Even as South Africa slowly emerges from the suffocating financial grip of the Covid-19 pandemic, recently released employment statistics proceed to make for grim studying, with practically eight million individuals unemployed.
South Africa really recorded improved economic activity in the fourth quarter of 2021, including an expansion in real GDP of 1.2% compared to the earlier quarter, but unemployment nonetheless reached report ranges.
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 earlier quarter. เกจ์อาร์กอนsumo is the very best stage because the start of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey in 2008.
Even more alarmingly, the youth unemployment rate stood at a staggering sixty five.5%.
The latest employment information was released at the end of March by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), and came 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 financial system as “producing jobless growth” and imagine that even with upward financial growth in the medium term, South Africa will nonetheless have an general unemployment figure of around 30%.
Youth unemployment is a global concern, even more acutely pronounced in South Africa, where the newest figures are sounding crucial alarm bells.
In late 2021, Stats SA reported that two out of each three younger individuals under the age of 35 in South Africa are unemployed. For the age cohort beneath 25, this rises to 3 out of every 4, or a jarring 75%.
But in and amongst the dire unemployment statistics there are rays of light on how to begin to effectively address this socio-economic crisis.
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 education ranges under matric.
This number of unemployed drops the higher the training degree. Those with a Matric cross constitute 38.6% of unemployed and this figure drops substantially for those with different tertiary qualifications (6.9%) and graduates who constitute only 2.4% of South Africa’s formal unemployed.
Astron Energy’s Organisational Capability, Learning and Development Manager Lindiwe Ncongwane said: “It is an often repeated mantra that education is the key to success, but the labour drive survey actually bears this out.
“Education allied to opportunity is the golden key to breaking this cycle of unemployment and to create a future for younger folks within the nation.”
Astron Energy, which operates South Africa’s second largest community of retail sites together with the Caltex model, runs numerous Youth Development Programmes overlaying each educational assist and office and experiential studying alternatives.
Astron Energy’s Youth Development Programmes include:
Learnerships
Bursaries
Apprenticeships
In-Service-Training
Graduate Internship Programme
Opportunities
According to Ncongwane, South African Corporates have a key function to play in offering opportunities for graduates and those with different qualifications to assist reduce the variety of unemployed, and also to assist construct a generation of employable young individuals.
“Investments in training and expertise development, allied to schooling qualifications, will assist build a workforce that is multi-skilled and able to adapt to a giant number of duties and industries,” she mentioned.
The 2020 Future of Work report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) found that 50% of all workers will want reskilling by 2025 as adoption of expertise will increase.
The report also listed critical pondering and problem-solving as leading abilities employers believe will be wanted over the subsequent 5 years, while newer developments centre on self-management abilities such as active studying, resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility.
According to Ncongwane, a key a part of Astron Energy’s focus is to equip younger individuals for the world of labor, not solely at Astron Energy and the petrochemical industry, but the across a spread of disciplines to enable them to be globally aggressive.
The company additionally runs a number of school-level initiatives within the STEM house, however in line with the 4th Industrial Revolution’s concentrate on the 3Cs of Communication, Critical pondering 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 forward
“As a country, we now have to continue investing within the schooling of our younger individuals, notably in the crucial expertise house, and then create opportunities for them to apply these abilities and develop in office environments,” Ncongwane mentioned.
“As corporates we want to design a spread of programmes and initiatives to satisfy not only the needs of the business, but also the method forward for work – and critically the long run employment possibilities for our younger individuals.
“If we do this proper, we are able to start changing the outlook on the employment front and make certain that economic progress has a tangible impact on the futures and livelihoods of the generations to come back.”
In the Youth Development house, Astron Energy runs the following programmes:
Learnerships
8 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 workplaces
The Learnerships run from 1 Oct 2021 – 30 Sep 2022
Bursaries
Astron Energy runs a full Bursary programme which covers both under graduate and publish graduate studies, from 1st year to Masters Level students.
The bursaries embrace tuition charges, accommodation, books, meals, money allowances and trip work in the form of internship/in-service-training throughout the company’s operations.
The programme started in 2020 and to date over 440 students have been funded.
There are presently 196 student bursars and 15 worker bursars as part of this programme. A complete of 26 employee children are part of the bursary programme for 2022.
The bursary covers a spread of study fields this year including:
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 additionally offers successful bursars the chance to be 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.
Graduate Programme
The Graduate Internship Programme is run in accordance with the assorted disciplines required by the business and runs for a period of between 18-24 months. The present intake of Graduate interns is ready to finish on 31 December 2022.
Infographic
Astron Energy presently has 77 members 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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