THE REALITY: POST GRADUATION

IT is graduation season and there is so much joy and happiness this brings for the families and students that have waited for this moment for a breakthrough. What does this mean? The significance of this milestone is different for every individual, and the one that comes from a background that is not so privileged is getting so much more than just a certificate, but their hopes to change their story and to change their family situation.

Expectations

There are many expectations: To get a job, buy a car, build a family home, among other things. However, the reality and realisation they are about to meet is different from these expectations and hopes. On the other side of the academic journey is a cold world, waiting to eat at the hopes of such people, to take away the hopes and dreams of young people. This is simply because, unfortunately, there are extremely limited opportunities to meet the demand that our community has.

The number of graduates that are produced on a yearly basis is above the opportunities that are created, which means that there is already an issue of demand and supply. The few existing opportunities are reserved for the fortunate and that is another painful reality many graduates are forced to face, after completing these studies. The jobs that are created have people waiting to occupy them simply by virtue of affiliation and association, which means that the job advert you see in the market is most likely meant for someone already, someone who doesn’t deserve the job-  most of the time underqualified or unqualifying for the job.

Reality

It is just an audit trail for a company that must still comply with processes and although it is a dream for the many unemployed people praying for a breakthrough, the reality does change.
Perhaps this speaks to how unfair society is and that the social imbalances that have existed for years continue to do so and enslave the young people that need to live a different reality. The rich get richer while the poor get poorer and the poor that fight to come out of poverty are constantly beaten back down by social structures and social inequality that burdens the majority. There are many books, lectures, speeches that motivate and speak to young people. However, that is all there ever is, the constant validation and motivation to push, to remain hopeful and that education is the key to ‘changing your story,’ until you walk downtown, and you see many educated people, whose stories have not changed.

You walk downtown and find so many educated people idle, with the certificates that they have spent years working hard for. The real question is who do we blame? Should there be no one held accountable in this regard? This reflects poorly on government structures and policies because if government is for the people, then job recreation should be a set mandate to destroy the impact of unemployment and to remain true to the power of education. When we continue to fail to do so, we discourage current high school learners from aspiring to enroll in higher education to ‘improve’ their lives because each year they constantly see many people leave these institutions only to end up doing low income labour to make ends meet, because no one is hiring them or even looking at them.

At the other end of the spectrum is job creation through funds and start ups, offered by institutions and government, which remain inaccessible for the people it is meant to benefit. Many young people show up, only to be shut out by all the paperwork and paper trail that cannot be acquired at their level. For example, a scheme will target people of the age group 25 – 35 to bring in good business proposals for funding and require that this person have land, rental space and sometimes even anything they can use for collateral in order to get those funds.
How does someone straight from tertiary, with a solid business plan and has probably only ever worked as a waitress, have anything they can use as collateral when they stay at their family home? All these security trails and demands make these funds inaccessible for the people that they are supposedly meant to benefit.

At the end of the day, many graduates come back to a society that does not cater to their dreams or qualifications and this is a sign that we exist in an economy that is failing to create opportunities for the skills that many have.

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