Students must look to where skills are needed the most
AS INSTITUTIONS of higher learning across the country contend with floods of students who are eager to study in the wake of the announcement of fee-free education by President Jacob Zuma, one of the relevant questions that beg serious consideration is that of career choices prospective students are making.
The chaotic scenes that have been the order of the day in some of our institutions of higher learning point to the fact that youth are hungry for education and are keen on changing their lives for the better. However, the reality of many unemployed graduates shows that acquiring education does not necessarily translate into them securing employment.
The single biggest determining factor is the extent to which the acquired skills are needed in the private and public sectors.
Currently, the unemployment statistics paint a bleak picture for job seekers, especially the young who are languishing in the mire of hopelessness.
Research upon research has shown that the economic future of South Africa is very much dependent on the level of skills we have in, for instance, the science and engineering in the water sectors.
The lack of skills in these important areas is slowly pushing the country to the brink.
To get the country on the right economic trajectory, we need to fill the gaping hole of skills shortages in these and other areas.
It is bizarre that an economy that prides itself as the leader on the continent should rely on importing skills from elsewhere in order to remain on the upward economic mobility.
As we are said to be earnestly in the Fourth Revolution, we cannot afford to be lagging behind, and the starting point is to encourage our prospective students to take up careers that drive the development of the country and thus create the much-needed jobs.
In this regard, for South Africa to have a role to be reckoned with in the Fourth Revolution, it desperately needs to produce an army of graduates with skills that would enable it to change its growth.
The catalyst and the backbone for this envisaged growth remains water. However much we meticulously make plans for our prosperity as a country, the truth is that without water we will never move a centimetre. Water is the be-all and end-all for job creation and economic transformation agenda of the country.
It is for this reason that the Department of Water and Sanitation is assisting young people to pursue careers in the water sector through its programmes.
The programmes that the department is implementing to draw youth into the water sector are Baswa Le Meetsi, the Aqua endure and the South African Youth Water Prize Competition. Last year, the competition saw three youths from Limpopo represent South Africa at the Stockholm International Water Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.
This exposed them to ideas and careers in the water sector so that they are better informed of the goings-on internationally.
This opportunity inspired them to have confidence to finding solutions on issues that confront the country, especially water scarcity.
It is thus our hope that the youth flooding institutions of higher learning consider the various careers in the water sector.
As other sectors are growing, the water sector’s skills base is decreasing and is in dire need of replenishment.
The many prospective students are the only hope to our dream of building a nation with an abundance of skills that are relevant to the development of the country. Hosia Sithole Department of Water and Sanitation