Africa: Job Economy Versus Skill Economy

When you look around, you'll find people saying things like, 'there are no jobs', 'the government are not creating jobs'. The rate at which graduates are being turned out yearly and the little jobs available for them is crazy basically.

The truth is, we've gone past the job economy, we are tending towards the skill economy and there is a thin line, a very fine thin line.

If you are looking to the government to give you a job or you are waiting on jobs, you're going to get it eventually. But just so you know, it's getting harder by the day, and that's because we have gone past that job economy.

So as a graduate or an intending graduate, at every point in time, you need to ask yourself what skill, what knowledge or what do you have to offer an organisation asides your certificate.

This is a new reality and you need to evolve with it. You can sit back and expect that when you're done with school the government will come looking for you to give you a job or avail opportunities to you, where you get to select one.

We've gone past that now! It is now time for you to look out there and ask, what are the high in demand skills?

For instance, UI/UX designs, programming, web development, copywriting and so many skills like these are skills that anybody could learn.

Some may look difficult, but they're not. They just requires dedication, consistency and a 'I can do it' attitude.

When you acquire theses skills, you update your curriculum vitae, you apply to organisations where these skills are sought after. Just wait! You'll see the magic.

At this point, you no longer want to work for organisations? Good! You can become a freelancer. There are jobs available, it will all depends on what you want.

I know of tech guys who constantly have jobs on a weekly basics. They've make up their mind that every month, they're going to work on at least 5 jobs and anything more than that, they decline.

And each of these 5 jobs on the average should pay them $500. How much do you think that is per month? We're looking at at least $2,500.

When you see these guys leaving the big boy life you think they are doing other things probably because they're always on their computer. No! This is the new gold. This is it!

What skill are you ready to acquire to better yourself and to become more relevant?

There was a time when job availability, jobs creation by the government of our country was done and increasing at an arithmetic progression. Currently, looking at the situation of things, You can't even argue at all that graduates being turned out yearly by various higher institutions are actually increasing at a geometric progression.

The point where they intersected has passed a long time ago. At this point, they are now moving adjascent to each other. The probability of them intersecting again is very low or equal to zero.

And if that's our reality, what do you do?

Do you want to actually go around telling the tail of how you're unable to get jobs or do you want to man up and create a job for yourself and even for other people?

Thee story you decide to put out there is entirely up to you, but one thing I can tell you for a fact is that, no matter what you say, no matter how you feel this story is beautiful every time you tell how you don't have a job and how the government isn't giving you one, it doesn't change the fact that for an organisation to hire you, they would always ask, "what is it for us?"

What do you have to offer us?

So, instead of sitting back and telling these stories, resist that urge and learn a skill, equip yourself and go out there.

The sky will be a starting point.