These Are The 10 Skills Employers Are Looking For In African Youths

According to the World Bank, youths account for 60 percent of the jobless in Africa. In North Africa, the unemployment rate is at 25 percent, with even larger numbers in countries such as the DRC, Senegal, South Africa, and Nigeria. There are about 200 million people between 15 and 24 in the continent, making it the largest population of young people in the world. In most African countries, youth unemployment occurs at steam twice stronger than that for adults, according to the AfDB, with young women feeling the sting of joblessness more than the male lot.

But African leaders are doing all they can to battle unemployment. In Senegal, 200,000 people join the labour market each year, which is the outcome of the program launched by President Macky Sall in February 2013 to create 30,000 jobs within a year and possibly, 300,000 by 2017. With financing from the African Development Bank, self-employment programs for youth and women are also ongoing in Senegal.

Africa’s unemployment statistics don’t include those in vulnerable employment and those who are underemployed in informal regards. Truth be told, most young Africans land jobs, but not in places that pay them well, help them develop their skills or provide a measure of job security – hence, underemployed. According to the Washington-based think tank Brookings Institution, under-employment isn’t a problem serious enough to warrant greater attention, since it masks the reality in countries that post low unemployment rates. In the DRC, Ghana, Mali, Rwanda, Uganda, Senegal, Mali, Malawi, and Ethiopia, more than 70 percent of the youths are either self-employed or contributing to family work.

(Courtesy: SAP News Center)

The figures can be scary, and governments can be blamed for the situation. But what part do African youths have to play in landing the dream job? Of course, it’s more than just sitting at home and waiting for your president to sign agreements with international employers so you would have a six-figure salary. While there are many untapped opportunities in Africa, the professional social network

LinkedIn has compiled a list of skills that have the most job-landing potential in 2019. Who better does it than the base of experts itself? Rather than stressing different problems – which as of now looks futile – we need to recognise that tech companies such as Facebook, Google, IBM, Apple, and others are on the lookout for SKILLS. If they weren’t, then they wouldn’t ask job seekers to not bank on their college degrees. Yes, to get a job in most of these companies today, you don’t need to have a degree. You need to have skill.

The guys at LinkedIn discovered that employers nowadays are on the lookout for workers with both soft and hard technical skills, and went on to match them with free LinkedIn Learning courses for potential candidates. So, they have taken it as a point of duty to help out in evening by getting to know the skills that make you a job magnet.

Five Most In-Demand Soft Skills Of 2019

1.Time Management

There’s a popular African cliche which says that time is money and that it waits for no man. Or is it African? Well, one thing’s for sure, employers want to hire people that know how well to manage their time, especially in their job areas. There is a cornucopia of books out there that teach you how to be effective with time. Meanwhile, here are free courses that LinkedIn want you to take.

2. Adaptability

Take it from me, employers don’t want to have to put up with persons who would complain about a new job months after they get hired. All job roles are not the same, and that pretty much tells you that you need to discipline your mind and body to adapt to the dream job situation you find yourself in. Nagging doesn’t help – at least not often. To get into a job environment in one thing; to fit into it is another.

3. Collaboration

It could be a wrong guess, but there is hardly any CV today that doesn’t have a section which says that the candidate is a team player. While this has become rather too monotonous, the moral lesson is that job seekers need to learn how to collaborate. Most employers don’t want you being a lone wolf or solitary worker who doesn’t give a heck what other employees think. In most work environments, it is all about teamwork.

4. Persuasion

This is not some Mother Confessor type of persuasion, neither does it have jack to do with hypnosis. The power of persuasion is truly a skill, one with which you convince who to do what at then and so. There are startups out there who have the best ideas but don’t have the ability to persuade investors to fund those ideas. Not only is this a critical job skill, but a must-have if you are ever going to make people see reasons with you in other life aspects.

5. Creativity

This isn’t meant to scare the barnacles out of you, but, very soon, robots will start doing your job. But in as much as these metal mashups can perform certain tasks better than humans, they cannot be as creative as. Take a look at all the great ideas making money all over the world. Aren’t they all from the stables of creative thinkers? Employers would rather hire creative talent than have to pay someone who would just follow directions.

Five Most In-Demand Hard Skills In 2019

1. UX Design

With websites launching from every nook and cranny, people are going to need UX designers to help create quality, spellbinding content that will put smiles on their customers’ faces. User Experience is not cakewalk nowadays, but thanks to the establishment of tech hubs and computer centres, these skills can be learned for free.

2. People Management

There are different kinds of people in this world, and when dealing with customers, employers would rather have a people person by their side. Why else did Bobby Axelrod hire a shrink for his stock trading company? By the way, that’s from the movie series Billions. People, when managed effectively, turn not just customers, but assets to a company. That’s why companies need people managers.

3. Analytical Reasoning

Analytical reasoning refers to the ability to look at information, be it qualitative or quantitative in nature, and discern patterns within the information. It involves deductive reasoning with no specialised knowledge, such as: comprehending the basic structure of a set of relationships; recognizing logically equivalent statements; and inferring what could be true or must be true from given facts and rules.

4. Artificial Intelligence

Need we say much? AI is unsurprisingly the number two on this list. If you have a knack for advanced science and skills to match your drive, then you are the hot cake companies are jousting in the arena for. Take a look at 27-year-old Silas Adekunle from Nigeria who is using his knowledge in robotics to land deals with Amazon and Apple, while selling his products MekaMon in Europe, Asia, Canada, and the UAE.

5. Cloud Computing

The most in-demand skill of 2019, cloud computing is the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer. Knowledge of the way this works will most likely snag you a six-figure dollar monthly salary.

Featured Image: Marketwatch