Overview
Supply Chain and
Logistics Managers are painfully aware of the constraints which skills
shortages are placing on their ability to grow. At the same time we are sitting
on a smoldering powder keg of unemployable youth.
The solution lies in
our own hands, but why aren’t we seeing this?
South Africa: a rich legacy of mysteries
We boast the Flying Dutchmen, a Dutch trading vessel which sank just off the
Cape in 1641. It is said that whoever
spots the phantom Flying Dutchman at sea will die a horrible death quite soon.
We have the tale of the vanishing
hitchiker of Uniondale, said to be the ghost of a
girl named Marie Charlotte Roux who was killed in a motor accident not far from
Uniondale in 1968 and whose ghost still hitchhikes
along the road but vanishes after being picked up.
More recently Mbuyisa Makhubu, then 17, whose
iconic picture is shown carrying the body of the dead Hector Pieterson, killed
by police in Soweto on 16 June 1976, with sister Antoinette weeping
uncontrollably at his side - he seems to have disappeared off the face of the
planet.
The biggest mystery of all however is reluctance of the supply chain
management and logistics companies to aggressively implement training
strategies at this time.
Some facts:
- Between 1994 and 2014 the South African youth unemployment rate climbed from 39.4% to 53.0% whilst the rate of youth absorption into the economy declined from 20.1 % to 12.3%1
- A million jobs were lost in South Africa between Q1 2008 and Q1 20132
- From 2006 to 2013 South Africa dropped from 35th to 53rd place in the Global Competitiveness Index rankings.3
The 2013
Global Competitiveness Report stated, “The
quality of the educational system is very poor (146th), with low primary and
tertiary enrolment rates. Raising educational standards and making the labour
market more efficient will thus be critical” 3
The South African
economy is evolving from a resource based economy needing relatively large
amounts of unskilled labour into a service and manufacturing based economy
needing relatively smaller numbers of skilled labour. However 59.4% of the unemployed have not
completed secondary education.1
Within the South
African supply chain management environment the lack of skills is being felt
acutely, “Respondents ranked the lack of
relevant skills and talent as their number one strategic business constraint.
This is a major shift from previous years. With the education system of South
Africa under increasing scrutiny, there is a clear gap between relevant
qualifications and skills that are marketable in the workplace.” 4
This is where the
mystery really deepens: currently the university dropout rate between
enrolment and first degree completion is 85%, whereas the successful
completion rate for workbased training/ experiential learning programmes
such as learnerships is 86%! In addition, 86% of those who successfully
complete such programmes are able to find full time employment, meaning that
employers see good economic returns from these graduates.
The message is clear:
if you need skilled people in your organisation, then workbased training/
experiential learning programmes are the answer. Why aren’t we seeing
this?
In realising that
South African society needs a skilled workforce in order to be transformed,
Government has, through the newly introduced B-BBEE scorecard targets, placed
heavy emphasis on Skills Development. At the same time this area is so
incentivised through cash grants and tax incentives that fully utilising these
incentives achieves the same after tax profit as acquiring an “A category” client.
Why aren’t we seeing this?
What training strategy
does your company have in place?
What do you see as the
factors inhibiting the enhancement of workbased
training/ experiential learning programmes in your organisation?
Could a better understanding
of the incentives available for training lead to more comprehensive training in
your organisation?
Are C level executives
in your company equipped to implement training strategies which will enable the
organisation to increase its global competitiveness?
References
1. Haldenwang, B 2014 20 years
of democracy: Is life better or worse for the ‘average’ South African? Institute for Futures Research University of
Stellenbosch
2.South Africa, SS
2013 Mid-year population estimates 2013. Pretoria: Statistics South Africa
3. World Economic
Forum Global Competitiveness Report 2013-2014: 2013
World Economic Forum
4. Barloworld Logistics. (2014) 2014
supplychainforesight. The Rise and Fall of Customers and Companies
