There are jobs in Namibia but, Namibians are not competent enough to occupy these jobs. 

If you have been sitting in meetings, you may have heard people discussing the labour force versus the labour market – and you can almost hear them say “Namibians lack necessary skills, and that is why the high unemployment rate in the country”. 

The sentiment amounts to little more than incompetence in the existing local labour force – a fairly ‘systematical inheritance’. 

Having the right skills is not a gift. The mistake we do is go to school to collect a certificate as opposed to learning. 

After that certificate, we start looking for jobs to collect salaries and not to earn them. 

We start looking for jobs, unable to sell what we can offer – because often than not, we do not know what is that we can offer to a company in return for the salary.

Knowledge and skills are the competence employers seek – and it is not easy finding them in one just as it is not easy for a job seeker to find a job. 

It has, thus, become a thing of hide-and-seek. 

Neither side is finding what it seeks – that is the problem with my country; in Namibia, ‘Occupational culprits’ is omnipresent.  

There is the ‘wrong fit’; a person is placed in a job that does not fit their natural strengths, or the job does not fit their personal and/or professional needs.  

The situation is as stressful to an employee as finding a job. Then, the ‘blood sucker’ the person lives on others to do the job while he/she sits and does nothing productive. 

In an organisation, blood-sucking is as demoralising to an employer, as it is to have little resources to pull through – not to mention the ‘non-thinkers’: these people are plain lazy to apply their mind to a task at hand. 

This state of affairs is as worrisome to an employer – ‘spectator’: these are watchers.  

They watch without taking an active part. 

This person on a team is as regrettable to an employer as is to pay for a service not utilised.  

If you are one of any or all, you need to capacitate yourself to be able to contribute when you get a job. 

If you already have a job, then you are a liability to your team. 

These examples paint a picture of the soft skills required in the workplace.

 These are communication skills, teamwork, time management, customer service (internal [colleague] and external), adaptability, independence, problem-solving and leadership. 

These skills are subtle, yet they speak the loudest than a piece of paper. 

The greater your skills, the greater your chances of success. 

Fortunately, these skills can be learnt.