JOHANNESBURG - I recently interviewed several graduates for possible employment at Moneyweb. I was dumbstruck when not a single one could answer the question: Who is the minister of finance?
That is 0/5 from the top journalism and media studies students of leading and respected South African institutions. These include Wits, the Universities of Johannesburg and Pretoria, the Tshwane TUT and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.
The five were among eight candidates who were invited for interviews for three internship positions at Moneyweb. They were carefully selected from more than 300 applicants and their selection was based purely on their academic performance (Grade 12 and their bachelor degrees), as well as their field of study.
Only five were interviewed as three didn’t bother to pitch up.
These potential interns were around 23 years old and all scored at least a B in matric and 65%+ for their respective bachelor degrees. One achieved 6 A’s in matric, while another passed the majority of the subjects in her journalism course with distinction.
During the interviews, the five were all emotional about their dreams of becoming leading journalists. They all claimed they read News24, Moneyweb and Business Day on their phones every single day.
This made their embarrassment even greater when they could not answer a very simple question: Who is the minister of finance? One confidently replied “Gillian Marcus,” while the other, after looking at the ceiling for nearly 15 seconds, muttered “it’s that woman…isn’t it Marcus?” The rest merely mumbled: “I don’t know.”
Needless to say, I find their ignorance or apathy absolutely shocking. If you want to be a financial journalist you should (at least) know who holds the keys to the national treasury. It is equivalent to an accounting graduate who does not know what a spreadsheet is.
However, it was evident that all the candidates are very smart. I am sure they would have worked hard and learned quickly, but I feel there is a certain minimum level of knowledge you need to have before you can become a journalist.
The ignorance (or apathy?) underlines the debate about the practical relevance of tertiary institutions in an economic environment where there is 40% unemployment and a massive skills shortage. These five candidates should have walked into these available positions, but they didn’t because they just don’t know much.
So why are these ‘smart’ graduates in this position? Why have they not been moulded into productive assets many companies fight over to employ?
Is it a symptom of irrelevant curriculums, a drop in academic standards, a too narrow academic focus, apathetic students, poor lecturers or perhaps a combination of these factors?
I really don’t know.
There are some other deductions one can make which are more startling.
If these are the ‘cream of the crop’ students coming out of our tertiary institutions, spare a thought for those who scrape through Grade 12 with E’s and F’s. They can’t even spell the words ‘tertiary institution’ and they are even less employable!
I am not an education expert, but I think there are definitely structural problems in our education system. These problems cannot be fixed by throwing more money at our existing educational institutions. There needs to be a major rethink of the whole system, from preprimary to tertiary.
I am sure many members of the Moneyweb community will challenge this litmus test. But this experience leaves me very sceptical about the prospects of government’s efforts to create millions of jobs. You cannot create meaningful jobs if there are not suitable candidates to fill the positions.
Anyway, Moneyweb still has three internship positions available. The candidates will experience the inner workings of a truly integrated multiplatform news organisation. It is really an excellent opportunity…if you know the absolute basics of the financial world around us.
Beware, I will also give future candidates a spelling test….
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