The greatest challenges facing South Africa, and the world, right now are poverty, inequality, and unemployment.
Solving the unemployment crisis will go a long way in resolving the other issues. I believe that by dealing with the cause of unemployment, and persevering with the action plan, unemployment can be reduced dramatically for those who desire meaningful employment.
Finding solutions to any problem requires understanding the cause of the problem, and only when this is fully understood, is it possible to start a process to overcome the challenge.
I have spent the past decade trying to understand what causes unemployment, particularly among young people. I have by no means exhausted this research, but out of conversations with young people, and the not so young, who experience unemployment, I have come to believe that our education system has failed our youth and the economy. This is exacerbated by other issues such as lack of economic infrastructure , and a severe overload of red tape and laws that makes it extremely difficult for small business, who are the major contributor to employment.
To be clear, I am not suggesting that our education system is not doing a good job. What I believe is that it is not doing a complete job. I believe it is important to know history and geography, science and biology, mathematics, and economics.
However, are we encouraging our young people to discover their skills and talents, and are they being mentored on how they may be applied and used?
My experience of the education system, I was privileged with an excellent education, and what is experienced on the most part by our present youth is the following:
1. We measure our children’s scholastic abilities by comparing them with each other, rather that assessing each child against their ability.
2. We teach our children how to regurgitate what has been taught them.
3. We have not encouraged our children to think for themselves, or to apply their knowledge in useful and practical ways.
4. We have not encouraged each child to develop their God-given creative abilities, but rather we have stifled them.
I believe we need to assist children:
to be confident in their skills and passions;
to know how to discover methods of utilising them to create their career;
to understand the importance of anticipating the changes that accompany every crisis and disruption; and
to know how to go about reinventing themselves to be able to take advantage of the opportunities that also accompany disruption.
Don’t tell them what to do, encourage them to find processes that will assist in finding solutions to the issues they face, and will face in future. Teach them Reinvention skills, and how to apply them to different circumstances.
But, what to do if you are unemployed now?
Sign up for a free introduction Lab to Personal development on the 23rd of January (Contact me from the website and use PDLab as reference to your interest ).
Or Sign up for a 3-part workshop on Personal development and preparing for employment (Contact me from the website and use PD as reference to your interest)
There are 3 ways you can look at being unemployed:
1. There is nothing I can do, so I will do nothing. Nothing will change.
2. I will send my CV everywhere; something will come up. More likely to be a job, not a career.
OR
3. I can find out how I can improve my skills to satisfy the need of my ideal employer, even if that is me? This is the way to create a career.
What will your choice be?
Will you allow unemployment to be a sentence of hopelessness; or will you seize the opportunity to reinvent yourself into a valuable asset for your ideal employer?
Comments