Mismatch of skills and jobs
SOUTH African graduates who may be employed, lack basic and critical skills to sustain business requirements in the workplace.
This is according to several studies that also reveal that higher education is no longer a guarantor of a job.
The country is experiencing a shortage of skills in the engineering, ICT and artisan fields.
In 2019, it was reported that South Africa had a skills mismatch of more than 50% and the lowest productivity in the labour workforce, compared to 30 other countries.
Various studies have also revealed an educational mismatch to be similarly high in South Africa, with a quarter of the respondents being over-educated and 27% under-educated for their jobs.
The mismatches of educational qualifications and job-related requirements lead to under-employment, where a graduate is employed in a job that is lower by some standard of working hours, income or skills and qualifications.
Mismatches will continue to rise because of increased access to higher education and low graduate unemployment rates, unless the focus moves to the basic education curriculum, ensuring that graduates are adequately skilled to meet the needs of the labour market.
According to a study in 2010, South African universities and higher education institutes were not able to produce the critical skills fast enough.
It was estimated that creating 34 000 additional engineers, technologists, draughts persons and technicians would take roughly 100 years in terms of current educational capacity. Similarly, learning and development programmes cannot scale to meet the immediate needs of the economy – and businesses cannot afford to wait.
The wait is what drives companies to import skills or employ expats. Importing critical skills into the country is no different from importing any other essential factor of production.
There is no doubt that with the pandemic, there’s an even wider skills gap and the country needs access to wholesome skills in order to flourish and compete in the global market.
The skills gap – the difference between the professional talents needed by employers and those available among the working public – is a great concern.
Marisa Jacobs, the director, head of immigration and mobility at Xpatweb says that solving the problem will take hard work and needs to start with an honest appraisal of the constraints.
“The sooner we do this, the faster we can address it. The first admission we must make is that the gap exists now, and a primary and immediate solution is required.
“Formal learning and development programmes will produce a future, technically-competent and national workforce – not just adequate, but world-beating. Until that day dawns, we need a stopgap.”.
Jacobs says that in today’s sophisticated and highly competitive economies, countries are competing for skills to help them stay abreast of
fast-moving technologies and rapidly changing business models.
“Attracting the skills we need is vital if we are to increase economic output and get the economy back on track,” she says.
According to CareerJunction, the business and management, IT, and finance sectors are the most sought-after, followed by sales, admin, office and support and architecture and engineering sectors, among others.
Higher Education,Science and
Innovation Minister Blade Nzimande has highlighted 10 sought-after skills in the construction industry: Construction project managers Civil engineers
Civil engineering technologists Architects
Civil engineering technicians Building inspectors
Carpenters
Plumbers
Steel fixers
Electricians
In 2017, the Department of Higher Education and Training implemented Centres of Specialisation in more than 20 colleges, focusing on 13 trades.
Centres of Specialisation in the TVET College sector is a programme that aims to inform college differentiation, promote quality teaching and learning, facilitate responsiveness and provide a model for the implementation of the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations’ trade qualifications, while it develops artisanal skills.