The CEO Chirp. The skills mismatch: are we doing enough to align with real-world jobs?

At the end of this year close to 400 000 South African tertiary graduates will start looking for work.

Less than half that number of South Africans found jobs over the past year, according to the last official employment stats.

A sluggish economy is usually cited as the reason for this employment shortfall. But there’s also mounting concern about a mismatch between the volume of graduates and the vocational relevance of their training. 

It’s a mismatch now under the spotlight with news that the Department of Higher Education and Training is scrapping some National Certificate: Vocational (NCV) Programmes from next year. These programmes include office administration; finance, economics and accounting; and management.

Intended to serve the labour market, these programmes have failed to gain traction, not with students, nor the colleges, nor most economic sectors. TVET college lecturers received minimal training on the NCV subjects and largely relied on textbooks commissioned by the Department, according to one well-placed source. 

While some may see the Department scrapping the programmes as an admission of failure, a greater failure would be delaying the much-needed reform to address our skills deficit. As one stakeholder explained this week: “The reduction of NCV subjects (and there are over 17 of them) by DHET is an acknowledgement that these particular NCV programmes did not result in access to employment.” 

The discarded NCV programmes are reportedly due to be replaced by occupational programmes (previously referred to as learnerships) registered on the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO).

That it has reached this point, however, is an indictment against a broader system failure that also encompasses the Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs), which are mandated to ensure the college curriculum matches what is actually happening in the industry. 

It would appear the NCV programmes are also victims of a failure to integrate NCV graduates into universities and UoTs (formerly technikons), which again speaks to broader systemic problems that arguably could have been avoided. 

The Cape Chamber has long advocated for market-led skills development and a greater private sector role in training and skills development. While the reasons for the failure are complex, it appears the need for a comprehensive system redesign is now common cause.

Our concerns about the quality of education and skills development are also shared by President Cyril Ramaphosa, who addressed the matter in this year’s State of the Nation address, as well as at the more recent On the Record Summit in Cape Town. 

President Ramaphosa wants to make TVET colleges more effective by giving them specialised focus areas. Ramaphosa emphasised that TVET colleges must become the central hubs for artisan development. Part of this process is ensuring the colleges have the best possible curriculum.

We sincerely hope that government will work closely with industry and academia to determine ‘fit-for-purpose' solutions to our skills deficit challenge. ENDS  

John Lawson, CEO of the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry