NN46, September 2011
Towards a New Global World of Skills Development? TVET's turn to Make its Mark
Education, Employment and the Economy: How Does this Relationship Work in South Africa?
By Peliwe Lolwana, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Email: Peliwe.lolwana@wits.ac.za
Keywords: Vocational Education; Labour market; Economy; Youth Unemployment
Summary: The relationship between education, the economy and employment is complex and interventions for youth unemployment must take into consideration this complexity.
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More than 60% of South Africans are 34 years old and younger. Further, youth forms 70% of all unemployed persons in the country (Statistics South Africa, 2007). Various policies and interventions are proposed to address this situation. This paper attempts to interrogate these policies and interventions.
The problem of unemployment lies in three spheres, namely education, the economy and the labour market or employment. In the first place, it is a well accepted fact that education is an extremely important factor in facilitating easier transition for young people to work. Some studies have further illuminated this by looking at the type of education that makes access to employment easier. Cloete (2009) concludes that being educated has the most powerful effect for those who apply for jobs, especially if it is post-school education.
Educational attainments are one piece of the puzzle. The kind of employment created in the economy is another piece of the puzzle. Until the global economic downturn South Africa has been experiencing a ‘job-creating growth’. However this has not been high enough to match the labour force growth (Altman, 2011). The employment growth during the 2000s grew in the age range 20-24 and stagnated in the age range between 15- 19. The assumption that can be made here is that this job-growth favoured the educated and skilled in the youth group. Labour force participation also favoured the urban more than the rural and is still biased against the African youth. Unlike other developing countries, the formal sector is growing faster than the informal sector. This phenomenon poses questions about young people in South Africa who are not occupying the informal employment space, in spite of their high representation in unemployment statistics.
So, we have large numbers of young people who are unemployed, a shortage of a skilled labour force; an economy that is not growing fast enough to provide jobs, and an education system that is not supplying adequate skills to the economy. What should be done to solve this conundrum?
We must first understand that the young people who are currently unemployed are not a homogeneous group. From the schooling pipeline, the labour market is confronted roughly by several different groups of young people – some are early drop-outs, some with incomplete school qualifications and some with complete but poor school qualifications. Different interventions are thus implied.
Vocational education is usually the antidote for all those who cannot get into university. A recent review of vocational education in the United Kingdom by Alison Wolf is instructive to all countries and has particular lessons for South Africa (Wold, 2011). A large under-educated population of young people is not likely to benefit much from the kinds of vocational education currently on offer and also proposed as interventions to the youth unemployment plight. There is evidence that the current training programmes have just been recycling young people and act more as holding places than providing meaningful ways of accessing employment (Singizi Consulting, 2008) The new administration is on a drive to revive the apprenticeship system that has completely declined, but Wolf points to the difficulties of expanding the apprenticeship system in a transforming economy and how these opportunities tend to favour adult workers than the young.
The labour market for which educational institutions prepare young people has changed dramatically. Youth labour markets have collapsed, forcing young people to stay at school longer and therefore early drop-outs are at a complete disadvantage at the employment line. Young people are more likely to find jobs in insecure markets, and are vulnerable to shrinkages that are constant in such sectors. South Africa in particular has not moved significantly from having an economy dominated by commodities, which has implications for the kind of labour required in such an economy. Wolf also points us to the advantage of a more general vocational education than the more specific one that is valued by employers, contrary to common wisdom of what employers want.
If we want to assist in the youth unemployment in our different countries, we have to understand the nature of this group, understand the kind of education and skills development they need, and understand the nature of the economy they will confront. The longer paper will use the South African context to tease out the pieces of this puzzle as an illustration of how we tend to find solutions in single spaces instead of confronting the complexity of the problem.
References
Altman, M. 2011; Youth Labour Market Challenges in South Africa. In Boineli, I & Meyer, T (eds.) Human capital Trends: Building sustainable organisations. Knowres Publishing (PTY) Ltd. Randburg, South Africa.
Cloete, N. (2009). Responding to the educational needs of Post-school youth. Centre for Higher Education Transformation; Cape Town, South Africa.
Singizi Consulting, September 2008: Employment and School Leavers: A Study of Youth Employability. HSRC: Pretoria.
Statistics South Africa, 2007: Community Survey.
Wolf, A. 2011: Review of Vocational Education – The Wolf Report.
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Cite article as: Lolwana, P., (2011) ‘Education, Employment and the Economy: How Does this Relationship Work in South Africa?’, in NORRAG NEWS, Towards a New Global World of Skills Development? TVET's turn to Make its Mark, No.46, September 2011, pp. 94-95, available: http://www.norrag.org
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