The future of work is digital and South Africa (SA) needs to aggressively develop systems to propel the country and its youth forward in the coming year. SA has no time for conceptualising with no action in the coming year, says a leading skills development and placement organisations, Afrika Tikkun Services (ATS).
The time for the brick-and-mortar professional is gone, traditional jobs and ways of working are becoming obsolete without an informal technology related upgrade. The demand for globally relevant skills has not been isolated to the tech industry but has spread to all other sectors of the economy. ATS CEO Onyi Nwaneri warns that without a concerted effort across industries in the public and private sector, SA cannot create the ideal environment for young people to become part of this new growth era on a wider scale.
SA’s youth (age 15-24) account for 35% of the population, yet less than half of these people have employment. “This gives us a unique opportunity to lead Africa and the rest of the world in changing society’s perspective on education,” says Nwaneri. No longer based on a finite number of years spent at a traditional institution, education has been decentralised in line with the fourth industrial revolution. This means that skills development is no longer the job of large institutions and a traditional public and private education system.