Page 51 - IRMSA Risk Report 2021

DEAN AND DIRECTOR
HENLEY BUSINESS SCHOOL SOUTH AFRICA

JONATHAN

FOSTER – PEDLEY

EXPERT OPINION

A shrinking undiversified economy, rising unemployment
and a tertiary education system that is failing to prepare just the technical skills - we need to teach business owners,
those who manage to successfully scale the high barriers especially Small, Micro and Medium-sized Enterprise (SMME)
to entry for life in a world that is dramatically different and owners both business and creative acumen to innovate.
immeasurably harder after the rigours of the coronavirus We need to graduate students who are prepared to go
disease of 2019 (Covid-19) and our six-month hard lockdown. out and learn more through trial and error. When we do
The failure to recalibrate education and skills development to this, the opportunities are massive: a diversified economy,
deal with a ‘new normal’ is undoubtedly getting worse, with scalable companies and an incredible number of new job
our unemployment rate at an all-time high of 30.1%. Critically opportunities. International best practice means we need to
worrying is the youth unemployment figure among those diversify the post school education and training model away
designated as Not in Employment, Education or Training from one that is mostly government funded and university
(NEET), the 3.2 million people among the 10.3 million who centric to one that encourages private sector participation,
make up the 15-24 years old bracket. mobilises resources, sets quality assurance and closely
aligns the outcomes to the actual needs of the economy. So,
The country is developing people who are not just unemployed, the key intervention would be private public partnerships
but quickly becoming unemployable in a fast-changing, using the existing TVET structure. We have to decolonise the
rapidly digitising world. As it is, 45% of those who were education establishment, not racially but intellectually; it is
formally employed before the lockdown had skills that were not the western content of a university that is outdated, it
mismatched for the jobs they were doing, while most of the is the western concept of a university that is past its sell-by
country’s students were graduating into an economy where date. We need to decolonise campuses too, from the grand
a quarter of the current jobs won’t exist in two years’ time, colosseums to a vibrant, smart network of decentralised
replaced by ones that have not even been conceptualised. partners keen to experiment and celebrate fast marginal
The country also experiences a couple of challenges when improvements that, taken together, build national capacity
dealing with the alignment of education and skills to the for an economy that needs skills that are radical and complex.
new normal. The South African Democratic Teachers Union
(SADTU), which controls public education in primary and Henley Africa, amongst other interventions, has designed
secondary schools, fiercely resists any government moves short courses for agricultural leadership, helping
to introduce accountability for teachers. Half the children subsistence farmers transition into commercial farmers. It
who enter Grade One won’t make it to matric, and half of has provided short courses on resilience, as well as webinars
the children in primary school cannot do basic maths after on SME management, and has developed brand new PG
five years of education – but then 60% of the Grade 1-6 Diploma programmes for medical professionals and African
teachers themselves failed to pass tests at grade level. And entrepreneurs using patented, cutting edge, immersive
then we have legacy academia unwilling to change, teaching remote learning techniques. Henley Africa did this by both
for obsolescence and researching what they like, not what a listening to what our students and our corporate partners
country in disruption actually needs. were asking for and studying what we believe this country
desperately needs to reduce the Gini coefficient: leaders
Some interventions can be considered in addressing the who can build the businesses that will build Africa.
issues of alignment. Modern learning is based on three
facets: qualifications, credentialisation and lifelong learning. This can be done by ramping up online and virtual learning,
Qualifications traditionally open the door to jobs, but what something that the pandemic has already forced upon us
jobs? It once took 15-20 years for the technical skills you and we innovate without conscience, borrowing from the
learnt to become obsolete, now that has been cut to 2-5 best, wilfully bypassing national institutions that stand in
years. Credentialisation is the learning you do at work, getting our way. Our qualifications do not have to be South African;
new skills to adapt to new systems and ways of work, while they can be international because knowledge has nationality
lifelong learning is something that has to be adopted by all – it is either fit for purpose or it has no purpose. We must
of us if we are to remain relevant in which the only certainty do whatever we can to massify further education, unlock
is change. Legacy institutions are geared to only providing the latent talents of those locked in poverty and create the
qualifications, not credentials, and certainly not encouraging businesses that will build back South Africa better.
lifelong learning. People need to adapt fast, in months rather
than years. They have to earn while they learn - they cannot Whether we like it or not, we are forced into a global
afford to pay fees and take time off to study. Most of all, interaction – so that we are not left trailing behind, we need
people need to learn skills that are practical and that make to take lessons from the likes of Russia, China, Japan, Korea,
them even more employable afterwards – and those skills Vietnam, Singapore, New Zealand and Switzerland. They
have to be global. !"#"$%&"'(#)$&%* ' have all used their TVET systems to great success in meeting
industry’s needs for highly skilled, continually evolving
! As a country, we are no longer in a knowledge-based workforces. China, Vietnam and Singapore, in turn, have
economy. The world has entered an innovation economy – shown particular success in diversifying their economies
this is the true impact of the 4IR. The only way we can begin over the last 20 years.
to keep pace is by continuous learning. We need more than

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