While the matric class of 2014 anxiously awaits the final examination results, business has already teamed up with the Department of Education to boost the job prospects of 2015 matriculants.
Plans for the country’s largest Career Guidance Initiative – The Working World Exhibition – were announced at a function at the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium this morning (Dec 3, 2014).
The Working World Exhibition, now in its 16th year, will be hosted at the Stadium from March 3-5, 2015 with the participation of big business and leading educational institutions including VWSA, Coega, Access Management and the NMMU.
Organised by Inkanyezi Events, in partnership with the Department of Education and the business community, the collective provides World-class Career Guidance Textbooks, personal career guidance counselling and career DVD resources to 20 000 Grade 12 learners, for free.
Over the past 16 years Inkanyezi has interacted directly with over 240 000 grade 12s.
While the Textbooks, compiled by Inkanyezi, The Department Of Labour, The Department of Education and the NMMU are distributed to Grade 12’s at the beginning of the year, the initiative culminates with an exhibition attended by up to 100 exhibiting institutions, including corporates and 15 000 matrics.
“Big business will be putting its money where its mouth is when it comes to the urgent need for career guidance at the 16th edition of South Africa’s most comprehensive career initiative, the Working World Exhibition”, said Inkanyezi CEO Andrew Binning.
“With more and more matric exemptions being achieved each year and the business sector demanding skilled employees, matrics and their families need to think very carefully about their plans after school,” Binning said.
“The key issue for any school-leaver is to gain meaningful employment after training. While increasing numbers of learners are gaining access to University, employers are requiring specialised or technical skills.
“The fear is that school leavers do general degrees with little specialisation rather than skills training, as an example, that would make them far more employable and competitive in the labour market,” Binning said.
Volkswagen South Africa, Coega, The Department of Education and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University will be playing an active role in the event in order to match the skills of job market entrants with the needs of employers.
The exhibition exposes Grade 12 learners to career and study fields across a broad range of sectors, represented by an estimated 100 exhibitors, Binning said,
“The entire initiative is about opening channels, new thinking and possibilities for school-leavers and connecting them with industry driven information that enables them to plan a successful entry into the world of work.”
“There are many sectors in the economy that promise work opportunity, while others remain constrained as the economy moves slowly out of crisis. Understanding where the opportunity lays and how to match that with a passion, is key to job creation and economic growth,” Binning said.
“Although there are large numbers of unemployed young people and a constantly growing labour supply, many enterprises struggle to fill open positions. According to an article published in The Economist in 2012, in South Africa 3 million young people are not in education, training or employment, we have 600 000 unemployed university graduates but 800 000 job vacancies. This clearly shows that there are massive skills mismatches. Partly as a result of that and a slowly growing economy South Africa has the third highest number of unemployed out-of-school youth in the world.”
Stats SA has confirmed that the level of education attainment for the youth (aged 15 to 34) has improved between 2008–2014, but their labour market prospects had in fact deteriorated, Binning said.
The exhibition is open from 8.30am to 3pm on each day. Entry is free. An estimated 15000 Grade 12 learners will be attending and the exhibition is open to the public. Parents are encouraged to come along with their children in order to gain as much as possible from the exhibition. A customised leadership seminar, for the learner leadership bodies of schools will take place on March 5 and a Subject Choice information Workshop for Grade 9’s and their parents will be held on March 3 from 4pm-6pm, organisers confirmed.
“The prefects seminar is aimed at providing the region’s young leaders with resources and insight to make a profound contribution to society”, said Inkanyezi Project Director Wellington Jansen.
The young leaders will also have the opportunity of engaging with the Nelson Mandela Bay Chamber of Commerce’s top 40 under 40 business leaders.
According to SAnews.gov.za A total of 688 660 candidates were registered to write the matric exams this year, of which 550 127 were full time candidates and 138 533 were part time candidates.
Minister Motshekga will announce the 2014 NSC results on 5 January 2015 but learners can collect their statements of results from their various schools on 6 January 2015 at 8am.
Alan Straton
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