Cutting unemployment rate needs a national, coordinated effort

Mail & Guardian

13-06-2025

Universities and businesses need to close the gap between the skills being taught and those that employers need.
As we head into the second half of the academic year, a year that has been marked by several student protests related to problems with accommodation and registration, it is also impossible to ignore the shadow cast by South Africa's persistently high unemployment rate — an issue that demands urgent attention from all sectors of society, including higher education institutions.
In 2024, the country recorded the
My fellow university vice-chancellors and I might be tempted to find solace in the lower unemployment rate for university graduates (
We must also play our part by constantly asking ourselves the same urgent question that should be keeping government and industry leaders awake at night: 'What can and should we be doing to help create employment and a better life for all South African and global citizens?'
Feedback from industry leaders
Around the world, there are growing calls for universities to close the gap between the skills being taught to graduates and those that employers need.
Solutions must come from a collaborative effort involving higher education institutions, the private sector, professional bodies and the government. Based on my work with other university leaders and their teams, there is already widespread awareness of the need for our universities to continually enhance their graduate employability initiatives and the programmes that help students transition into workplaces.
But the urgency of the situation demands that we constantly improve our efforts. We need to pay attention to feedback from the job market that the skills and graduates we are producing are not always aligned with industry requirements. To offer an example, South Africa produces a high number of lawyers across all universities. While the demand for legal eagles is unlikely to decline soon, to ensure sufficient opportunities for our graduates, curricula must by now include rapidly evolving areas such as data literacy, digital law, cyber law and global regulations.
Most universities include private sector representatives and industry professionals on faculty advisory boards to ensure curricula align with real-world requirements. Still, we need regular interrogation of the feedback channels employed, the speed with which feedback received can be implemented, and a general commitment to 'always be doing better' by our graduates and our country.
Micro-credentialing and online study
One area where South African universities and other public institutions have been relatively quiet is micro-credentialing — courses which are generally much shorter than a bachelor's degree and which are aimed at teaching a particular skill. As universities continue to adjust to the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic and the rapid upscaling of online education platforms, one beneficial side effect has been the proliferation of ways in which South Africans can gain access to education. Young people who didn't get into their institution of choice, people living far away from cities, older people juggling work and family commitments — all of them now have access to more online opportunities to learn.
As the proliferation of micro-credentialing courses continues, the challenge for universities and their leaders will be to create offerings that help our students in the job market, and help employers meet their goals.
It is also important for us to remember that our universities and graduates now face escalating competition from institutions worldwide. Adapting too slowly to a rapidly digitalising world will be to the detriment of the higher education sector, our graduates, and their employment prospects.
Entrepreneurship, as we know, is a cornerstone of employment. Universities must promote entrepreneurial thinking and skills across all programmes to prepare greater numbers of graduates to start and grow their own businesses, or to use these skills in the organisations where they are employed.
This 'think like an entrepreneur, everywhere' mindset has largely taken hold at most South African universities, which have over the past 20 years introduced programmes to provide our students with an introduction to the basics of entrepreneurship, regardless of their field of study.
But universities can't do this alone. I must call on employers — whether you're a captain of a billion-rand industry, the owner of a small business that's growing and might just be able to provide a young person with a footing in your industry, or the director general in a government department — to join with higher education institutions to discuss internship opportunities to help more of our young graduates.
Universities must also 'push our students out of the academic nest' by encouraging (or requiring) them to get out into the communities surrounding their campuses. Most universities already run community service modules that see our students applying what they're learning in classrooms to real-world problems.
In turn they gain practical experience, and a more rounded understanding of what life is like for people of various economic and cultural backgrounds. Creating greater understanding and empathy while improving our students' practical skills is a win-win that will stand our country and world in good stead as the global scramble for resources intensifies, and the need to be gracious towards each other grows.
South Africans have repeatedly shown that we are at our best when confronted with a big problem. Our university students and their passion for knowledge and commitment to creating positive change will hopefully inspire you as they continue to inspire me.
In turn, we must not fail them. We must all do whatever we can within our sphere of influence to create employment for our future leaders.
is the chairperson of the Universities South Africa (USAf) board and vice-chancellor and principal of the University of Pretoria.