The combination of Covid-19 and the acceleration of technology has changed the world of work forever.
It is hard to be young. At this point in the world’s collective history, it is increasingly clear that to be a young person on the verge of entering a career and making your own way in life, can be extremely daunting.
In SA, unemployment is at an all-time high, with the hardest hit group once again our job-seeking youth – at a staggering 63.3%.
There is also increasing evidence that the Covid-19 pandemic was particularly hard on young people, and has left them more stressed, anxious, and depressed than any other age group.
A contributing reason – often cited in different international studies – is the stress of trying to adapt to remote or online learning, and the inability to engage in person. But the essence of young people’s fears and anxiety seems to lie much deeper.
Young people’s goals also seem to be continuously thwarted as schooling and studying are regularly disrupted and job security diminishing.
On top of that, young people have a much greater need for regular social interaction – a need increasingly difficult to satisfy.
So, what is the role of universities in the lives of the young aspirant job seekers on our campuses in such a delicate state of being and with the odds seemingly stacked so high against them?
Part of our responsibility lies in not only making our students’ migration to campuses easier, but also in making their student experience more memorable. In the pandemic environment, this poses an entirely new challenge.
Part of being human is to attach value and significance to ceremony and ritual. We need these to mark important milestones and transitions in our lives. And the pandemic has unfortunately robbed us of a lot of that.
Here we should spare a thought for the matrics of 2020. They had to sacrifice so much of their final school year. Come 2021, for most of them, the "first-year experience" was equally anticlimactic, with many popular mass activities cancelled or moved online.
Effective orientation of first-time entry students remains a crucial aspect of their transition to higher education and provides a firm foundation for their learning, development, and success.
This is especially true of the SA higher education system, where about 70% of the cohort are "first-generation" students – the first in their households to study at a higher education institution.
It is clear that online learning will remain a large and valuable part of tertiary education – even in a post-pandemic scenario. It can, however, never completely replace face-to-face tuition.
The digital future emphasises the importance of developing skills that would never be substituted by machines, but increasingly vital to use in tandem with evolving technology. Skills such as leadership, empathy, critical thinking, and creativity. Imparting these "human" skills requires human interaction.
Students greatly benefit from the "campus experience" in so many ways. While on campuses, we give them a glimpse of what an ideal society based on mutual respect and tolerance and guided by social justice should look like.
In this way, we not only produce good workers, but good citizens.
In a report released earlier this year, the World Economic Forum (WEF) makes a powerful plea to governments, businesses, and educational institutions to invest in the "upskilling" of the worldwide workforce. The report finds there is a stark mismatch between people’s current skills and the skills needed for jobs to be created in the next decade.
According to this report, universities can and should play a much bigger role in upskilling and lifelong learning than they do today.
This requires collaboration with industry partners, staying abreast of developments and training needs in different sectors, and constantly initialising and adapting training courses to fulfil these needs.
This will not necessarily be in the form of full-time study, but rather short modules done online or face to face, involving students at different points in their career paths, completing training at their own pace.
We need to build long-standing relationships where students continually receive follow-up input and training after graduating in order to be equipped for the challenges of the world of work.
This means we will no longer be simply an "alma mater" that forms part of their past, but a present and constant travel partner on the road to work success.
• Prof Petersen is rector and vice-chancellor of the University of the Free State
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