Bioprocess Researcher Monique Smit regards lack of mentorship as one of the significant challenges that young people are faced with in the work environment. She says that young people do not always have the necessary skills to craft a self-development action plan that will enable them to work towards their goals. She says the youth of today bring a renewed energy to the table that they can use to examine pressing issues from a different perspective and to offer innovative solutions.

• Name: Monique Smit
• Job title: Bioprocess Researcher

What do you think the future holds for you as a young person?

Our organisation is currently undergoing a radical transformation and complete revitalisation. This transformation is focused on scientific and industrial development to respond to the needs of society and industry. My place and future is here. I want to be part of our transformation by helping to build a stronger South African work ethos, which will be sustained for our future generations.

Name one great achievement you are most proud of.

This would definitely be receiving a grant from the Young Researcher’s Establishment Fund to continue research activities in my field of interest. Being accepted for an oral presentation on this same research, and representing my group at the 2018 CSIR Emerging Researchers Symposium makes me so much more proud of this accomplishment.

What kind of future do you envision for the country and how do you think the youth can help shape it?

It is an exciting time for South Africa, as well as Africa. Targeted and authentic leadership will result in better guidance for our young leaders and help them to achieve their goals. Moreover, the youth of today is a force to be reckoned with; we have big ideas, we are optimistic, and we certainly envision a better tomorrow.

South Africa has one of the highest unemployment rates among the youth. If you were tasked with helping to finding solutions to addressing this issue, what would they be?

Most importantly, we need to have secondary and tertiary education programmes sponsored or funded to allow more individuals the opportunity of education. Furthermore, leadership and entrepreneurship programmes (forming part of technical and vocational training) need to be included in secondary and tertiary education curricula to start shaping the leaders of tomorrow. Then, once we have that in place, we have to make internship and in-service programmes mandatory for students currently studying, so that they can begin to acquire work experience and benefit from valuable coaching by industry professionals. Lastly, both the public and private sector must collaborate with tertiary institutions to facilitate entry of qualified candidates into the job market.

Name one young person whose work you are inspired by

I am inspired by every young person’s work in our research group. We are a committed team of biotechnologists and engineers who work together like a well-oiled machine to meet our targets by growing one of South Africa’s first biomanufacturing industry development centres and through supporting small, medium and micro enterprises, as well as industry.