Ensuring compatibility of higher education qualifications in the 4IR era

In an era where the standard between basic education systems and higher education and training systems are worlds apart. With 30% being good enough to get you a National Senior Certificate, while standards at a tertiary level requires 80%.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution, introduces technological advances which are bound to have an impact on every institution within the country.

At the University South Africa’s recent national higher education conference session titled Imagining the exponential and entrepreneurial university of the 21st century, 4IR was at the center of discussions with Prof Bavesh Kana asking “We have all this technological advancement but we still have a lot of human suffering.”

“Is the technology where it needs to be?” he asked.

Taking that the unemployment rate is at its highest reaching an all time high of 58.20 percent in the third quarter of 2019. With a lot of graduates still unemployed.

With the 4IR and looking at our current education system one can not help but ask, How can graduates use their acquired qualifications to ensure that they compatible with the technological revolution?

With those already in school and those about to enter tertiary, what is done to ensure that the cycle of unemployment is broken, is the curriculum altered to accommodate the 4IR and are higher education institutions offering courses which are still of value enough to ensure security for graduates and lastly how are we preparing our institutions’ curriculum to be able to compete at a global scale.