Digital skills training can help address unemployment
“Software is eating the world”, the iconic phrase from Silicon Valley’s pre-eminent venture capitalist, Marc Andreessen, captures the opportunity available to Botswana to reshape the fate of its young population.
Botswana faces the challenge of creating jobs in a limited private market, particularly for youth, with an unemployment rate of ~41%. According to Oxford Economics, the digital economy, worth $11.5 trillion globally, provides an opportunity for Botswana to empower its unemployed youth.
Much like India and Singapore, focusing on technology services and reskilling Botswana’s eager, educated and entrepreneurial youth could transform a nation and uplift thousands.
The rollout of laptops to students and teachers in senior secondary schools is a commendable step forward and shapes a fruitful digital future for Botswana. However, the problem here and now of youth unemployment requires immediate answers, and adult technology education is the solution and path to achieving our 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) and SmartBots vision.
The rapid pace of technology development has fuelled a global war for tech talent, from software engineers and product managers to designers— Reskilling Botswana’s highly educated graduates allows them to better participate in this global demand for tech talent.
COVID-19 has shown us all that remote work is not just a possibility but also now a reality, allowing Botswana’s future digital workforce to work from home. Software engineers are an asset to international organisations earning over $100k annually.
Digital jobs can enable flexibility of location, self-employed project-based work, and increasing participation by all groups throughout their working life.
For private companies, the African technology opportunity is now. Start-up investment growth on the continent has been breaking records, from $277 million in 2015 to 5.2 billion investments in 2021. With Government support, private companies in Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda and Kenya have taken the mantel of grooming Africa’s future technology talent.
The likes of Andela, a company focused on training African software engineers, are capitalising on zealous, capable, and diligent young Africans to create the future talent pool on the continent. Twitter, Microsoft, and Google look at Africa as their next growth frontier from a workforce and customer perspective. Private firms in Botswana, fuelled by government support, should invest in education centres, training, and development to build their future leaders.
The time for action is now! Providing adult technology education facilities for digital literacy and reskilling programmes will develop a workforce for high-value global jobs. A focus on inspiring Batswana’s young minds to reskill and learn technology skills is the second. A laptop, Internet connection, and a problem to be solved could create the next Facebook or Uber, all from the desert streets of Botswana. Developing Botswana’s digital talent is primary to achieving the SmartBots and 4IR vision of a digitally transformed nation and economy by setting up digital training hubs and adult computer centres. Providing tangible, achievable solutions for the future workforce to address the unemployment crisis should be a priority for any election campaign and future government.