Abstracts

54 this era—human skills, active learning, and problem solving—South Africa appears to be in a high-risk situation as its labor force’s capacity to adapt remains limited. Recommendations There are multiple views on the impact of upcoming technological changes. Some argue that it will be like previous revolutions, in which, faced with technological advances, humans adapted and more opportunities were created. On the other hand, some like Harari (2016) see these upcoming changes as obstacles, if not detriments, especially for low-skilled labor and low-income groups, unless successfully navigated. South Africa’s future depends greatly on how well this young democracy can undo the damages of apartheid while moving the country altogether forward. Undeniably, these problems are complex and require years and a long series of good policies and programs to fully address. However, there are two immediate steps the government can take: incentivize creation of transitioning jobs and amend the vocational training system. For the long term, it can focus on STEM skills and knowledge for the next generation of workers. Some countries, such as India, Singapore, and France, already are designing national AI strategies that provide roadmaps for preparing the labor force, regulations, data governance, and so forth. For example, one proposal by the Indian government to mitigate the effect of job displacement that could be implemented in South Africa is creating transitioning jobs. “These jobs ideally would be part of the AI solution development value chain but require a relatively low level of expertise so it can create employment at scale” (Kumar et al., 2018). In the long run, jobs like drivers and tellers will be replaced, but, to get to the full replacement scale, AI needs human support. Tasks, such as data annotation, image classification, and speech transcription, could create mass employment opportunities, buying more time for the government to address the structural problem while adding value to the AI economy. Those transitioning jobs can be anticipated and prepared through collaboration between education providers and industry. Similarly, vocational education training can take the forefront in this adaptation period to slow down the disruption and give South Africa more time to upgrade its education. Jin points out how the dual apprenticeship system could address multiple problems within the South African workforce. The proposed system lasts for about three years, during which participants allocate approximately 80%of their time to workplace learning and the remaining 20% to traditional education. Additionally, the proposed apprenticeship system is heavily labor market driven, an appropriate design to counter the fast-changing requirements in the workforce. Participants will gain needed skills to transition in the workforce, while attaining the basic education of the traditional system. This process can be supported by the collaboration of unions whose current vision remains egocentric. Unions’ political agendas drain capital and human resources since their main focus revolves around labor law, wage negotiations, and other issues that do not prepare workers for technological change. Instead of taking a reactive approach and fighting against changes in the workplace, union leaders can mitigate disruptions by reallocating the budget in their research arms to projects that would better foresee, and then equip workers for, upcoming changes. South Africa is at high risk for disruption from the upcoming changes in the nature of work. Despite having structural problems with a chronic high unemployment rate, high concentration of low-skill jobs, and shortage of medium-level skills, the outlook for South Africa’s future is not completely pessimistic. With a growing youth population and a long history of demonstrating resilience to challenges, the country has a chance to catch up with global leaders, but only if the government creates an appropriate transitioning economy that has the capability to absorb a large portion of the unemployed, upskilling the current workforce and focusing on STEM skills and knowledge for the next generation of workers.