Building a career experience website for TVET engineering students in South Africa
According to industry research conducted by the Skills for Prosperity (S4P) initiative High Gear in South Africa, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) college graduates often lack an understanding of job roles and career pathways in the country’s growing automotive components manufacturing sector. This can lead to qualified graduates not accessing opportunities in the sector and/or not having full sight of how entry-level work can position them for exciting career growth in the industry.
Past research by IYF, which delivers High Gear in partnership with the National Association of Automotive Component and Allied Manufacturers (NAACAM) and the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), found similar employer sentiments in other advanced manufacturing sectors.
To change this, High Gear recently launched a national career experience website Yakh’iFuture (which in a number of South African languages translates to “Build Your Future”) that delivers free career insight and skills-building opportunities to TVET engineering students and other young people interested in South Africa’s automotive components manufacturing sector.
IYF and NAACAM co-designed the platform, with continuous input from TVET college students and lecturers. Yakh’iFuture was financed by UK Aid/Skills for Prosperity, USAID, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, and the UNDP through Government of Japan support.
What’s Yakh’iFuture?
Through Yakh’iFuture, High Gear is demonstrating a model for overcoming career knowledge gaps, at scale. This free national platform is designed to complement and enhance TVET college courses and career services, including by providing TVET staff with engaging resources to use in their classrooms, while also giving young people self-directed learning, skills-building, and job search opportunities.
The platform is designed to help TVET college students and other young people:
· Explore career pathways in South Africa’s automotive components manufacturing sector.
· Practice with digital tools and technologies that enable TVET engineering studies come to life.
· Develop new skills, including through custom mini-games, to prepare for and succeed in employment.
· Link to a national job-search platform SAYouth.mobi to search for jobs, internships, apprenticeships, and other learning and earning opportunities.
· Plan a path to professional success in automotive components manufacturing and other advanced manufacturing sectors.
Built following the Principles for Digital Development and best practice recommendations for online career guidance services, the platform’s key features include:
· Industry informed: All content on the website has been informed by our national industry association partner (NAACAM), along with other skills experts from the automotive manufacturing sector. This ensures authenticity of the information along with providing an “industry stamp” on the website.
· Localisation and inclusion: We ensured that South African auto component manufacturing firms are highlighted, along with young women and men working in the sector that are representative of students in the TVET system. The site will also be managed and owned in the long-term by NAACAM, setting a new benchmark in career guidance services delivered by an industry association to young people.
· User-centred design: The overall User Interface (UI) design is based on TVET student feedback sessions, along with continuous focus group sessions with students and lecturers.
· No logins: We determined that this type of site shouldn’t require a log-in, which makes it more easily accessible for all young people.
· Online games: We’ve designed three custom mini-games: “Assembly Line”, “Toolmaker”, and “Hiring Manager”, which is launching in May 2022. These build priority skills in a fun, interactive way, while also helping young people to get a better feel for job roles and requirements in automotive components manufacturing.
· Ecosystem linkages: Yakh’iFuture’s job search page directs to the Office of the Presidency’s SAYouth.mobi website, and NAACAM is assisting its members to advertise their entry-level job opportunities on the SAYouth.mobi site. In turn, SAYouth.mobi features Yakh’iFuture as a learning opportunity on its site. You can learn more about SAYouth.mobi in this blog post.
What’s next?
Throughout 2022, High Gear partners will implement a multi-pronged Yakh’iFuture launch and TVET staff/student activation strategy. This includes establishing a social media presence, deploying high-impact video explainers for TVET students and lecturers, Google search optimisations, and on-site TVET student activations during career days and student registration periods.
Yakh’iFuture is designed to be an ever-evolving website, since industry’s skills priorities and young people’s learning needs also continuously change. In line with this, over 2022, High Gear plans to continue adding new features and content to the site.
By October, we will be adding at least seven more mechanical and electrical engineering learning aids onto the “Discover” page, helping TVET students to better succeed in those fields of study. On the “Learn” and “Explore” pages, we also plan to expand animated and real-world video content that shows how production lines operate, and how they manufacture key automotive components.
We’re also exploring increased integration of electric vehicles-related content throughout the Yakh’iFuture platform, to help build youth’s skills for this rapidly emerging field. Finally, we plan to further expand the “Toolmaker” game with more automotive component blueprints and puzzles, while also adding new mini-games that build other high-priority skills.
As we receive more feedback from young people and industry, we will continue to enhance Yakh’iFuture, ensuring it remains responsive to youth and aligned with industry.
For now, check out the platform at www.yakhifuture.org.za
