Retail sector struggles as apprentices shun poor pay
UNEMPLOYED and unskilled young Namibians are not taking up apprenticeship opportunities to acquire skills in the wholesale and retail sector.
This was revealed by wholesale and retail employers on Tuesday during a stakeholder engagement with Namibia Training Authority (NTA).
The employers feel the industry is ready to implement the apprenticeship training programme but the apprentices end up quitting before the end of the training.
The NTA makes available an incentive grant to employers who hire apprentices under this programme.
The funding for apprentices is derived from the Key Priority Grant funding window of the Vocational Education and Training (VET) Levy.
The grant covers N$30 000 per apprentice per year that is allocated to pay the trainee a minimum monthly allowance of N$2 500 per month.
Hendrina Kayuhwa, HR operations manager at Woermann Brock said the industry faces low retention of apprentices.
“When we get students to work, they end up dropping out. I don’t think the students see it [apprenticeship] as an employment opportunity. They don’t finish their assessments. The resistance comes with the workload. We are so busy; we don’t have time to let the apprentice go,” she observed.
According to her, whenever these trainees are absorbed in the sector, some end up quitting citing the heavy workload and meager wages.
Meanwhile, Fanie Oosthuizen, chief operations officer at Business School of Excellence shared the same sentiment on low staff retention within the sector.
“We can’t commit ourselves that being a cashier, a shop packer, or baker in a retail shop is a career. We can’t invest in our careers. Service providers need to invest more. The industry is struggling; as low potential turnover is evident that people don’t belong to the industry. Whenever you appoint staff, it should be people who belong to the industry,” he noted. Another industry player, Otto Alfred, who is a wholesale and retail industry skills committee (ISC) member, expressed that the biggest problem the industry face is getting the right people.
“The kids come in and they see the salary is small. They are not allowed to be on their phones, so they quit. We have to get it right that wholesale and retail are real jobs. Cashiers and bakers are real jobs. Bricklaying is a real thing. People want to be doctors and engineers. We have so many of them. People end up in wholesale and retail by pure chance; it’s never seen as a real career even in other southern African countries,” he reacted.
Alfred said there is a need to change the way the retail sector is perceived, adding there is a need for an exchange of information that trickles down to even small “guys” in the industry.
NTA acting chief operations officer, Tobias Nambala said if the industry feels there is a need to boost the process to include all, then NTA is ready to assist the industry, which is the third largest employer in Namibia with over 80 000 employees.
The advantage of an apprenticeship is that instead of completing an educational programme and then taking an entry-level job, an apprentice begins work from the start of the programme, earning money as they build skills through supervised training and classroom theoretical education.
As part of strategic interventions under the Key Priority Grant funding window of the VET Levy, the NTA has identified apprenticeship training as one such key intervention for funding.
The amount of N$2 500 per month is based on a ministry of labour and National Union of Namibian Workers and the Construction Industry Federation’s gazetted agreement where over 14 occupations were allocated minimum hourly rates for semi-skilled workers.
The average of these rates equated to approximately N$15 per hour. An apprentice shall be employed by a company, registered for Social Security Commission (SSC) benefits, and shall sign an apprenticeship contract setting out the conditions of employment and training for the duration of the apprenticeship. The training provider should assist the employer to draw up the training schedule on a 70:30 ratio, nine months: three months basis.