Business Day
*Colleges 'offer the skills SA badly needs'* *Alistair Anderson, Business Day, Johannesburg, 5 January 2012*HIGHER Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande believes that there is an abundance of educational opportunities available to the class of 2011, but analysts are concerned the youth lack the appetite for them.
More than 400,000 people are expected to matriculate this year. However, only one in six, or 17%, of those matriculants will get a job within 12 months and only 40% will find jobs in the next five years, warns Loan Sharp, economist with labour research and recruitment firm Adcorp.
Experts also believe job creation will be slow this year as SA is affected by a world economy struggling to sustain growth due to the continuing debt crisis in the European Union. This means matriculants with no further education may struggle more to find work than in previous years.
However, Mr Nzimande said yesterday that matriculants who could not go to university or find employment immediately, had other options.
School-leavers need to consider opportunities provided by Further Education and Training (FET) colleges, which offer the skills required for driving the economy, Mr Nzimande says.
"While it is good and well for those who choose to, and are in fact accepted into universities, our youth must start realising that our post-school education and training system offers far more options than just what our universities have traditionally offered. FET colleges, in particular, offer skills that are in line with the country's growth and development imperatives.
"Even as we speak, our economy has a higher and more urgent demand for artisans, technicians, engineers and other scarce skills that can be sourced outside of universities," he says.
Financial assistance was also available for students from poor families through the National Financial Student Aid Scheme. However, students who attend private higher education institutions do not qualify for the financial aid, the minister says.
But many matriculants regard university as crucial to future employment."Over the last 15 years, matriculants have not embraced artisan and other vocational training. We really need a change of mind-set in the youth," Stewart Jennings, the head of industry group The Manufacturing Circle, says.
"The government, business, even schools need to help usher students into artisan training. People fail to see how artisans advance through companies and too many matriculants end up with degrees that are too generic. Meanwhile, countries like Thailand create exceptionally good technical people while we struggle to create skilled labour."
Centre for Education Policy Development Evaluation and Management director Martin Prew agrees that attempts to encourage school-leavers to follow nonacademic study is having limited success.
"Mr Nzimande and his team have made a sterling effort so far in laying a movement and the green paper on artisans and related education is being discussed," he says.
"However, it is taking years to get people into nonacademic education. Last year FET colleges struggled to fill classes while the University of Johannesburg was bursting at the seams with riots at the gates because people were so desperate to get into university."
Mr Prew says the government has recapitalised FET colleges but the national perception that the route of success is limited to university learning persists.
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