Enunciating the skills development challenge facing South Africa

Abstract

The South African skills shortage challenge is well documented in various literature sources. The country is facing a critical skills shortage which is seriously threatening economic growth prospects, employment creation and global participation [27]. For four consecutive years since 2007, skills shortage in South Africa has been singled out as an obstacle to economic growth by private sector organisations [11; 12; 13; 14], and this has serious implications for a wide range of government’s macro-economic priorities, plans and interventions. In response to the challenge, the South African post-apartheid government initiated various interventions which ushered a dramatic series of changes in the architecture of skills and of training policies in the country [4]. Some of these interventions include, among others, the Green Paper on Skills Development Strategy for Economic and Employment Growth in South Africa of 1997, the Skills Development Act 97 of 1998, the Skills Development Levies Act 9 of 1999, the National Skills Development Strategy, the Human Resource Development Strategy for South Africa, the Skills Development Amendment Act 37 of 2008 and the National Qualifications Framework Act 67 of 2008. Despite the considerable attention given by government through these interventions, the challenge of skills shortage is still pervasive. This paper examines the factors exacerbating the challenge of skills shortage in South Africa. Furthermore, the paper presents the current state of skills shortage in the country. To this end, the paper provides recommendations for effective implementation of government interventions in an effort to ameliorate the situation.