Wednesday 7th of July 2021
ght; height:275px; width:300px" />In the 20 years...
In the 20 years since the end of apartheid South Africa has seen an abundance of positive economic change, but there is still a long way to go. The introduction of technologies into a very agricultural society has created a gap in industry; quick advancing technological industries on one end, and low paying laborers on the other. Although South Africa now has a large African middle-class, there remains a high amount of unemployment stemming from the lack of education to meet the current technologically powered world’s demands.
The poor quality of education and teachers needs to be corrected in order to provide quality education to the new middle class and the large number of unemployed 35 and under age group, to maintain steady economic growth within the region. Additionally, new industry in the agricultural, mining and textile industries needs to be established in order to support the large population of African’s who are only trained in these areas.
With the largest portion of unemployment being those who are 35 and under and who are considered “unemployable”, it will be vital to reeducate and train the younger generation in order to sustain economic growth. All of this reeducating needs to be done while continuing to support the technological growth that has helped make South Africa the “largest economy in the second largest continent in the world,” as Tara Kangarlou of CNN phrases it. The current growth and education cycle is providing huge business opportunities for those entrepreneurs willing to make the investment.
The comparison of today’s South Africa to that of South Africa 20 years ago is like night and day. The end of Apartheid catapulted South Africa into the cell-phone, internet, and highly technological age. They have gone from a country that barely had landline phone access in 1993 to a country that in 2013 launched a satellite into space.
This expedited leap into the 21st century has helped create a large middle class that more than doubled in size amongst the ethnically African population within the first 14 years of democracy and nearly tripled South Africa’s Gross Domestic Product to more than $400 Billion in 2011.
These positive economic conditions have not come without growing pains though. Since the majority of the non-white South African populous training and education has been in the industries of agriculture, mining and textiles, there is now an entire population of people who are in need of re-education to meet the current jobs that are available.
To help offset this need new technology in these fields is needed that does not simply mechanize current jobs putting more people out of work, but that helps those in these industries transition to other types of jobs within these industries. Other countries have been through this same evolution of growth and industry transition. The difference is that these other countries did so at a much more gradual rate as technologies were being established, whereas South Africa has been thrown into the already tried and true world of technology without the benefit of evolution.
Five million jobs have been added in the past two decades, but in a nation of 52 million people even with that growth in employment there are still seven million people who are unemployed. That is nearly an eighth of the population is without jobs. This creates a large untapped labor force for those businesses and industries that are willing to invest in the training needed to operate a business in this region. Ironically, as the overall economy of South Africa has grown so has the unemployment rate, rising from 31.5 percent in 1994 to 35.6 percent in 2013.
This growth in industry and in the unemployment rate is directly related. As new technology for industries that have in the past been all done by workers moved in, it mechanized many positions creating more efficient and cost effective production and eliminating many jobs. Since these jobs that were eliminated were blue collar untrained or those without much formal education, there was no alternative work available to these now unemployed workers.
This is where a better education structure comes in. The current education system in South Africa is severely lacking. Many of the teachers are attempting to teach subjects that they themselves can barely do or know little about. The dedication of the teaching staff to work a full five day week teaching is not there, and the materials to adequately educate the public are missing.
Without a strongly educated next generation the country’s economic growth will not be sustainable. The 35 an under age group that is currently the largest portion of the unemployed is also the worker base that will have to take over when the older workers retire and can no longer fill the workforce needs. It is in this area that companies such as Deeksha Educational Consultancy are an opportunity to invest in South Africa’s future while investing in a franchise. It is an opportunity to invest in the building of quality education and training for the workforce in South Africa. More new companies focused on education and educational supplies will be needed in order to prepare the seven million unemployed citizens in South Africa as the new work force that will continue to propel South Africa into an economic dynamo.
Other franchise or business opportunities will be in the growth and expansion of current and future technologies, such as Aps Unloaded. Smart Phone Aps are a growing market place and combined with the extensive availability of South African workers, this franchise opportunity is a step forward in both boosting the South African economy and getting in on the ground floor of an expanding enterprise.
Although the South African economic growth slowed to only 1.9 percent in 2013 and is projected to be 2.8 percent in 2014, it is continuing to increase even throughout the Global Recession. For it to continue to grow and remain stable for decades to come it will require outside investment to the infrastructure by creating new business opportunities, better training and educational programs, and innovative technologies to help close the gap of types of work opportunities available with the abilities of the available work force. With that said, do not assume that South Africans are sitting on their hands waiting for jobs to come in. Their new generation of innovative thinkers are creating products that the world will soon take notice of. Some of these innovations are:
As more and more innovative products addressing South Africa’s unique climate, terrain, cultural, and life issues arise, the better their Gross Domestic Product will become and the more business opportunities will arise.
Entrepreneurs looking for the next big growth opportunity will see South Africa as the next China or India in the aspect of potential innovations, unclaimed markets and vast labor forces. The current issue of under educated former farming, mining and textile workers provides a new untapped, trainable workforce to be molded into informed, educated, and productive personnel for whatever business venture that steps up and trains them. This will provide fiscally beneficial business opportunities, investment ventures, and stability to the South African economy.
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