Do learnerships improve employability?

DO LEARNERSHIPS FULFIL THEIR PROMISE?

Ideally learnerships provide much-needed and previously unattainable qualifi cations to low-income individuals, allowing them to move up the income ladder and add to their qualifi cations, says Colette Swanepoel, a business development manager at CTU Training Solutions.

Ronel Roux, the company’s skills development facilitator and BEE specialists, says employers who are not committed to learnships, do not supply the necessary workplace experience and competency and then place learners at a disadvantage. “The interest of the learner should be at the centre of the learnership. If implemented correctly, learnerships can assist in curbing unemployment in our country by providing the correct and necessary skills to the labour market,” Roux explains.

Swanepoel adds that learnerships are ideal for school-leavers who are unemployed and do not necessarily have the funds to further their studies or even for young individuals who did not have funds for post-school studies and have been working intermittently. “However, learnerships should not just Reana be a once-off programme, Rossouw learners should be allowed to

DEBUNKING THE NUMBERS

current youth unemployment rate was sitting at 59 per cent, according to

Stats SA. This is expected to rise due to the economic decline on the back of COVID-19.

Reana Rossouw, founder of Next Generation and creator of the Investment Impact Index, says there are no hard gures on exactly how many learnerships lead to long-term work. She says this is because gathering this data will require longer-term

Learnerships are sold as a worthy path into the workplace, but what’s the real story? Puseletso Mompei reports

further their studies in a second and/or third year, as it will increase their chances of being employed. Then they will truly be benefi cial to an organisation.”

WHAT ARE THE PITFALLS AND ALTERNATIVES?

Reana Rossouw, founder of Next Generation and creator of the Investment Impact Index, says corporate learnerships aren’t always widely available because the cost and resources required to implement and manage the process is high. “Most companies cannot absorb the learners due to the level of experience and specialisation that is required. Many corporates don’t know what to do with young inexperienced, unqualifi ed people or how to deploy or manage them. Therefore, for some sectors, apprenticeships rather than learnerships are the preferred process.” monitoring and evaluation, tracking their income over time and observing how they applied their newly acquired skills.

One of the industries that has attempted to take a snapshot of this is retail. In 2016, the Wholesale and Retail Sector Education Training Authority (W&RSETA) ran a survey of its participants.

The results revealed that 73.6 per cent considered the theoretical teaching as “very relevant” to workplace practical learning and exposure. Also, 77.3 per cent of the learners described the overall training programme as “very useful and relevant” for entry into the wholesale and retail industry.

Based on the responses from surveyed learners, 44 per cent managed to get employment while 56 per cent were unemployed after the intervention.

Mike Hanly, managing director of New Leaf Technologies, a Joburg-headquartered learning software and solutions company that works extensively in the manufacturing sector, says the manufacturing industry has its own set of challenges. A report published early in 2020 by The Wall Street Journal reveals that the shift towards automation in production processes means jobs are increasingly requiring more advanced skills. This, in turn, drives up the required education level of factory workers.

“The challenge for South African manufacturers is not only a lack of tech-savvy, multiskilled workers, but also the affordability of training, especially when businesses are facing unprecedented fi nancial pressure,” says Hanly.

Many companies are looking at moving away from learnerships and the go-to solution seems to be online training programmes. This, according to Hanly, provides companies with greater fl exibility in providing for many different scenarios and training needs and enables course material to be visually appealing and

In the rst quarter of 2020, South Africa’s

more engaging.

Emmanuel Malepe

SUCCESS STORY

Emmanuel Malepe secured a post-matric learnership at Nedbank in 2019 and was appointed to a permanent position within six months. He says: “The learnership provided me with experience that enhanced my discipline. I learned technical skills and how to handle pressure in a business environment.

“It also allowed me to learn from my failures and, most importantly, enhanced my resume and networks, paving the way for me to become marketable.”