About MICareer
MY ISISEKELO CAREER
MICareer
MICareer refers to ‘my isisekelo career’, which is a career hub established and launched by Isisekelo Graduate Development Institute in collaboration with various partners which include schools, colleges, universities, non-governmental and non-profit organisations, government departments, professional bodies, state-owned entities, and private sector business organisations to promote career development, guidance and support at schools and institutions of higher education and training to ultimately eliminate critical and scarce skills shortages and youth unemployment in general throughout the economy.
Why MICareer platform was launched.
The recent July 2021 outbreak of socio-economic unrests, protests, and lawlessness culminating in rampant looting and destruction to property, prompted churches, communities, businesses, concerned citizens, government departments, and civil society organisations and various NGOs to seek understanding of underlying causes and impactful solutions thereof.
Societal income inequalities, poverty, and unemployment especially among the youth have been identified as some of the underlying causes requiring impactful interventions.
Therefore, MICareer platform was launched as one of the important mechanisms to address the inherent root causes to the prevailing youth unemployment within our country’s economy-that is the educational empowerment of the youth.
Challenges Faced by South African Learners
Most of South African school learners who complete Matric do not take Mathematics and Science as part of their chosen subjects, thereby making it impossible for them to enrol for further studies towards qualifications whose careers are classified as high demand critical and scarce skills.
Although 36% of matric learners complete their matriculation with university entry Batchelor Degree passes, and 25% of the matriculants complete with Diploma passes, only a fraction of these matriculants do meet the admission requirements to enrol for qualifications leading to careers in the areas of critical and scarce skills in demand by the economy.
Therefore, about 50% of learners who successfully matriculate each year end up not being able to enrol for further studies within the public institutions of higher education and training because of not meeting admission requirements, thereby joining the group of youth who are not in employment, and not in the education and training systems.
In addition, many matriculants fail to study further due to lack of knowledge, information and awareness about available career options, study fields and entry requirements, critical and scarce skills in demand, available study funding opportunities and options, and critical subjects at matric level. Some fail to study further due to lack of awareness of available public and private universities and colleges as well as late applications for tertiary studies within public higher education institutions, or not meeting the minimum admission requirements for the chosen study qualifications.
Therefore, MICareer has been established and launched to bring about solutions to the plight faced by the South African School Leaners in general and especially matriculants, as well as critical and scarce skills shortages and youth unemployment within the economy.
Economic challenges: Skills shortage vs Unemployment
According to Statistics South Africa, the South African economy is experiencing huge shortages of critical and scarce skills highly in demand to grow the economy.
On the other hand, the South African economy is faced with high rate of unemployment, about 40% of the population’s workforce is unemployed, and of this the majority are youth comprising 70% of youth unemployment within the South African economy.
It is evident that the economy is characterised by high skills mismatch given the high critical and scarce skills shortages in contrast to high levels of unemployment in general and specifically the youth unemployment.
Basic Education/Schooling Systems
According to Statistics South Africa, about 40% of South African children entering our schooling systems end up dropping out of the basic education schooling system before successfully completing Matric based on various reasons.
According to the published results, the Matric pass rate of 2021 stood at 76.4%, and about 36% of the matriculants completed Matric with university entry bachelor degree passes, while 25% of the matriculants completed Matric with diploma passes, and 15% with higher certificate passes.
It is observed that most of the careers in high demand for scarce and critical skills require Mathematics and Science at matric level. However, it is shocking to note that only 29% of the matriculants wrote Mathematics in contrast to the 49% who wrote Maths Literacy, and 22% wrote Physical Science.
In addition, it is also revealed that about 44% of the youth between the ages 15 – 34 years are not in employment, and not in education and training systems.
It is quite clear that there is a need for some initiatives and measures to rectify the weakness inherent within our basic education systems which lead to high levels of school dropouts and lack of interest for mathematics and science subjects, and high levels of youth unemployment
Therefore, MICareer has been established and launched to bring about realistic solutions to the challenges faced by the school learners and the youth.
Higher Education/Professional Training
The challenges faced by most students within the institutions of higher learning/ education and training include the following:
> Studying towards careers which they have no interest or did not plan to do but were forced to pursue as a last resort after they did not qualify for admission to their preferred fields of study as a result of their weak matric subjects combination or scores;
> Studying for careers without having exposure to the professional bodies responsible for the career field and sector prospective employers until they complete their studies resulting in challenges in securing practical training opportunities.
> Not having access to employers to do internships/ learnerships/ apprenticeships.
> Completing studies for qualifications without any prospects of finding employment.
> Changing the career study discipline before completing their enrolled qualifications after realising that they made wrong choices of study fields.
Therefore, MICareer has been established and launched to bring about solutions to the challenges faced by students within the institutions of higher learning and training.
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