The Importance of Skills Development & Work Experience
A Q4 2018 report from Cape Area Panel Survey (CAPS) – The study is very clever in it’s simplicity and correlates the effects of a lack of access to relevant skill/experience/real-life learning for the majority of young black people in the country.
Report reads:
South African Labour Development Research unit shared this insight from an analysis of wave 1 of the Cape Area Panel Survey (CAPS) at the Accelerating Inclusive Youth Employment Exchange co-hosted by Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator. The graphs below show the pathways from school to work for white male youth on the left, and are contrasted to the pathways for African male youth on the right.
The pathway ‘picture’ for white youth is what transitions into the world of work should look like for everyone – in school in the teens, segueing into a blend of school and work as post-secondary education is completed, increasingly segueing into work at the onset of the 20s. The picture for African male youth is contrasted with extended stays in education, little work experience whilst studying, and an alarmingly increasing proportion of youth who are neither working nor studying at the onset of the 20s.
Solutions are needed not just to get youth into jobs, but to help them navigate these broken pathways. And with 8.1 million youth not in education, employment, or training (NEETs), we need to do this systemically, at scale, and soon.
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Are Skills Development & Work Experience Important?
There are many possible issues with this but here are a few hypothesis:
- It shows how people can fall out of the system if valuable life skills are not available/used. It can prevent development and growth.
- It explains why so many youth in South Africa show signs of mental pressure, stress & anxiety.
- It highlights why so much relevance is placed on academic qualifications when skills development & work experience should rank much higher (as per the rest of the world).
My personal interpretation of this research highlights the importance of ‘investing in and enabling local people’. Offering ‘usable skills’ and not ‘academic knowledge’ could/should advance lives and personal growth
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