Why Foundational Digital Skills Are No Longer Optional in South Africa’s Modern Workforce

Massive, unprecedented changes are happening in South Africa, as people shift how they work, communicate, learn, and do business. In every industry, digital technologies streamline daily tasks, and employees’ and organizations’ work expectations are changing right along with them. In order to compete in an increasingly competitive global market, banking, retail, agriculture, education, logistics, healthcare, and every other sector are relying more and more on digital systems. In this reality, foundational digital literacy skills are no longer a bonus for IT professionals. They are crucial to be a part of the workforce. Formal skills aside, the ability to adapt and learn has also become paramount for employees.

The workplace in South Africa is changing rapidly and is unrecognizable to how it was even ten years ago. Manual tasks are completed by machines. The primary form of communication among organizations is digital. And everyone, even those in professions not directly related to IT, are expected by employers to be highly proficient in the use of technology. Because of the unique social and economic circumstances in South Africa, such as high levels of unemployment and inequality, as well as a general lack of skills, the digital economy could be beneficial and inclusive to everyone, but only to those who possess the requisite skills.

Digital literacy encompasses a number of instrumental skills such as the ability to utilize digital devices and applications, navigate the internet and digital spaces, use and manage digital communication tools, and engage with and manage risk when interacting with new and evolving technologies. In the modern job market, formulating emails, utilizing productivity applications, partaking in virtual meetings, and digital safety, literacy, and agility are invaluable skills to possess. The use of these skills has expanded beyond perceived office professions. Digital monitoring systems are utilized in manufacturing. Agricultural professions use digital weather and market applications. Medical and health professions rely on digital patient management, and digital monitoring and engagement systems are used for marketing and sales.

The foundational digital skills that the South African economy has undergone in recent years can be, in large part, attributed to the increasing digitization of business practices. Companies are pressured to continuously grow, streamline operations, and remain competitive globally and locally. Technology empowers companies to optimize operations and improve the speed and effectiveness of communications with customers and other individuals with a stake in their business. Concurrently, companies lose their digital competency and competitive edge.

Remote work and hybrid working models increased the already existing gap. The pandemic forced South Africa to adopt remote work beyond the work-from-home practices that most countries had already implemented. Employees with the skills to use digital communication, meetings, and cloud-based digital workplace applications had a much easier transition than employees without such skills. Digital competence has remained a necessity in virtually all professions.

The changing digital economy in South Africa is creating jobs requiring a new level of technological skill. Digital marketing, data analysis, cybersecurity, and digital commerce are all fields experiencing rapid growth. Yet, almost every career now requires some skill in digital technologies. Office workers use digital calendars and scheduling systems, sales staff use digital customer management systems, and teachers use digital platforms to teach. The more technology and other fields of work merge, the more digital skills are seen as a basic requirement of any job.

The younger generation trying to enter the work environment shows the real need for digital skills. Employers expect more digital skills from new graduates and job seekers. Often, a university degree or a specialized qualification is not enough to secure employment if digital skills are lacking. The workforce is most dominated by individuals who perfected digital communication and have the ability to engage with systems and technology that are evolved. Digital skills are most associated with career growth and sustained employability.

Digital technologies are going to continue changing the work that people do and the tools people use to do that work. In this volatile working environment, the most valuable skill is the will to learn. With technologies constantly changing, rest assured that someone’s technical knowledge and skills can become irrelevant if they stop investing in developing a new skill.

Adaptability can be defined as the ability to keep calm and collected while learning new skills, changing processes and trying new ways of doing things when faced with uncertainty. This is an extremely important asset in today’s business environment within South Africa, where the economy continually evolves. To remain competitive in their respective industries, businesses are required to change their strategy on a regular basis to adapt to the developing use of technology, fluctuating levels of economic stability, changing demands of consumers and competitors around the world. Staff members that don’t have the capacity to cope with the stress associated with change will become irrelevant and unproductive in their roles. By having the ability to be flexible and willing to learn, staff members will be positioned for success in progressing through their careers.

AI and automation provide the best example of the relevance of this trend. Technology will be able to perform the majority of repetitive tasks. In the past, the concern with machine technology was that it would create mass unemployment. The truth is it will change the nature of work. Employees will be expected to spend more time on tasks that include the exercise of reason, imagination, and interpersonal skills. With this trend, employees must be prepared to modify the nature of their work.

Another example of how work has changed as a result of this trend is the modern customer service representative. Customer service is no longer call center based. It now involves online chatting, social media customer engagement, digital customer feedback, and AI enabled customer support. The same can be said for modern examples in education or in the financial profession. Workers that demonstrate the aforementioned flexibility become the most valuable employees.

In South Africa, flexibility is critical because of the increased competition in the labor market. One of the greatest challenges that the country continues to face is youth unemployment. With youth unemployment, there is more competition for jobs, and with that comes the desire of employers to hire those who can do more for their company. Throughout uncertain economic times, those who can effectively move quickly from one tool or workflow/task back and forth while having no issues with doing so remain the most employable.

Additionally, there has been a shift in how traditional career paths progress over the last few years due to the increase in gig work and freelance. More and more South African’s are making a living using online classes, remote work, digital entrepreneurship, and other forms of flexible work. To thrive in these new jobs, people must be able to work online and be flexible. Freelancers must promote their services online, manage their payments online, host virtual meetings, and constantly learn new skills.

Flexibility and a certain level of digital understanding are becoming a prerequisite for entrepreneurship in South Africa. Small businesses can reach a wider range of customers using social media, mobile payments, and digital customer engagement. Entrepreneurs who do not have a certain level of digital flexibility struggle to remain competitive. The online market moves and trends change rapidly and entrepreneurs must be willing to run trials, and pivot based on their data.

Schools, universities and vocational training centres must ensure that all South Africans have the skills to work in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution by developing digital literacies and creating opportunities for lifelong learning. Outdated educational approaches that encompass only knowledge of a particular subject are no longer acceptable. Education must provide opportunities to develop the skills to solve problems, work digitally, and communicate; and safe and easy navigation of technology.

The inclusion of the digital world is one of South Africa’s biggest problems. These divisions become increasingly worse over locations, with some having almost total inclusion, and other locations totally excluded. Urban populations have the more technological resources, while rural members of society are completely cut off from the digital economy.

Governments, businesses, and educational institutions must expand digital access and provide the skills needed for the economy to the included workforce. Infrastructure funding, low-cost internet, and training within communities are more inclusive. Public and private partnerships, through digital training, travel the divide, and open worlds of education.

Most of the time, the biggest challenge for most workers was that training was something they finished and then began their work. But now, in order to thrive, workers need to be excited to learn.

Industries are becoming more specialised every-day and this creates higher demands placed on the leader of an industry to know where and what to focus on. The Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIRe) is taking the world by storm and is continuing to change the future of work. Because of this the demand for “softer skills” to be included as part of any workforce development plan developed by a leader is on the rise.

Leaders are also noticing that they are now needing to spend more time focusing on areas such as digital literacy, digital transformation, and employee adaptability. Leaders need to be comfortable with using digital technology in order to expect that same comfort from employees. Many of the new types of jobs created require workers to possess many different skills and therefore a person can not simply earn a degree or something else that qualifies them for that type of employment but must also demonstrate a desire to learn and/or change as new technologies become available.

The workplace continues to evolve at a rapid pace due to the addition of new technologies, and therefore it is increasingly important that employees understand how to utilise these technologies as part of their job roles. If a business does not find a way to include the use of new/old technology along with the acquisition of new skills into everyday operations, it is likely these businesses will cease to exist.

Organisations are expecting staff to be more proactive about learning. They are also under pressure to make training available that allows employees to adapt to new technology, software and upgrades. This is because unless employees’ hard technical skills keep pace with the tools that are available, productivity is sure to suffer, which will eventually affect the bottom line.

Involving employees in the process and asking them to identify what skills they need, is important. Technology is changing the very fabric of the workplace and traditional models of formal training are not conducive to keeping up with the speed of those changes. Employers need to encourage an environment of continuous learning.

The value of implementing such practices would not only be beneficial for the employer and employee, but would also have an impact on the country’s competitiveness. A workforce trained in the technological transformation sweeping the globe could help drive economic growth in South Africa, ultimately resulting in an increase in job opportunities.

Little attention has been given to digital transformation challenges in South Africa and how they could be successfully addressed to help drive economic recovery. Insufficient access to the internet has limited much-needed economic participation on the part of job seekers as well as their potential employers. Most poorly paid South Africans lack the financial mean to afford the high cost of internet access, and no one has ever bothered to look into those reasons, nor does the government seem to look into it. Very few institutions of learning offer digital skills, hence the lack of these skills that should have been acquired and taken to the job market upon completion of their studies. Most of these skills are offered at the higher learning or tertiary level of education. The additional lesson or skill entails a financial cost and many students cannot afford these additional costs for studies of this nature.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution has had a greater impact on employment, as not only unemployment tends to grow, due to the agile digital economy, but when higher levels of education is needed in the workplace, leads to a lack of active participation in the digital economy. Insufficient digital skills limits job seeker’s participation in economic activity especially in institutions that tend to have a high demand for the workforce at entry level. It remains a very difficult and hard decision to make for those students from poor home to acquire higher level of education which brings this needed skills translating towards active digital participation in the economy. The other hindrances faced by many South Africans when conducting business online is that there is a belief among the older generation, that digital and e-commerce activities will remain a fraud or scam, hence ineffective sharing of skills on how to execute digital exposure effectively. These acts result in fewer participation in the digital economy. Obstacles like those found in accessing the internet or using a computer can be removed by providing basic digital skills training to beneficiaries.

The many benefits and possible opportunities from digital transformation can also create a number of difficulties. One type of difficulty encountered by organizations implementing new technologies and processes is resistance to change from employees who have become used to doing things in the old way and want to continue to do so.

When it comes to the introduction of new technology, an additional challenge for some organizations is senior leaders’ unwillingness to utilize this technology either because they do not comprehensively understand its capabilities or cannot visualize how it will benefit their organization. Organizations that seek to utilize digital transformation towards training and developing new standards of values within their organization as well as developing a culture that encourages innovation can experience some level of resistance from both employees and senior leadership when attempting to implement new initiatives.

One of the primary issues associated with the digital transformation process will be job loss and unemployment. There are a large number of people within South Africa that are unemployed. This situation will continue to impede opportunities for many young people in South Africa to obtain gainful employment due to a weak economy and negative mentality. When people come from disadvantaged backgrounds that may not have had access to digital skills, this will be an added difficulty in trying to find jobs.

In a developing economy, quite a number of people will use their resources to create opportunities for themselves. The struggle is education in this space and lack of recognition outside of their community. Because of economic inequality, other people have access to better education and knowledge. This leads to jobs needing training and technical skills. This is a significant challenge.

Limited training in workplaces is a digital transformation challenge as people will struggle to further their career paths due to not having access to training. In a space where automation is high, it raises the concern of job displacement and people will fear not being able to have jobs. The importance of lifelong learning is to adapt to the skills that are required for jobs. This will also open up roles that interest the individual.

Another one of the digital transformation challenges is cybersecurity. Since digital transformation requires a company’s data to be stored in digital space, it will open the company to the risks that people want to hack into their systems.

To meet the demands of a global economy, South Africa must, at a minimum, invest in digital education, increase internet access, support lifelong learning, and bolster innovation. In addition to these investments, South Africa must support flexibility and durability to empower workers to deal with the rapid pace of ceaseless, disruptive technologies.

A digitally literate, flexible workforce is not only an economic imperative for the greater good of South Africa, but also the most inclusive and sustainable outcome for the country. In South Africa, this is especially important as the South African workforce is embarking on an economic epoch characterized by constant change.

The economy will reward South Africans and enterprises who learn, innovate, and show flexibility. Regardless, in South Africa, digital education is a baseline economic skill with the potential to provide marginal economic participation, and flexibility will provide long-term economic participation.

Courage, flexibility, and the opportune use of new technologies will define successful economic participants in South Africa. Digital education is the baseline for economic participation regardless of traditional career specialization. Flexibility is the most sought trait in a rapidly changing world, where success hinges on the ability to not only adopt new methods, but also change oneself along the way.