Return of SA skilled professionals is only half the battle
13 February 2014 | Surveys, Reports and Ratings | General | Mike Jackson, PPS
Greater collaboration between Government, industry and trade bodies is crucial to meeting SA’s skills gap.
Almost 360 000 skilled professionals have returned to South Africa since 2008, yet there still remains a huge skills gap with a shortage of ± 800,000 skilled professionals, according to Adcorp data. This highlights the urgent need for interventions to encourage the youth of South Africa to pursue careers that can address this need.
According to Mike Jackson, Chief Executive Officer at PPS, a greater focus on skills development from a basic education level is necessary in order to address the skills shortage in the country. "By enabling and encouraging the youth to pursue professional careers they will also have more and higher paid job opportunities available to them.”
Jackson notes that graduate professionals have always remained confident in the job opportunities available to them in their chosen profession. Latest data from the PPS Professional Confidence Index (PCI) 2013 third quarter results, which surveyed nearly 5000 graduate professional PPS members, revealed that 78% of the respondents were confident in the future of their profession over the next five years.
However, there are a number of issues that need to be addressed in order for adequate skills development to become a reality, says Jackson. "Mainly, a greater focus on increasing mathematics graduates and reducing the cost of education.”
The Department of Education statistics show that only 26.1% of 2013 matric candidates who wrote mathematics achieved a pass mark of 50% and above. This is in line with the findings of the PPS PCI 2013 Q3 results which revealed that 94% of the graduate professional respondents remain highly concerned about the lack of mathematics and science graduates in South Africa.
Addressing the low rate of mathematics graduates is a logical step towards opening more opportunities for employment in South Africa, says Jackson. "Mathematics remains a core subject for many professions, such as those in the financial services, engineering and medical fields.”
In addition to the low rate of mathematics in the country, the cost of education is also a major hindrance to the creation of skilled professionals, says Jackson. "90% of the respondents to our Q3 survey indicated that they are concerned about the rising cost of education.”
It is time for industry stakeholders to look at more innovative ways to make education more accessible to the youth, says Jackson. "That is why PPS launched a bursary and scholarship programme for promising undergraduates, to assist them in financing their higher education and further promote skills development. We encourage other industry players to implement similar initiatives.”
While there are many opportunities for skilled professionals in the country, there are also a number of pertinent issues that need to be addressed in order to generate these professionals, he says. "The collaboration of Government, industry bodies and professional associations is vital to make this possible,” concludes Jackson.
