'The Philips African Dialogues' discusses skills gap in Africa
CNBC Africa, the continent's business television news channel, will be screening the fourth episode of the series, 'The Philips African Dialogues', a discussion of issues and topics impacting society and business in Africa. The forth dialogue discusses the 'Skills Gap in Africa'. The dialogue took place on 20 March 2013 and will be broadcast on Saturday, 23 March between 7pm and 8pm (CAT) on DStv channel 410.
A recent report by the McKinsey Global institute revealed that by 2020, there could be as many as 40 million too few high-skill workers and up to 95 million too many low-skill workers out in the job market. Though this may be a worldwide figure, it seems clear that this skills-job imbalance is nowhere more applicable than sub-Saharan Africa, where the under-25 account for three fifths of the unemployed sector, with unemployment rates averaging at 40% in the industrially developed Nairobi alone.
The panelists at the dialogue include:
CNBC Africa anchor, Samantha Loring will moderate the discussion, which will be filmed in the CNBC Africa, Sandton studio, in Johannesburg, South Africa.
"Philips remains committed to addressing the shortage of trained and skilled professionals across Africa. Education is really key, and that is why we have established partnerships with leading Universities in Egypt and South Africa to improve the practical, clinical and technological knowledge and skills of students in the engineering and healthcare disciplines. Through our healthcare sector, we are already involved in clinical trainings of the health care workforce. In addition, we are in active discussions across Africa to establish a dedicated training framework, to increase the output of trained and skilled healthcare professionals in the continent."
"Philips remains open to partnerships that will provide the development of both technical and practical competencies of the workforce and improve the productivity and effectiveness at the workplace in the long-term." says JJ van Dongen, senior vice president and CEO Philips Africa.
Some of the key issues and questions that will be touched on include the precarious battle between Africa's increasing technological development and the struggle to supply skilled workers for such growth. Where have the skilled workers gone to? How do we redress the balance between the skill-jobs mismatch?
