Writer: Benjamin Rukwengye. PHOTO/FILE.
One of the more intriguing phenomena in the world of work is the role of demography and technology and how they are shaping economies. In many European countries, monogamy, birth control, socioeconomic advancement, the economy and a host of other factors have led to an overwhelming ageing population. The advancement in technology might have fixed lots of things but there are manual tasks that it hasn’t.
You still need a locksmith to fix your door lock if the key is stuck or broken. You need a plumber for when there is a broken pipe, a gardener for your lawn. Mostly, you need nurses for care work because of the ageing population. These are not the kinds of problems Africa is grappling with. In fact, they are the kinds of problems Africa might be able to provide solutions to.
We have a young population that is getting restless from the lack of opportunity. We have an education system that seems divorced from the realities of the day and a skill set that can barely put any food on the table.
And we don’t have the technological infrastructure or competitive advantage to match Asia and the West. So why aren’t we focusing on the battles that we can win? It seems obvious in retrospect, but research shows that one’s educational and professional achievements are directly linked their environment. Basically, if the context in which you exist is faulty, you are more likely to fail than not.
Nowhere is this truer than when you take a close look at the status of career guidance in Uganda’s high schools and universities. The quality of young people coming out of school has been an ongoing concern within the human resource and capital development corridors for more than a decade now.
As it turns out, the problem is two-fold. There is the training or what is loosely and commonly called education. And there is the knowledge aspect – the availability and access to information that helps young people make informed decisions about their careers and futures. In both of those instances, we are performing dismally.
Career choices are some of the most important decisions people make during their lifetime. Yet, for some reason, our schools often leave them to teachers who themselves aren’t knowledgeable about the space, trends and contexts. Why do we assume that the factors which influence career decision-making are homogeneous and not dependent on individuals' contexts and circumstances?
You will often hear conversations about changes in the world of work and how the 4th Industrial Revolution and Artificial Intelligence are going to leave us even further back. Those who make these arguments are right but the context in which those arguments are made is wrong.
Even in the West as the race for AI rages, they are still pumping lots of financing in technical skilling programs. They are also waiving visas and giving incentives to migrants who have the expertise and certification to put in the work. In fact, their kids aren’t as obsessed with university education and degrees as we are – because the pathways to vocational job opportunities are clear and lucrative.Those options and that information are availed to them through career counsellors, and at career fairs and talks.
They are also emphasizing and incentivizing companies to offer opportunities for high school students to volunteer or enroll in work-shadowing and apprenticeship programs to attract them to some of these vocations. So, why is it hard for us to get it right? Well, because of the context and environment in which we exist.
The insistence on formal education paths as the holy grail despite its obvious and evident flaws is a good start if you are looking for fault lines. The introduction of technical and vocational education – not as a complementary aspect but as a lesser alternative – is the next. The privatisation of education combined with an inefficient government are some more fodder. As a result, we are neither educating for today nor are we educating for tomorrow.
Mr Benjamin Rukwengye, Founder Boundless Minds
@Rukwengye
