Concerns over the digitisation of the banking sector and resulting job losses have been raised at the South Africa-UNESCO Engineering Conference held at the Mahikeng Campus of the North West University.
Academics attending the conference say more has to be done to re-skill and up-skill workers so that they can adapt to the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
North West Premier Job Mokgoro says strategies are needed to prevent job losses.
“We are very sympathetic to the issue of the possibility of job losses like in the instance of the banking industry, and we are all crossing our fingers. Whenever you plan any development you must have a risk mitigation strategy against any possible unintended consequences.”
Meanwhile the Department of Science and Innovation is investigating how many jobs are likely to be lost.
Director General Dr Phil Mjwara says: “We are working with the Human Sciences Research Council to se how the study could be done for the South African economy and for the South African industry.”
