Education and business must work together
by Wendy Spalding,
2016-02-08 06:02:48.0
FOLLOWING the heated #FeesMustFall debate, it has become clear that corporate SA needs to participate in the conversation about education — because it is a discussion, essentially, about the future direction of business.
At the core of the issue is the fact that the lack of access to tertiary education (because of high fees) is preventing young people from entering the workforce.
Leaders of the Group of Twenty club have identified professional training and retraining strategies as critical to growing employment, which is a prerequisite for sustainable growth.
This sentiment is shared by the International Labour Organisation, which insists that education and training systems equip young people with the right skills and attitudes to prepare them for the rigours of the workplace.
Certain countries are proving that these theories are true. Finland and South Korea, for example, have been recognised as having the best education systems in the world.
The strength in their systems is the connection their leaders make between economic and labour market demands and educational planning. The result is high-quality public schooling, high tertiary participation rates and consensus on the importance of ongoing human capital development.
SA lags far behind in adopting the ethos in South Korea and Finland. However, this country carries several legacy issues that still undoubtedly play a role.
In the past few decades, donor institutions have placed greater emphasis on primary and, more recently, secondary education in their development assistance to sub-Saharan Africa.
Unfortunately, tertiary education — the third leg of the system — has all but been ignored.
Studies have shown consistently that there is a gap between the attainment of secondary and tertiary educational qualifications, and that those students who can afford to attend or receive funding are often not equipped to succeed in the tertiary system. This has resulted in a shocking pass rate of about 50% at South African tertiary institutions.
There are two crucial elements of education that, if tackled, could have a major effect on outcomes in SA. For one, we need to elevate teaching as a profession, and bring higher standards to our teaching system. To use Finland again as an example, teaching is that country’s most respected profession, and primary school teaching is the most sought-after career. Beyond the culture of respect for teachers, research has shown that this is a result of implementing policies and practices that focus on the selection process, the work content, employment conditions and appropriate financial reward.
Until we tackle equal access to quality and relevant education across all levels in SA, the skills gap, high vacancy rates in business and large-scale youth unemployment will persist.
At tertiary level, institutions should be offering bridging courses to enable greater academic success, offering access to career guidance and promoting vocational learning to develop some of the artisanal skills needed by the economy.
A critical part of the solution will involve stronger partnerships and collaboration between public and private stakeholders. Without doubt, partnerships between employers and the formal education sector are imperative to the development of relevant curriculums and high-quality vocational education and training.
Added to this, curriculum developers and vocational training providers have to be in touch with which skills are in demand and may become important in the future. The broad-based black economic empowerment codes gazetted last year require large companies in SA to play a bigger role in developing the skills of black job candidates by offering them learnerships, apprenticeships and internship programmes.
• Spalding is a director at Tuesday Consulting
Corporate SA should collaborate with the education sector because ensuring there are enough employable graduates who meet the needs of the economy is crucial to the direction of business, the writer says. Picture: SOWETAN
FOLLOWING the heated #FeesMustFall debate, it has become clear that corporate SA needs to participate in the conversation about education — because it is a discussion, essentially, about the future direction of business.
At the core of the issue is the fact that the lack of access to tertiary education (because of high fees) is preventing young people from entering the workforce.
Leaders of the Group of Twenty club have identified professional training and retraining strategies as critical to growing employment, which is a prerequisite for sustainable growth.
This sentiment is shared by the International Labour Organisation, which insists that education and training systems equip young people with the right skills and attitudes to prepare them for the rigours of the workplace.
Certain countries are proving that these theories are true. Finland and South Korea, for example, have been recognised as having the best education systems in the world.
The strength in their systems is the connection their leaders make between economic and labour market demands and educational planning. The result is high-quality public schooling, high tertiary participation rates and consensus on the importance of ongoing human capital development.
SA lags far behind in adopting the ethos in South Korea and Finland. However, this country carries several legacy issues that still undoubtedly play a role.
In the past few decades, donor institutions have placed greater emphasis on primary and, more recently, secondary education in their development assistance to sub-Saharan Africa.
Unfortunately, tertiary education — the third leg of the system — has all but been ignored.
Studies have shown consistently that there is a gap between the attainment of secondary and tertiary educational qualifications, and that those students who can afford to attend or receive funding are often not equipped to succeed in the tertiary system. This has resulted in a shocking pass rate of about 50% at South African tertiary institutions.
There are two crucial elements of education that, if tackled, could have a major effect on outcomes in SA. For one, we need to elevate teaching as a profession, and bring higher standards to our teaching system. To use Finland again as an example, teaching is that country’s most respected profession, and primary school teaching is the most sought-after career. Beyond the culture of respect for teachers, research has shown that this is a result of implementing policies and practices that focus on the selection process, the work content, employment conditions and appropriate financial reward.
Until we tackle equal access to quality and relevant education across all levels in SA, the skills gap, high vacancy rates in business and large-scale youth unemployment will persist.
At tertiary level, institutions should be offering bridging courses to enable greater academic success, offering access to career guidance and promoting vocational learning to develop some of the artisanal skills needed by the economy.
A critical part of the solution will involve stronger partnerships and collaboration between public and private stakeholders. Without doubt, partnerships between employers and the formal education sector are imperative to the development of relevant curriculums and high-quality vocational education and training.
Added to this, curriculum developers and vocational training providers have to be in touch with which skills are in demand and may become important in the future. The broad-based black economic empowerment codes gazetted last year require large companies in SA to play a bigger role in developing the skills of black job candidates by offering them learnerships, apprenticeships and internship programmes.
• Spalding is a director at Tuesday Consulting
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