Botswana has recently celebrated the graduation of many young people from its institutions of higher learning. However, behind the celebrations lies a concerning question: how many of these graduates will find meaningful employment, and how many will be left searching for non-existent jobs? The economy must provide conditions for graduates to apply their potential and turn it into productive work. A graduation certificate represents potential, but it is up to the economy to reward and utilize that potential.
There is a popular narrative in Botswana that universities produce graduates who are inadequately prepared for the labour market. This narrative suggests that there is a mismatch between the skills graduates possess and those demanded by industry. While there is some merit in these observations, it is believed that too much attention is being paid to the supply side of the labour market, and not enough to the demand side. The focus should shift from solely improving graduates' skills to creating a business environment that can absorb the talent, knowledge, creativity, and innovation that institutions are producing.
Economic growth is driven by enterprises that produce more goods and services, enter new markets, invest in technology, and employ more people. Businesses that grow create jobs, and those that innovate create new industries. Unfortunately, Botswana has struggled to develop a dynamic and expanding private sector capable of driving this process. Many businesses in Botswana have existed for years but have remained virtually unchanged in their scale of operations. These businesses may still be operating and earning an income, but they are not contributing to economic growth.
The survival of a business is not the same as the growth of an enterprise. An economy with businesses that merely survive cannot generate the scale of employment required to absorb an expanding and increasingly educated workforce. The focus should be on why many enterprises fail to grow from micro-businesses to small businesses, and from small businesses to medium-sized and large companies. This is where the economic development debate should be concentrated.
The labour market has two sides: the supply of labour and the demand for labour. While considerable time has been spent examining the supply side, the demand side has not been interrogated with the same intensity. Questions such as why businesses are not expanding, investing in new technologies, or developing new products need to be answered. These are fundamental economic questions that can help address the issue of graduate unemployment.
A business with no growth strategy, no ambition to enter new markets, and no investment programme will have little reason to recruit additional employees, regardless of the quality of graduates available. Even the most talented graduate cannot be absorbed by a business that has no intention of expanding. Therefore, graduate unemployment should not be treated as an exclusively education-sector problem, but rather as a private-sector development problem.
One of the most important indicators of economic transformation is the emergence of companies that grow beyond their original size and become significant employers. Botswana lacks rapidly expanding companies in various sectors such as manufacturing, technology, agro-processing, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology. The country needs to focus on creating an environment that fosters business growth, innovation, and job creation to address the issue of graduate unemployment.
Key points
- Botswana's economy struggles to create jobs for graduates due to a lack of growing businesses.
- The country's focus should shift from improving graduates' skills to creating a business environment that can absorb the talent and innovation that institutions are producing.
- Graduate unemployment is not just an education-sector problem, but also a private-sector development problem.
