The unpreparedness of youth for employment coupled with the unrealistic expectations is adding to the problem of youth unemployment. Even when there are entry-level positions available, businesses are caught up in an unproductive and ineffective system, which has made the recruitment of young people complex and costly.
“When you hire someone into your organisation, you want to know that they are a good fit with the company’s culture and values and that you will get a return for your investment in them – in the form of a positive work contribution towards the growth of the business. However, the reality is very different,” explains Jane Lyne-Kritzinger of Youth Dynamix (YDx).
- Young people are far from work-ready when they leave our tertiary institutions. They lack fundamental life skills, otherwise known as soft skills, which are crucial for business.
- Many have an impractical attitude of entitlement. Even with the little work experience, they have to offer, they are averse to menial tasks, such as admin and work-related errands.
- Often they have an unrealistic set of expectations. They have grandiose but sadly unrealistic dreams of becoming the CEO at 30, for example and no plan in place to get there.
- They lack accountability and responsibility.
- Many youth enter the employment world unsure of the field or type of industry they wish to be in, which means much re-shuffling and unrealised investment for companies.
“When you mix all these in a big bowl, the results are not pretty for anyone. Customer service goes out the window, innovation becomes stagnant and a completely new level of micro-management becomes essential – diverting focus away from business growth. Now, throw that mix into a failing economy and you start to get a real sense of a subdued crisis in the making.
“Band aids, such as the current form of inflexible internships corporates and government offer and the tax incentive for hiring youth are not the real solutions to this complex problem. The solution is to take a few steps back and to tackle the problem with a multi-pronged strategy.”
Four-pronged approach
- A vision for the country - government needs to drive this in its campaigns and in all its messaging. What is it that we want South Africans and anyone living in South Africa to be defined as. We want to hear from the top that we are all striving together to be a hard-working, respectable, clean, innovative nation that cares about our people and our communities. It is because South Africa lacks a common vision that everyone is inwardly focused and serving his or her own interests.
- Parent education - government, businesses and schools should all run a practical workshop for parents to highlight the need to emphasise certain values from a young age, such as punctuality, not littering, giving of your time and knowledge to your community, nurturing and respecting each other… These are all examples of the type of life skills that you learn at home from an early age but that are sorely lacking in South Africa.
- Bridging courses - schools and tertiary education institutions should run work-readiness courses alongside their academic curriculum to enhance further the basic life skills that make up the core values in business.
- Meaningful internships - businesses should dedicate a team of people that know all the different functions of the business to run meaningful internships. This department would take in young people and, during their internship over a few months, expose and train them in multiple fields so that the young interns can experience the different jobs first-hand and get a feel for where their strengths lie. This solution would take the pressure away from the employees that are focused on driving the business forward and would equip interns with practical knowhow, so that by the time they join a department, they are not only work-ready but have some experience so they can start contributing meaningfully to the business from day one. The return on investment will be much higher for businesses and it will be invaluable to the youth.
“With this kind of multi-pronged approach, South Africa can finally move forward in a coherent and constructive way that will remedy youth unemployment, business stagnation and bring back the real South African sprit,” concludes Lyne-Kritzinger.
For more information, go to www.ydx.co.za.
