed. For the age cohort underneath 25, this rises to three out of every four, or a jarring 75%.
But in and amongst the dire unemployment statistics there are rays of light on the method to start to effectively handle this socio-economic disaster.
Education is key
According to the QLFS report, of the 7,9 million unemployed persons within the fourth quarter of 2021, as many as 51,6% had training levels below matric.
This number of unemployed drops the upper the training degree. Those with a Matric pass represent 38.6% of unemployed and this figure drops considerably for those with other tertiary qualifications (6.9%) and graduates who represent only 2.4% of South Africa’s formal unemployed.
Astron Energy’s Organisational Capability, Learning and Development Manager Lindiwe Ncongwane mentioned: “It is an usually repeated mantra that education is the important thing to success, but the labour drive survey actually bears this out.
“Education allied to alternative is the golden key to breaking this cycle of unemployment and to create a future for younger individuals within the country.”
Astron Energy, which operates South Africa’s second largest community of retail sites including the Caltex model, runs a variety of Youth Development Programmes overlaying both educational assist and office and experiential learning opportunities.
Astron Energy’s Youth Development Programmes embody:
Learnerships
Bursaries
Apprenticeships
In-Service-Training
Graduate Internship Programme
Opportunities
According to Ncongwane, South African Corporates have a key role to play in offering opportunities for graduates and people with other qualifications to assist reduce the variety of unemployed, and also to assist build a technology of employable younger individuals.
“Investments in coaching and abilities growth, allied to training qualifications, will help construct a workforce that’s multi-skilled and in a position to adapt to a mess of tasks and industries,” she said.
The 2020 Future of Work report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) discovered that 50% of all staff will want reskilling by 2025 as adoption of know-how increases.
The report also listed important thinking and problem-solving as main expertise employers imagine will be wanted over the subsequent five years, whereas newer developments centre on self-management skills such as active learning, resilience, stress tolerance and adaptability.
According to Ncongwane, a key part of Astron Energy’s focus is to equip young individuals for the world of work, not solely at Astron Energy and the petrochemical trade, however the across a range of disciplines to enable them to be globally competitive.
The firm also runs a selection of school-level initiatives within the STEM space, however according to the 4th Industrial Revolution’s give consideration to the 3Cs of Communication, Critical thinking and Collaboration, has broadened this to STEAM – Science, Technology, Arts and Maths – in a bid to develop problem-solving and process-based studying.
The method ahead
“As a rustic, we’ve to proceed investing within the training of our younger people, notably within the important expertise house, and then create alternatives for them to apply these skills and develop in workplace environments,” Ncongwane mentioned.
“As corporates we have to design a spread of programmes and initiatives to satisfy not only the needs of the business, but additionally the method ahead for work – and critically the future employment possibilities for our younger individuals.
“If we do this proper, we will begin changing the outlook on the employment entrance and be certain that economic development has a tangible impression on the futures and livelihoods of the generations to come back.”
In the Youth Development house, Astron Energy runs the next programmes:
Learnerships
eight X Learnerships in chemical operations at the Astron Energy refinery in Milnerton, Cape Town
20 X Learnerships in Sales and New Venture Creation at Johannesburg offices
The Learnerships run from 1 Oct 2021 – 30 Sep 2022
Bursaries
Astron Energy runs a full Bursary programme which covers each underneath graduate and submit graduate studies, from 1st yr to Masters Level college students.
The bursaries embody tuition fees, lodging, books, meals, cash allowances and trip work in the type of internship/in-service-training within the company’s operations.
The programme began in 2020 and to date over 440 students have been funded.
There are at present 196 scholar bursars and 15 employee bursars as part of this programme. A total of 26 worker youngsters are a part of the bursary programme for 2022.
The bursary covers a range of examine fields this yr together with:
BSc: Chemical Engineering/ BSc: Industrial Engineering/ BSC: Property Studies/ Masters: Industrial Psychology/ Honours: Financial Accounting/ Bcom: Economics/ BSc: Electrical Engineering/ Bcom/BA: Human Resources Management/ Bcom: Information Technology/ Bcom: Internal Auditing/ Bcom: Logistics/ Occupational Health and Safety/ Bcom: Supply Chain/ BSc: Analytical Chemistry.
Astron Energy also offers profitable bursars the chance to be a part of the Astron Energy Graduate Training programme.
Apprenticeships
Astron Energy presents 24-month Apprenticeships in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering and Instrumentation at the refinery in Cape Town. At present, the company has six apprenticeships in its manufacturing division.
ร้านซ่อมเครื่องวัดความดัน is run according to the assorted disciplines required by the enterprise and runs for a period of between 18-24 months. The present consumption of Graduate interns is about to finish on 31 December 2022.
Infographic
Astron Energy currently has 77 individuals in its Learnership, Apprenticeship and Graduate Internship programmes:
LogisticsGraduate Internship13
CFOGraduate Internship11
RetailGraduate Internship5
HRGraduate Internship3
HRLearnership20
C & IGraduate Internship2
CEOGraduate Internship2
ManufacturingGraduate Internship1
STOGraduate Internship3
Strategy Graduate Internship2
SHEQGraduate Internship1
ManufacturingApprentice6
ManufacturingChemical Operations Learnership8
Total77
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