To ensure that our corporate bodies hire our young ones, we must encourage them to invest in training, coaching, and mentoring programmes to support their talent base.
Not since the digital revolution in the early ’90s has technology placed such a comprehensive burden on business, employees and individuals to reinvent their business plans, services and products, and themselves to keep pace with the changing marketplace. – Simon Mainwaring
There is so much uncertainty these days when it comes to job hunting, and we face a great catch-22 situation. On one side, there are people searching for jobs; and on the other side, companies cannot find the proper candidates with the right skills.
According to a report issued by the Manpower Group in 2015, globally, 38 percent of employers are struggling to fill jobs. Indeed there is an abundance of people applying for the same jobs, and the ones with shortages are those unattractive to young people.
Technology has revolutionised a lot, procedures have been modified, and new skills and abilities are required. Some positions have emerged as the most demanded in the market now, even when they didn’t exist just a few years ago.
Having degrees, certificates, hard skills or technical knowledge is no longer enough to ensure success today. Soft skills and STEM skills are needed. That is why investments in education, training, re-training, and development are essential.
Our learning institutions aren’t focused on equipping their students with the skills required for the market place, such as creative thinking, problem solving capabilities, teamwork, and leadership, to name a few.
Indeed we need our governmental bodies to drive competitiveness and productivity, and it an absolute must that companies, schools, public organisations and individuals work together for their mutual benefits.
Our educational institutions must reach a consensus with corporate businesses to adapt their learning programmes to the needs of the labour market. A McKinsey survey stated that on the average, 70 percent of educational institutions believe their new graduates are adequately prepared for their first jobs, in comparison to 41 percent of employers who think the same about recently graduated professionals. Notice that disparity between views. Our learning institutions aren’t focused on equipping their students with the skills required for the market place, such as creative thinking, problem solving capabilities, teamwork, and leadership, to name a few.
We need to encourage our young ones to study the in-demand professions like technical careers and engineering.
In a research by the Manpower Group, more than half of the young adults who apply for jobs are turned down by the company they apply to due the following reasons, broken down into percentages – the lack of experience (46 percent), the lack of knowledge (10 percent), and age (five percent). Waiting until they graduate before being competent enough for the market place is a practice that must be ditched, as it is harming young people. Promoting learning programmes and professional internships is crucial for young people to acquire the experience that they will need for the workforce.
To ensure that our corporate bodies hire our young ones, we must encourage them to invest in training, coaching, and mentoring programmes to support their talent base.
Adetola Salau, Carismalife4U@gmail.com, an advocate of STEM education, public speaker, author, and social entrepreneur, is passionate about education reform.
