LETTER: Job creation should precede upskilling

Two articles in the opinion section of Business Day on Thursday made for interesting reading (“Confronting trickle-down presumptions” and “Lack of post-industrial skills holding back a new generation of workers”, January 12). These are two very different perspectives, and I venture the former is the more realistic and thought-provoking one.  

A high-skilled economy gives no immediate hope to the millions of job seekers with the incorrect or minimal skills. We need to follow the Chinese example by first designing job-creating economies. Then, over time, we can tackle the upskilling of workers. Meanwhile, we must address the far more difficult and long-term issue of improving the education system to prepare young people to meet the needs of a modern economy.

We are at least one or even two generations away from achieving that objective. An economy based on lower-skilled workers producing or assembling goods for export would give an immediate or near-term boost to the economy. It would be a good idea to invite the authors of both articles to debate this issue in an open forum.

David Sykes
Via email

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