The news that the government has engaged a Texan consultancy firm, Angelou Economics, to advise it on a development plan that will underpin its Vision 2015 strategy came at the same time that unemployment figures for February were announced by the NSO. The importance of creating viable jobs for the present and the future is indeed the most important critical success factor of our economic planning.
The growth areas identified in the Angelou Economics presentation are well known to all those who understand the competitive advantages of economies like ours that are no longer low-cost, but that have other things going for them. Unfortunately, our strengths are not unique and other countries like Ireland and Britain are also planning their future economic strategy on similar lines.
The biggest challenge will always be our ability to convert visions into reality. It is so easy to dream and paint rosy pictures of a bright future, especially if you calculate that you will not be around when the time comes for people to judge you on whether you have transformed visions into reality.
The EU itself is now acknowledging that its Lisbon Agenda has proven to be too ambitious despite the initial razzmatazz that accompanied its publication. They are now proposing Vision 2020, with more down-to-earth and realistic targets for upgrading the social and economic structure of the EU countries.
One point that the Angelou consultancy presentation makes – and which is indeed the most crucial factor for our future success – is the importance of making our education system relevant to today’s modern industries. Many justifiably suspect that, at present, government’s effort is more centred on improving the worrying statistics on the achievement levels of our young people than of genuinely aiming for excellence in education.
Churning out unemployable students from our educational system is no substitute for focusing on quality. To achieve quality one needs to be patient and persistent. Results may take a long time to appear and statistics will likewise remain rather negative in the short term. But the only way ahead if we really want to excel in the seven areas identified by Angelou is to introduce educational reforms that are based on an obsession with quality.
The low-skilled unemployed, like the poor, will always be with us. We already have at least two generations of young people, still very much in the age bracket where they should be actively employed, that are still looking for work that is not available. It is calculated that in the next two decades only 10% of jobs will require workers with low skills.
What is even worse, some skills are not very much in demand anymore. These include clerical skills and retail low level skills. These were areas that in the past absorbed large number of workers but will certain attract far fewer young people in the next two decades.
Our society is risking being split into two in the next few decades, where those in employment will enjoy a relatively stable working life, while those who are under-qualified will drift from one short term job to another or will continue to chase elusive low-skills jobs.
Trade unions, employers and government agencies must do what it takes to ensue that we avoid the worst effects of this new form of apartheid. It is well and good that trade unions defend those who are already in employment, but they should also promote measures that ensure that those who are unemployed are offered a chance to find their first job.
Similarly, government educational and employment agencies should create more incentives for employers to take on the inexperienced young workers and offer them realistic apprenticeships to gain confidence in their ability to be productive. They should also follow each case of underachieving students more thoroughly to ensure that a second or even a third chance of acquiring a skill is available to those who missed out on previous opportunities.
The PL will support any initiative that the government may take to improve the employability of our young people, as long as these initiatives are based on a serious commitment to achieve high quality results, and not just to improve statistics. We also realise that the jobs of the future will be very different from those of today.
The process of planning and executing our economic strategy for economic growth will always be a marathon and not a hundred meters race. Labour has the stamina to run this race that will give us the prize of high employment for our people.
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