“What an honour and privilege it is to be selected as part of the 2022 DHL GradStar Top 100 Awards! I am truly humbled to be recognised as one of the most employable students out of thousands of applicants across South Africa. I believe that this speaks volumes to the incredible foundation that has been laid by Boston City Campus in preparing me for the world of work. This recognition from GradStar upholds the notion that hard work and determination truly do pay off.
My passion for leadership and being a change agent for South Africa and the world at large has been further ignited by my GradStar journey. Not only have I realised my capabilities, but I have been provided with the opportunity to enhance my skills while building networks that could catapult my career to new heights. The idea of connecting top students with top employers, giving individuals an opportunity to be headhunted, is one that truly excites me. I look forward to the life-changing opportunities that will be brought about by being a GradStar Top 100!
I would like to express my utmost gratitude to my campus and the entire Boston City Campus team who have played a vital role in my academic journey. Your guidance and continuous support are appreciated and have truly kept me going.
To my fellow students, I greatly encourage you to continue the pursuit of education as it is through study and hard work that one can realise and reach their full potential. Bear in mind that what matters most is how you actually utilise the education and knowledge that you receive and gain over the years. I further urge you to adopt the idea of showing up. Show up in your education and show up for yourself. Someone is always watching, so always strive to put your best foot forward in all that you do. The journey of life may not always be easy, on some days you might even be on the brink of giving up, but keep going and always remember why you started. Your hard work may not necessarily yield results immediately, but remember that nothing worth having ever comes easy. The world is your oyster!” – Nthabiseng Hlabahlaba
South Africa’s youth bear the burden of the country’s unemployment burden
While the unemployment rate rose an unexpected 0,6%, South Africa is still facing a mass unemployment crisis, with 44.1% of the labour force without work in the second quarter. This is testament to the fact the country’s jobless rate is highest of 82 nations monitored by Bloomberg.
The Quarterly Labour Force Survey released on Tuesday shows 8 million jobless people still searching for jobs, an increase from 7.9 million in Q1. Additionally, there are 3.6 million discouraged workers and 700 000 South African’s who have stopped their job search for other reasons.
Stats for SA youth
“The recently released stats highlight the fact that South Africa’s youth are bearing the brunt of the unemployment burden,” says Ari Katz, CEO Boston City Campus.
Youth aged 15-24 and 25 -34 recorded the highest unemployment rates of 61,4% and 41,2% respectively. Approximately 3,7M (35,7%) out of 10,2 M young people aged 15-24 years were not in employment education or training (NEET). This means that more than 1 out 0f 3 young South Africans between these ages were disengaged with the labour market, precluding them from gaining experience or further skills and perpetuating intergenerational poverty.
The NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training) rate, seen in conjunction with high youth unemployment rate of over 60%, suggests that the youth face extreme difficulties engaging with the labour market in South Africa.
“Companies and institutions need to actively participate in providing and sourcing gainful employment for these youth” says Katz. “We need to be as proactive and as active as possible. We at Boston have an entire department dedicated to coaching, mentoring and assisting students who are in the job-seek space. Students and graduates have a gap in exposure to workplace behaviours and they need extra input in order to secure great jobs!”
Jobs in demand
CareerJunction reported that year-on-year, hiring activity has increased by 23% between June 2021 and June 2022. However, we need to be cognisant of which skills are in demand when we choose a qualifcation.
Vacancies over 2022, show these sectors as the most highly sought after: Finance Sales IT Business & Management Manufacturing & Assembly Admin, Office & Support Building & Construction,.
According to Stats SA, Graduates faired better in the workplace environment with the graduate unemployment rate at 10.2%,
Graduates need a holistic set of skills – both in terms of their field of expertise, technical know-how to participate in an increasingly digitised work environment and also so called soft skills such as communication, critical thinking, problem solving, self-discipline and time management.
Recent data from Boston Consulting Group reports that “there is more than 50% of a skills mismatch between the current South African workforce and the demands of the work environment.” This means that we need to be careful when choosing a qualification, but also that we need to adopt a mindset of lifelong learning and upskill even if we are in a job, to remain relevant.
“Skills mismatch (where graduates don’t have the skills to meet the demand, or find themselves in a job where they can’t perform because they have inappropriate skills) is a key contributing factor to the jobless crisis,” says Katz. “It is essential for tertiary institutions to have direct communication and interaction with the workplace, so as to create an efficient ecosystem that supplies matching skills to quality jobs in order to build our economy and stimulate graduate entry into the workplace.”
This requires a reciprocal interaction by education and private business – where corporations manage training programming and upskilling their employers so that education is informed.
“Additionally, government need to take the necessary steps to improve the responsiveness of education and training and academic institutions to develop the necessary qualifications to facilitate skills delivery and meet the evolving needs of the business environment,” says Katz.
Boston firmly believes in providing a broad, flexible education to its students and staff alike. Although we have become somewhat used to the new norm of remote working, it still comes with its challenges. Whether it is setting up your workplace, motivating yourself from home, building resilience, or understanding the importance of a work-life balance, we could all use a helping hand.
This is one of the many reasons that Boston City Campus has partnered with Bookboon Learning, the World’s most used corporate learning solution.
With thousands of engaging eBooks and educational podcasts, Bookboon Learning’s easy to access digital learning solution has helped many of our staff members stay connected and moving forward during these challenging times.
Here are some of BCC staff’s favourite picks:
Resilience in the Workplace
The post-pandemic workplace is full of change, deadlines, and stress. This eBook helps employees to develop a set of resilience strategies and skills designed to help them bounce back, grow, and thrive.
Working from Home
Remote working is now a reality for much of the working population meaning ensuring managers are equipped with the right skills is a must. This book is packed with key steps to get the best out of your remote workers. It also looks at the impact of generational diversity on home working. An easy but compelling read, this is an essential book both for managers and home-workers alike.
Access free eBook here
Daily Planning
Without our usual routine, it can be challenging to keep up with our role. Master daily planning and give yourself space to breathe and develop with this bite-sized eBook. Become more effective and efficient, do more in less time, reduce stress, free up time for development, and be a super planner!
At Boston City Campus, it is our commitment to provide both students and staff with engaging and effective educational tools. Find eBooks and podcasts on these and thousands of other topics by visiting your BostonBookboon Learning eLibrary or opt-out for the 30-days free trial (if not a Bostonite).
Learning anyplace and anytime is the new buzz phrase at Boston, inspired by the needs of employed learners as well as learners with geographical mobility concerns. Online learning saves time – which can be used more productively, in the home or in the workplace, – by reducing daily travel. It also saves travel costs. It also allows learners to learn at their own pace.
Technology-based training.
Learning when you are in control of the lecturer. This means that you stop and start as you process new concepts. It gives you time to properly understand the concepts, preventing huge gaps in skills and knowledge that can occur when a lecturer moves on before the whole class has understood. The importance of this control should not be underestimated, and this control is what has improved the academic success of Boston graduates.
Institutions maintaining a relationship with corporate and industry.
“There is rising crescendo about whether the education curriculum has been reformed enough to make graduates employable. Purely academic qualification is no longer particularly relevant to someone who, for instance, wants to become an entrepreneur”. (IAfrica.com). Boston continually liaises with industry to make sure graduates meet skills demands, and react positively to feedback from companies by way of adapting curriculums where necessary. WIL (Workplace learning) is a module included in qualifications where earners have to seek and perform specified duties in a workplace giving them real-time workplace experience.
Opening the pathways for private providers.
It has been established and played out on a public platform that public universities simply cannot meet the educational demands of industry or of the learners. Private universities such as Boston adapt teaching methodology, curriculum and fee payments and even day-to-day personal contact to ensure their learners’ needs are met. They, therefore, have a vastly higher throughput rate.
The concept of Life-long learning used to apply to IT. It now applies to every industry and every profession.
An ever-changing economy and diverse workplace, both culturally as well as skills-based creates the need for people to continually upgrade their skills in order to improve promotion potential as well as to simply remain relevant in the workplace.
Employers are in the position to demand greater competence
Universities have to include soft skills such as time management as well as excellent ICT skills, no matter the trade or profession. Learners must broaden their skills base, and if the skills are not included in their qualifications they must seek them elsewhere as add ons such as through Boston Connect. Vocational skills are increasingly being valued over and above theoretical qualifications.
Everyone should undergo a career assessment test before choosing a career path
According to research done by Accenture, it was found that only 41% of South Africans are actually satisfied with their jobs. Yet, the same survey also shows that very few of those who are unsatisfied with their jobs take any steps toward a career change.
There are numerous reasons for this, some include job security, the years spent on a specific career path, the time spent studying for that career and the comfort of knowing one has already gained the experience and that there’s risk involved in opting for a new job which requires a new skill set.
According to Natalie Rabson, Skills Development Facilitator at Boston City Campus & Business College “One of the main reasons why so many South Africans are unsatisfied with their careers and now find themselves stuck may be simply because they made the wrong career decision initially. We often were guided by our parents who wanted us to have lucrative careers that were in demand at the time. In addition – careers and skills demands have changed and not everyone has kept up to date!”
“Career decisions are often based on unrealistic fantasies and idealistic views or influenced by friends, family, the media and misinformed perceptions of careers,” says Rabson.
Another problem arises when students pick a qualification without understanding what jobs it will (and, importantly, won’t) qualify them for once they graduate. “We need to be realistic – while we may qualify in management –you can’t go out and manage a team in a business you don’t understand. You need to learn the business and understand the people you are managing first” says Rabson. In other words, Rabson advises to open yourself up to starting in an entry-level position.
For Rabson, the key to making the right career choice comes down to the kind of mentorship prospective students and job seekers are exposed to.
“Young adults need to be steered in the right direction and preferably by means of a structured process that helps determine what they really want from life, what their dreams are and what makes them unique. There also needs to be a proper understanding of their strengths and weaknesses, their thinking patterns, personality traits, work style preferences, values, and interests. These are the essential determining factors when it comes to making successful career decisions,” says Rabson.
Ideally one should already start thinking about which career path to take in those final school years. Thinking about it is one thing; more importantly, there needs to be some form of guided introspection. A structured, scientific approach is what’s needed.
Boston offers a career compass assessment where a prospective student meets up with a counsellor who will take him/her through a computerised process that aims to match the participant’s interests, skills, and personality through placing answers in suitable categories. This allows the counsellor to analyse the results and provide the prospective student with advice on possible course options and career opportunities in his/her recommended field.
“Making use of such a method whereby one’s interests, skills, and personality are aligned with a possible career path is a fundamentally important first step in the process of choosing the right career path. That is why we encourage all prospective students, whether they will eventually register at Boston or another tertiary institution, to come in for this career assessment. Too many students make a decision based on what friends are doing or what friends say or make impulsive career decisions and ultimately end up on the wrong career path,” adds Rabson.
“What we do know for sure is that your success in your qualification, as well as in your job, will be markedly increased if you choose something you love!” says Rabson. Seek professional guidance in making an informed career decision. Your future depends on it. Also, remember that more than a third of your life will be spent working – don’t waste it by being unhappy in your career because you made an uninformed or impulsive decision in your younger years,” concludes Rabson.
For more information on Boston’s Career Compass Assessment, please visit www.boston.ac.za.
More graduate programmes needed to ensure work-readiness among SA youth
In the past 15 years, graduate employment has risen in South Africa, despite the country’s exceptionally high unemployment rate. While a third of people are jobless, graduate unemployment has declined to under 5%. This according to new research by a leading think-tank, the Johannesburg-based Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE).
“The myth that graduates are struggling to find work can be set aside for now,” says Natalie Rabson, Marketing Manager at Boston City Campus & Business College. “The problem, however, is that graduates who are entering the workplace are not ready for it and a clear skills gap exists between what employers are looking for, and what graduates are capable of offering.”
In a 2009 study on South African graduates from the perspective of employers, it was already highlighted that a disparity exists between the expectations of employers and the work-readiness of graduates and that those expectations exceeded the level of work-readiness.
It has become clear that tertiary institutions need to do much more to help their graduates become work-ready. Surely this cannot entirely be their responsibility? Business and industry have to be held accountable as well – whilst universities or colleges are there to help graduates develop analytical and reasoning skills, business does have a role to play in getting students ready for work.
Fortunately, it does seem that things are changing for the better and some tertiary institutions are finding themselves driven towards producing graduates more fully prepared for the workplace. This needs to grow, and tertiary institutions and corporates need to create dialogue and communicate on workplace skills and experience. Education, therefore, needs to ensure that it is meeting the needs of its ultimate objective, the employer, and this can only happen if there’s more dialogue between colleges, universities, and employers in general. Boston has found that the best way to encourage this is by increased interaction and placement of students into internships and workplace opportunities as part of their course or degree requirements,” says Rabson.
Graduates also need to be properly matched to businesses in ways that focus on business needs. Taking more care in the placement of learners into the correct career, and then the placement of graduates into internships or work-experience opportunities, whether at corporate, government or SME level, will see a huge improvement in the success of workplace skills development. For this reason, Boston has offered the Career Compass, an assessment of one’s interests and attitude, free, for over 20 years. “Matching your education to your passion is one of the greatest instruments for academic and professional success,” says Rabson.
Boston City Campus & Business College, for example, has for years now directly taken on this challenge faced by students. “Yes, getting the necessary qualification is important, but acquiring hands-on experience and skills to help further one’s business knowledge and one’s understanding of workplace culture is as important. That’s why Boston has a recruitment office with a full-time manager. Through this office, students get the opportunity to interview for positions and apply, and often secure an internship or employment. Whilst internships can lead to permanent employment, the overall experience gives learners the chance to spruce up their CV’s and build experience in a real-world working environment,” says Rabson.
Boston has also launched the unique Graduate+ programme. This gives learners the confidence that their future is secure with the institution behind them. Those who opt into this programme, and meet the requirements, will be offered one of three options on graduating if they do not manage to secure employment within 6 months. These include assistance in finding employment, a postgraduate diploma for free, or a cash incentive that will support you will you continue to seek employment.
Call Boston on 011 551 2000 or email info@boston.co.za. Follow us on Facebook for continued education updates.
The Middle Path: Between the Comfort and the Snap Zone
The truth of breakthroughs and lucky breaks is that they are grown, like a crop: Planted, cultivated and ultimately harvested. (Jeff Olsen).
“While ‘achievers’ in different areas from academics to career, sport, and business may appear to have overnight success, the truth is their success is most often based on the cumulative impact of continuous effort which pushes them just outside their comfort zone,”.
On the other hand, setting impossible goals can result in underachievement or burnout from pushing too hard. Brian Johnson calls this the snap zone. Mindfulness and performance expert, George Mumford talks about the middle path – the area between the comfort and discomfort zone.
Want to learn more? Click here to listen to Dr. Linda Meyer, educational and career expert.
“What an honour and privilege it is to be selected as part of the 2022 DHL GradStar Top 100 Awards! I am truly humbled to be recognised as one of the most employable students out of thousands of applicants across South Africa. I believe that this speaks volumes to the incredible foundation that has been laid by Boston City Campus in preparing me for the world of work. This recognition from GradStar upholds the notion that hard work and determination truly do pay off.
According to research done by Accenture, it was found that only 41% of South Africans are actually satisfied with their jobs. Yet, the same survey also shows that very few of those who are unsatisfied with their jobs take any steps toward a career change.
“The myth that graduates are struggling to find work can be set aside for now,” says Natalie Rabson, Marketing Manager at Boston City Campus & Business College. “The problem, however, is that graduates who are entering the workplace are not ready for it and a clear skills gap exists between what employers are looking for, and what graduates are capable of offering.”