SPECIAL FEATURE
SPECIAL FEATURE YES4YOUTH gives young people work experience. 2023, it issued, together with the BRICS Business Council, the “Atlas of Emerging Jobs in the Food and Beverage Sector”. Taking into account global trends that include mechanisation, the atlas shows that bio-nutritionists, farm technicians and integration software engineers are going to be in demand. Many of these are jobs that did not exist 20 years ago, and some of the jobs that will exist in 20 years’ time have not even been thought of by the authors of the atlas. Some universities are also showing an ability to adapt. Enterprises University of Pretoria is the skills division of the university and its short-course offering shows admirable variety. In listing its courses in advertising material, the unit flags the courses that are “trending”. These include project risk management, mine closure and rehabilitation, water quality management and information security management. Enterprise UP issued 11 185 certificates in 2022. Business schools also need to examine their curriculums to ensure relevance. One way of staying relevant is to hire people who are active in business. Enterprise UP has 148 “subject matter experts” collaborating with staff members from 67 departments. Hlengani Mathebula became a professor at the University of Limpopo’s Turfloop Graduate School of Leadership in 2023. He has been the managing executive of ABSA Private Bank and is the founder of Ignite Africa Advisory Services Group. Writing in the Sunday Times, Mathebula argued that students attending business schools should also have work experience because, without it “very little of what these schools teach will make sense, putting students at a disadvantage”. Mathebula’s larger argument is that business schools can play a role in helping rich South Africans understand and work with poorer South Africans. He writes that a business school’s first challenge is to provide skills where both kinds of South Africans can “find common ground that will transform the dominant leadership trajectory and in that way transform the country”. ■ SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS 2024 24 PHOTO: YES4YOUTH
WE MAKE STEAM Steinmüller Africa (Pty) Ltd. is one of the enterprises in Bilfinger Power Africa (Pty) Ltd., the South African subsidiary of German based Bilfinger SE. For years, we have been adding value to the power, mining, paper pulping and broader industry through comprehensive valve supply, valve maintenance and heat treatment solutions. www.steinmuller.bilfinger.com WORK Engineering design services Boiler pressure parts Commissioning, field and testing services Bellows Headers Induction bending of HP/HT piping Heat treatment (workshop and in situ) HP Heaters Piping technology Pipe supports Plant erection services Explosive welding MEMBER OF THE BILFINGER GROUP OF COMPANIES
