Paul Joubert

President Jacob Zuma’s focus on job creation deserves everybody’s support. Some of the biggest multipliers of work are trained workers.

There is a direct correlation between a country’s skills on the one hand and its growth ceiling on the other.

In order to achieve President Zuma’s job-creation targets, the country will have to examine its skills shortage critically.

Countless surveys on business conditions in South Africa show that the shortage of people with suitable skills is constantly among the top reasons why businesses cannot expand.

This problem is not unique to South Africa. Many other countries face similar difficulties but this only serves to worsen South Africa’s situation, as many skilled people are lured away to work in other countries.

The media quite frequently reports on the skills’ shortage at highly skilled levels of the economy.

Research showed that in 2008 there was a shortage of about 22000 chartered accountants. We are constantly being bombarded by facts about the shortage of engineers too.

For example, it has been estimated that we need to add about 13 000 engineers of all disciplines to the skills pool in South Africa annually to satisfy demand.

In actual fact, only about 10% of that number graduates every year. Similar shortages are noted among doctors, pharmacists, scientists and other jobs commonly regarded as being at a highly skilled level.

While the above mentioned shortage is certainly not a small problem, it is merely the publicly visible tip of a much larger iceberg. It hides the larger structural imbalance in the supply of skills.

Even though there may be large absolute shortages at “high” levels, the shortage of skilled people at the “lower” levels in the economy is actually larger in relative terms.

For every chartered accountant, there needs to be a few accounting technicians. For every engineer, there needs to be a few supporting engineering technologists.

For every project that the engineers dream up and the chartered accountants at the company headquarters find money for, there needs to be a multitude of skilled artisans to actually physically implement the details of the project.

Every one of these skilled artisans, accounting technicians and engineering technologists needs other skilled professionals like plumbers, electricians and mechanics to support their daily needs.

It is at these intermediate levels that shortages of skilled personnel are actually even more pronounced than at the higher levels.

In the case of artisans this is evidenced by the fact that a skilled boilermaker or fitter and turner can realistically earn upwards of R30000 per month in South Africa.

At Solidarity’s technical college, Sol-Tech, aspiring artisans have been lured away into the job market with offers of large salaries even before they have completed their training courses.

These examples are a reflection of the unsuitable skills-mix we have.

Tens of thousands of people graduate from universities and other institutions each year with qualifications that give them “soft skills” in the social sciences but relatively few qualify with “hard skills”that have practical application.

A person who has practical technical skills is just as or even more employable than someone with high-level theoretical skills. This does not mean that the social sciences are unimportant but it does indicate that there is a relative oversupply of people in many social science disciplines.

The imbalance can be illustrated by the fact that in 2009 there were more than 690000 students at comprehensive universities in South Africa but only about 140000 students at universities of technology and around 520000 at further education and training (FET) colleges, although an unknown number of these are enrolled only for short courses.

Comprehensive universities, therefore, have about half of the total student population, with the more technical institutions sharing the rest.

These proportions are what give us the upside-down skills pyramid and the unsuitable mix of skills.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a perception that it isn’t glamorous to do physical blue-collar work.

Young people think that to be “high class” you need to work in an office and never get your hands dirty. This is nonsense!

All types of work deserve respect, as long as the work is done well. This is why it is important to be skilled.

Being “skilled” simply means that you can do your job well.

School leavers need to realise that what South Africa needs most are people with “hard skills”who can carry the weight of the economy.

While it is also important that we have enough people with “soft skills”,the work these people do is meaningless if the reality on the ground isn’t changed by hard-working artisans, technicians, nurses, designers, electricians and mechanics.

Paul Joubert is senior economic researcher at Solidarity