Preparing Africa for the workforce of tomorrow

Paul Mutebi, a graduate of Makerere University, is an IT teacher at Train Up a Child Primary School. His passion has always been teaching IT and he undertook a Harvard University online certificate course in Computer Science, which he completed in two years. He then offered to launch computer studies in primary schools.

The response was positive. Alongside having these lessons integrated into the timetable, he launched extra classes, which were strongly backed by parents.

He now teaches around 200 students aged between 6 years to 13 years. They undertake basic computing classes and programming languages. A youthful entrepreneur, he has started a company, Technology International Academy, with a friend, and plans to offer IT programs during school holidays charging $200 for three months.

He is currently talking with the government to assimilate these programs into the mainstream education sector.

"Our goal is to reach these children early and teach them how to identify and develop effective solutions for societal challenges. We want to prepare them early for future technological jobs," Mutebi said.

But policy makers and academicians need foresight to shape course development, analysts said during the Africa Blockchain Conference. More than 70 percent of graduates said that the education they received was of no use to their current jobs, said Ggobi, the lecturer from Makerere University.

To make education respond to evolving future labor market requirements, governments need to be bold and deliberate. Strong leadership is needed to walk the paths that are yet to be trodden, said the scholar from Makerere, adding that the education system needs to become agile, to easily adapt to the market: "Africa will then have a vibrant ecosystem that is ready to take challenges of tomorrow."

Education must therefore move away from fact-based cramming to building creative and interactive skills in students, said David Casey, the chief executive of NuMundo, a tech company based in the US. "These are the skills that cannot be replaced by machines."

Casey's research revealed that 58 million people will take up online offices in the future. People would not need to go to offices or have a 40-hour week. More and more work will be rendered seasonal and flexible and there would be 1 billion work nomads by 2035. "Unlike now when people find security in holding down employment for long, in future, people will change jobs frequently," he said.

This will emerge more in some parts of the world depending on access to internet.