Without further education and training, the bulk of school-leavers matriculating in 2014 will be unable to find employment, as the national senior certificate (NSC) is “of little practical value”, a report released by trade union Solidarity on Monday has found.

“Without further education, the majority of 2014’s matriculants’ certificates will unfortunately be of little value.

“A matric certificate does indeed serve as an administrative requirement for most types of tertiary studies and is also needed to gain access to some professions. Apart from that, it is of little practical value,” read the Solidarity Research Institute- (SRI-) compiled report, which was published ahead of the release of the 2014 matric results by the Department of Basic Education.

The union added in a statement that a “major” problem was that the requirements for a pass in the final matric examinations were too low.

Matriculants were required to achieve 40% for an official language subject, 40% for two additional subjects and 30% for another three subjects.

“The fact that the pass mark is so low engenders a lack of confidence in the standard of all the matriculants’ qualifications, including those who do achieve good marks,” stated the report, dubbed ‘Matric Report: The South African Labour Market and the Prospects for the Matriculants of 2014’.

Drawing on the findings of the report, Solidarity advised matriculants to obtain tertiary qualifications through further study, emphasising that a NSC should be regarded only as an initial step in preparing for the modern work environment.

According to the union, in the first half of 2014, 50% of individuals with only a NSC were employed, while about 80% of individuals with some form of tertiary qualification were employed.

“The current South African labour market shows that skills are rewarded and that further training significantly improves school leavers’ chances of getting a job.

“People with a matric certificate do find employment with a little less difficulty than people who do not have matric, but not nearly as much as the benefit higher qualifications gives. People with a matric certificate who do have work generally do not earn much more than those without matric,” commented SRI senior economics researcher Paul Joubert.

He added that the high unemployment rate in South Africa was, among other variables, owing to the fact that only 13% of the adult population had tertiary qualifications.

“South Africa has a major unemployment problem but, at the same time, it is experiencing a shortage of well-trained people. Notwithstanding the millions of poorly trained, unemployed people, the labour market has room for millions of well-trained people,” he noted.

Moreover, the union maintained that only a small number of matriculants achieved “good” results in key subjects, such as Physical Science, Accountancy and Maths.

In 2013, for example, only 14 125 matriculants obtained 70% or more for Accountancy, while 19 854 obtained 70% or more for Maths and only 13 589 obtained 70% or more for Physical Science.

“This is the group of matriculants who typically do not enter the labour market straight after school, but rather further their studies in any case,” he said.

The report further revealed that job seekers offering higher qualifications were more likely to receive better remuneration.

“Data shows that, generally, remuneration rises rapidly as experience increases, especially in the case of those with higher qualifications. Those who have just finished their studies should therefore not expect at the outset to earn the same salary in their first job as older people with more experience do,” he held.