The youth employment issue in Africa, particularly in South Africa, has been widely documented. The reality is that in South Africa, close to 70% of young people under the age of 30 are unemployed. This continues to be a ticking demographic time bomb that affects most African countries. 

In considering the other side of the statistic, we explore youth as an energetic “asset” and what can be done in terms of education, employment and empowerment so that young people can play a meaningful role in the South African economy. 

When something is considered an asset, the most appropriate action to take is to invest in it in order to reap dividends. So what are we doing with this asset called youth, this large group of people with so much potential? According to the International Labour Organisation, the term “youth” or “young” refers to people between 15 and 24 years of age, but in Africa, and for our purposes, the definition needs to be broadened to 34 years. This is because the education systems in most African countries faces more obstacles than developed countries, leading to slower entry into the labour market.

When our young people are asked where they see opportunities for employment, they usually point to the green sector (notably in renewable energy and smart agriculture), the blue economy, the creative sector and the digital world, where they see the most opportunities for entrepreneurship. They also raise opportunities in the care sector. Many of Africa’s young people are taken up in the Global North to work in this sector, yet we have so many people who need care here and we need more input from the government.

From the research that we do at the University of Pretoria (UP), we see so many shifts in the skills needed for the future of work and the future workplace. It is important as an African academic institution that we contribute to the body of research on this, to studies like the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs study, which tends to be more focused on the Global North.

The millennial and Gen Z generations have grown up in an era where technological advancements are taking place at a rapid pace. They are acutely aware of technology as a tool for employment and self-employment. The introduction of technologies like the much-anticipated Apple Vision Pro didn’t exist just a few years ago. If harnessed correctly, this technology alone has the potential to create a multitude of job opportunities in the virtual reality environment. A vast number of jobs and industries have been created through digital technologies to develop digital content. It is a whole new sector and so many jobs exist now that didn’t exist before, such as the job of a YouTuber or influencer. So many young people say they want to be YouTubers and digital content creators.

The question is: how do we make sure we are skilling our African population for the new jobs being created? Are we getting our youth ready for the job market of the future, focusing on skill readiness to cope with the technological transition? As universities, we are in the perfect space to figure out what the skills of the future will be and to educate our young people accordingly. 

As part of the University’s Digital Transformation Strategy launched in June 2023, UP has invested in robots, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and augmented reality technologies to increasingly offer our students 21st-century, immersive learning experiences that are in line with the fourth industrial revolution (4IR). 

At UP’s Centre for the Future of Work, we are developing a revised curriculum to align with the future of work needs. We will be working faculty by faculty to ensure that our students are skilled for the future. Our country is earmarked for significant upscaling in digitalisation and this cannot happen in a vacuum. Digitalisation needs to be enabled at every level.

Innovation hubs are essential to reimagine the way in which young people can become sustainable entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurialism is a core focus for universities today. We’ve seen too many start-ups fail within the first three years. We need to make sure they survive and grow into small, medium or large enterprises. Public-private partnerships and networks are indispensable to enable this.

In May 2022, UP launched the Mamelodi Business Hub in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and PricewaterhouseCoopers. It is all about building communities for the future, in this instance, to be a catalyst in township revival and enhancement, based on entrepreneurial development and social impact. The hub focuses on introducing new 4IR technology via its Makerspace, design lab and skills development; co-creating innovative new products and services for young entrepreneurs; and merging the needs of the micro-business environment in Mamelodi with skills development.

On UP’s Hatfield campus, we introduced an assessment into our business strategy module for our 700 third-year BCom students. They develop an innovative business concept and present us with the strategy to get it off the ground. We encourage students to submit the most viable concepts to our campus technology and business incubator, TuksNovation, where they are assisted to develop it into an actual business. One of the projects submitted focused on fly ash, a by-product of burning coal, and which South Africa has in vast amounts. The students used the fly ash to create a viable form of cement for the construction industry.

In addition to this, several students from various faculties entered their business ideas into the sixth BRICS Young Innovator Prize – an important platform for young people to showcase their innovation talents and strengthen exchanges and collaborations between the BRICS countries. The innovations are required to focus on five thematic areas: modernising manufacturing, modernising agriculture, modernising mining, digital economies and circular economies. The outcome will be announced in August. First prize is US$25 000, second is US$15 000 and third prize is US$10 000. The finance will significantly advance the winning business concepts. 

In the “modernising agricultural” sector, for example, a UP student group has developed a concept for micro-financing for agriculture via an all-in-one app called Financial Farmers. Through the app, small-scale farmers can secure micro-loans, link their bank accounts to the app in order to manage their cash flow and budget on the app’s financial management facility, combine their money with other small-scale farmers to benefit from reduced prices for buying in bulk, and view market prices and the weather in real time. It also offers farmers access to educational resources such as online courses, news articles and industry expertise.

As a country, we have to constantly encourage innovation and collaboration, including public-private partnerships and calls to action, as we need to keep working on making inroads into youth employment and commit to the necessary skills development. This has to start during the primary school years.

In July, in partnership with UNICEF and the Department of Basic Education (DBE), we are benchmarking the current basic and higher education system against the skills we will need for the future in order to come up with the skills that the DBE needs to integrate for learners and students. UNICEF’s role in SA is to ensure that no child is left behind, and it supports the South African government and our communities in improving education, healthcare and child protection. 

We cannot assume that young people can take care of themselves. The social grant for children ends at age 18 and millions of our young people have no prospects. The Extended Public Works Programme offers interim employment, but it is temporary and does not constitute sustainable work. We must focus on a long-term solution and we need to invest in our young people to reap positive dividends in the future and boost the economic prospects of our future generation. It is a massive opportunity for our country and continent.