Lies, damned lies, and curriculum vitae; or why ratings may be the future of education

"The graduate unemployment rate stands at 10.5% for 2005 - a rate higher than most national unemployment rates in comparable middle-income countries," declares Haroon Bhorat, director of the Development Policy Research Centre at the University of Cape Town.

Bhorat goes on to indicate that the fault lies within the education system rather than with employers simply failing to offer jobs.  The educational institutions responsible for training people are producing graduates who are not able to perform at the standard that their elegant looking qualifications promise.

Analysts poring over Trevor Manuel's budget have been excited at his largesse.  Much money is being handed to departments to, finally, start massive infrastructure and development spending.  This morning, at the Deloitte Budget Breakfast, Crispin Sonn of Old Mutual Personal Finance became the first to voice a concern that will grow louder and louder, "There are significant capacity constraints in civil society.  There is plenty of money available, but where are the skills coming from to ensure effective implementation?"

This is something we should have seen coming.  Most government departments across the country are critically short of staff.  If you have a look in any newspaper’s job pages you’ll note that the vast bulk of jobs available are senior positions in government.  It isn’t only that many of the jobs are only available for black South Africans.  There are also critical shortages of skilled people.  ASGiSA – the government’s accelerated skills development program – is not coming close to developing a solution to the problem.

Future growth is now imperilled, not for want of money, but for want of necessary talent.

It is not surprising that, given the incredible unemployment levels and the terrible staff shortages, many people are hired on limited scrutiny and turn out to have wholly fabricated curriculum vitae.  It is no wonder that, if the applicant has qualified at a college the HR scrutineer has never heard of, the CV is binned.

The nature of education has failed to keep up with the increasing diversity of society.  Educational institutes open and close with horrifying regularity; and do keep in mind that most people go to night-colleges.  The centre of Johannesburg is filled with fly-by-night colleges offering graduates wonderful jobs if you'll just sign up for a course.

At the same time, information has become completely distributed.  It is possible to learn virtually anything via correspondence or over the Internet.  This is a wonderful opportunity for countries with limited infrastructure and support of their own.

However, how do you prove that you gained the education you say you did if all you have to show for it are lots of receipts from Internet cafes?  Current education systems are incapable of recognising the learned and acquired abilities of the self-taught.

It may be that ratings are the future of trust relationships.  You are far more likely to experiment with a new product from your favourite retailer than purchase the same product from some street-trader.  Simply because you trust your retailer.

The future must be different.  Your skills that you developed on your own are not always readily visible to the person interviewing you are giving 20 seconds sight to your CV.  However, imagine that, at the top of the page, was the name of a trusted and familiar brand; and they had rated your skill for the task at hand.

Wouldn't that make life easier?

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