BU Urges Hunt for Opportunities Outside Botswana
Lesedi Mkhutshwa | Monday June 17, 2019 14:45
When addressing BU graduates recently, Ram said Botswana alone cannot provide jobs for all the graduates hence they need to go where the markets are open in order to secure their future.
She said the world is multi-cultural, but most of the graduates find comfort in their culture, which does not feed them.
Therefore there is a need for them to shift their mindset and embrace a multicultural outlook, she said.
Ram added that they should take advantage of the situation and become the solution providers for the problems encountered by different cultures, which is known as higher-order mental skills.
Ram said future jobs demand the graduates to have mental ability to deal with uncertainty through critical thinking because the world is getting uncertain.
She also said that they should keep on learning through a philosophy of three words namely ‘unlearn, learn and relearn’.
The BU vice chancellor made the graduates aware of the fourth industrial revolution, which would be mostly robotic.
“Yes the robots are coming and we need to identify limitations of robots so that we can use that to our advantage for the success of your future,” she said.
“The reality is knowledge alone is not sufficient for the work of tomorrow so we need something beyond knowledge to change our destiny.”
She further said there was a time when one graduated with first and second degrees, or diplomas and they were hired on the spot, but it does not happen anymore.
According to Ram there is a new terminology of the gig economy where permanent jobs are being flushed away and people only work temporarily.
She added that graduates, through the new terminology, need to show their talent to the highest bidder and for one to be hired they need to be extra-talented.
Ram said it is no longer about content, but about high-order mental skills, mindset and ways of thinking about the world. She added that what is going to be in demand in the workplace environment is person personalised innovative work.
Ram encouraged the graduates to be engaged in what is happening around and look at concepts like social entrepreneurship, which is a very human kind of approach to entrepreneurship.
She added that they should also up their game on their emotional intelligence as life is real and not what social media is packaging it to be. She showed a lot of respect for the new generation since they can multitask and even though robots are coming they can harness the great power behind the robots.
For his part the guest speaker, managing director of Launchit International (PTY) LTD Goitsemang Khutsafalo said they are in a time where Botswana is facing many difficult situations.
He said these challenges are not only experienced by Botswana, but also by other countries.
Khutsafalo added that the current unemployment rate ranges at an average of 17.6% and he has been informed that there are over 170,000 unemployed skilled graduates in Botswana.
He encouraged the graduates to become entrepreneurs by making use of the opportunities that arise in the country.