Abstracts

52 the New Venture Creation Learnership Programme, which addresses the AI threat to the workforce by teaching workers soft skills pertinent only to humans, such as strategic planning, business strategy, and operation and management. The EPWP’s well-meaning intentions notwithstanding, data in the 2019 annual report suggest that the actual amount of training available is insufficient. The program in 2019 provided a total of 11,000 training days to workers in nine cities, a tiny 0.18% of the total six million days those same people worked. Capetown, at 0.99%, had the highest ratio of training days to work days and accounted for 78% of the total number of training days, whereas Mangaung had zero days of training for workers (Karuri-Sebina, 2019). The differences in the training days ratio reflect the lack of standardization across the EPWP program. Even a multifold budget increase would not suffice given the lack of training capacity. As the program enters the next phase, previous performance demonstrates the incapability of transitioning a high volume of workers into the workforce on a permanent basis. STEM Education The South African government also seeks to resolve its labor problem through education, since a third of the population are children under the age of 14 (DSSA, 2019). As AI fully emerges, this youth population will be the main driver for the economy, so focusing on the educational system, specifically STEM education, will facilitate a better understanding of South Africa’s capacity to adapt to the changes. A DHET study pointed out the inefficiency in the education system, specifically in STEM fields. Compared to other similar middle-income developing countries (e.g., Brazil, Malaysia, and Thailand), South Africa spends the most on education (6% of total GDP compared to the 5.1% average), yet it has the lowest mathematics achievement scores (Manda & Ben Dhaou, 2019). Despite the government’s focus on revamping the education system through myriad new initiatives, for instance the Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative and the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, hopes for improvement have not been realized. Over the past seven years, the rate for college students who passed math with higher than 50% has been hovering around 20%. According to a WEF report (Baller et al., 2016), South Africa ranked last (of 139 nations in the report) in math and science education and in the bottom three in the quality of the education system at foundation levels. Despite an increase in school enrollment in STEM fields, STEM-related degrees account for only 29% of the total degrees granted by higher- education institutions, a low rate compared to other emerging countries, for instance India (42.6%) and Brazil (33.9%) (Manda & Ben Dhaou, 2019). STEM education is crucial for the workforce; in the early phase of the upcoming changes, abilities to think critically and to work alongside machines remain the top priorities. According to WEF research (2018), 96% of surveyed South African companies are already adopting big data analytics, and 90% have invested in machine learning. These levels of adoption demonstrate a change in corporate strategies to implement new technologies and leverage computing power in daily operations. Workers with strong STEM foundations will be more flexible in accommodating changes in this era. The current inefficient and low quality of the STEM education system poses a substantial challenge for the country’s capacity to adapt to the upcoming changes. Skill Sets Required Going Forward In the digital world, where algorithms continue to outperform humans in various cognitive and physical tasks, it is crucial for workers to focus on soft skills. In the long term, these factors will differentiate between humans and robots. As machines take over mundane tasks, it will be essential for humans to be even better at collaboration, flexibility, and critical thinking. Traits important for the South African labor force during this period include having an ability to leverage digital platforms, a high level of emotional intelligence, a capacity for complex problem solving, and a growth mindset (Phillips et al., 2018). Lee (2018) claims that despite its impressive computing power, AI cannot be creative or compassionate.