Business can try these relatively easy things to make the most of SA’s demographic dividend
Instead of writing off our youth, we should be finding ways to help them past the education system that is letting them down, writes David Harrison
It should go without saying that investment in children and young people is the source of future human capital. They should be at the forefront of strategies for economic growth and development in SA. But they’re not. Chief among reasons is we are stuck in finger-pointing mode. Corporate leaders say young people are unemployable because of the poor quality of education. To some extent that is true, but there is also much that business has the power to fix. One-third of our population is between 15 and 35 years of age. We should be capitalising on the "demographic dividend" of this youth bulge. Instead, SA chooses to write off half its potential human capital. By their mid-twenties, most young people should have completed their education and transitioned into the world of work. But half of 25 year olds are not in education, work or training. Chances are they will never get a decent job. Actually, we write young people off a lot earlier in life. Children who are "on track" by Grade 4 ...
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