Solution-focused skills development needed to bridge gaps
To participate in 4IR, South Africa must first address its failings in the preceding industrial revolutions
South Africa is fast approaching a time where the majority of young people will not only be unemployed, but also unemployable, unless the skills gap is addressed. This was the warning from industry experts and stakeholders at the National Skills Conference 2021. But, says organised labour, in order to address the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), it is necessary to go back to basics.
Before South Africa can fully participate in the 4IR, it must address its failing in the three industrial revolutions that preceded it. This was according to Lazelle van Kramberg, (NSA Deputy Chairperson) representing - Organised Labour. “We must pay attention that we have not sufficiently addressed even the first industrial revolution, which dealt with railways, rail infrastructure and rail transport.”
The Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns has seen the vandalising and looting of South Africa’s limited existing rail infrastructure.“as industries are reopening, workers are left stranded and trains, on what used to be their normal routes to work, are not operating as they should.”
The second industrial revolution, she said, dealt with electricity. The challenges South Africa faces in this regard are still evident; rolling blackouts and loadshedding are commonplace occurrences.
“The third industrial revolution introduced us to computers and to the internet. While middleincome households now all have laptops, our poor and working class don’t even have old desktops. This hinders access to skills development, training and other online resources,” she said. “We are pushing 4IR, but this revolution needs elements from the three that came before it if we are going to achieve our goals. We need to ensure that nobody
is left behind.”
The poverty gap and the skills gap have always gone hand in hand. Organised labour, she said, has called on the government to address the outstanding historical issues. With money it is easier to acquire the skills you need to remain relevant. Today, a third gap — the digital divide — further hinders access for most South Africans.
“We want to participate in digitilization and the global economy, but not at the expense of the majority of workers,” Van Kramberg explained. “This means ensuring equal access to technology, technological platforms and hybrid training
opportunities.”
Organised labour fully supports the localisation of industries, and this will help develop people, especially the youth, as innovators. “At the moment we are importing our technologies,” she said. “In terms of skills development, we must, as a matter of urgency, develop our young people to develop those technological devices, and then prioritise their use in primary sectors, such as agriculture.”
She said 4IR should not be promoted and supported for its own sake: “Instead, we should support technological disruptions that speak directly to solutions needed on the ground. Let’s take young people and train them in technology for farming and agriculture; train them to solve our electricity problem. Let’s not train them to become coders and programmers at the top level of digitilization. These might be solutions for other countries, but not for us. Our technology needs to work for us at a grassroots level, in every sector and every industry.”
She acknowledged that the move towards robotics, automation and digitilization makes sense in countries with older populations: “We are a country of young people, and ours is not an aging workforce. Our young people need to be empowered and equipped to develop technology so that we can close the gaps and develop our primary sectors and our youth.”
If this cannot be achieved the gap between the haves and the have-nots will continue to grow, and too many people will be excluded from economic participation. “We often talk about the crisis before the crisis. In South Africa we have our legacy of unequal education that affects the majority of black South Africans, and now the Covid-19 pandemic and the technological disruptions are further excluding the poor and the working class,” she explained. “The conversations around skills development and actionable outcomes are even more important today as we continue to try and close the gap between rich and poor, in order for every citizen to access skills development and achieve their full potential.”
Technological disruptions can, and should, result in more opportunities for the working class, not less. “We need to focus, not on job shedding, but rather upskilling and reskilling our workforce.” She said as industries advance, they must take their workers with them, and equip them with the competencies to continue contributing to society even should their positions become redundant.