FESBC SUGGESTS COLLABORATION

MBABANE - Due to COVID-19, an ongoing FESBC survey suggests approximately 60 per cent of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) and companies expect a major drop in revenue.
The survey says they expect to report at least a 10 per cent decrease in revenue and earnings this year.

This is reflected in an article by the Federation of the Eswatini Business Community (FESBC) experts. It is entitled Economics in the Time of COVID-19.
As a result, FESBC is making a call for a new era of Eswatini higher education and employer collaboration.
 “An ongoing FESBC survey reveals a rapidly growing skills mismatch across the kingdom, and globe and estimates that 1.3 billion people have competencies misaligned with the work they perform—including 53.3 million in Africa, a number that is surely far higher today due to the pandemic.

 “The unprecedented pace of innovation—especially technological innovation—is largely to blame, and as COVID-19 accelerates the shift to remote, digital work environments; the skills mismatch is widening faster than ever,” shared FESBC.
The report identified a strong need for closer collaboration between higher-education institutions and employers.

“Our research reveals that Eswatini higher education and vocational institutions have a tremendous opportunity to step up and help reduce the mismatch and economic recovery nationwide.
“They can do so by initiating deep collaboration with business employers nationwide to equip the Eswatini workforce with up-to-date, in-demand competencies,” reported FESBC. According to a correspondence copied to this publication, MSMEs and companies , in turn, should support this collaboration by investing in their people and working with higher education and vocational institutions to offer upskilling and reskilling opportunities along a lifelong learning path.

obstacles

“The ongoing pandemic will certainly throw new obstacles along the path—including uncertainty around student enrolment, changing operating models, and the need for virtual learning at scale—but it has also kick-started the move to online training, which takes less time than in-person efforts, is more cost effective, and has strong potential for future growth in our Kingdom,” highlighted the report.
The  FESBC ongoing survey so far revealed that many Eswatini business employers today  were struggling to keep themselves and their employees on top of the latest skills and technologies, even as higher education providers scramble to prepare students for the roles they hope to fill.

“Although higher education typically provides a good foundation and mindset for pursuing a future career, it can fall short in providing an up-to-date education that aligns with business employers’ needs.
“In fact, only a third of Eswatini college students expect to graduate with the knowledge and skills they will need to be employable and successful in the workplace, and just over half believe their major course of study will lead to a good job, according to the ILO and our FESBC observation,” noted FESBC.

Once hired, according to the report, many employees must deal with lower productivity and higher costs than in the past, due to the need for additional training.  “As we observe at FESBC, there is a challenge around job retention in the early years, partly driven by misaligned business employer expectations around the knowledge and skills a new graduate will possess,” shared FESBC. Compounding the issue, employees today change jobs—and even careers—more frequently than they used to, hampering business employers’ ability to manage long-term learning pathways.
“To succeed, Higher Education Institutions should collaborate with potential business employers across their employees’ lifelong learning cycle,” said FESBC.

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