7 January 2020 | 2 minutes
If you were to travel back in time, just a few decades, how would you begin to explain to people of the past what the world is like today?
Would you start by explaining that our phones are in our pockets and not permanently attached to a cable in the wall? Would you talk about the existence of an app which can turn any home into accommodation? How would you explain the way jobs have evolved? So many popular careers today simply did not exist a few short years ago.
The creation of the digital world has led to the creation of countless jobs. Before Facebook or LinkedIn, there was no social media manager. Before Google Adwords, there was no digital marketer. Today, digitally focused companies are among the most successful in the world.
Our API portal is currently used by 1000 young developers who want to improve or add to existing online solutions.
In regions where there always seem to be more people than jobs available, the digital world provides an additional avenue for employment. As more youth in Africa choose to take digitally enabled career paths, coding online platforms and innovating solutions, they are creating more opportunities for the people around them.
The very nature of today’s youth, with their innate understanding of all things trending and tech-related, could be the key to aiding unemployment in Africa. Entrepreneurship is encouraged across the continent in order to create more jobs and reduce unemployment for youth who have completed their studies. (note: link to African Entrepreneurs are Benefitting from franchises) Even Alibaba founder, Jack Ma, feels that African youth should be encouraged to create their own start-ups and get a tax break from the government for doing so.
African start-ups are already thriving so much that investors are flocking to events like AfricArena to discover new innovations coming from the continent. Companies like South African based Aerobotics are providing artificial intelligence solutions to clients all over the world. The ripple effect of the rise of such start-ups is the creation of new jobs for people in Africa.
As connectivity improves throughout the continent, access to digital services and tools become more easily available. With a public API’s becoming accessible at a rapid pace, youth in Africa have more opportunities to create more digital solutions. Our API portal is currently used by 1000 young developers who want to improve or add to existing online solutions. When the youth code, they create jobs for those who cannot.
Consider all the roles involved in building an online store. A graphic designer and copy writer are both essential for a developer who wants to build an aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly website. Products need to be created to sell on the online store, providing an employment opportunity for those who can create. When products are ordered, they need to be delivered to customers, which produces an additional set of jobs involving logistics. One simple website can become the source of employment for many. Even those who aren’t considered tech-savvy.
The future of jobs has already begun, and as our digital world evolves, we are likely to see even more jobs in the future which we cannot imagine today. Technology and job creation certainly are good together!