2 days ago
Bridging South Africa's skills gap: Strategies for the Fourth Industrial Revolution
South Africa faces a critical and widening skills gap, particularly in technical, digital, and entrepreneurial capabilities.
Image: / Emily Ranquist
Many young people in South Africa leave school or university without the ability to apply the knowledge in the modern workplace, despite the country recognising the importance of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) while aligning policy with global trends.
Sanele Zondo, IFP Youth Brigade leader and member of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, said, South Africa faces a critical and widening skills gap, particularly in technical, digital, and entrepreneurial capabilities.
'The most significant gaps lie in digital literacy, critical thinking, problem-solving, and practical work readiness. While theoretical knowledge is often emphasised, many young people leave school or university without the ability to apply that knowledge in the modern workplace.
'In township and rural schools, this gap is even more severe due to limited infrastructure and outdated curricula. These young people are not adequately prepared for a digitised economy or the realities of the global job market,' Zondo said.
There have been some commendable efforts, such as the introduction of coding and robotics into the curriculum, and initiatives by the Department of Higher Education to promote TVET colleges and entrepreneurship hubs. However, these remain inconsistent and underfunded, he said.
Zondo added that while South Africa recognises the importance of 4IR and has begun aligning policy with global trends, the weakness lies in execution and equity.
'Many schools lack electricity, let alone devices or trained teachers. Furthermore, the lack of industry involvement means many of these programmes are designed in isolation and not aligned with real-world demands. The system is falling short by failing to scale successful pilot projects nationally and is unsuccessful in ensuring teacher readiness. Without trained educators, even the best 4IR curriculum will not succeed,' he said.
Asked about practical solutions to bridge the skills gap in the South African education system, Zondo said his party, the IFP, believes in people-centred, pragmatic policy solutions.
'We propose compulsory digital literacy and entrepreneurship modules from Grade 7 onwards. Stronger partnerships between schools and industries, ensuring curriculum alignment and internship pipelines. National Youth Innovation Centres in all provinces that offer free short skills training in coding, design, renewable energy, and other 4IR sectors.
'Support for TVET colleges, including funding for student accommodation, resources, and modernised equipment. A review of educator training programmes to ensure teachers are equipped to teach emerging content. We must treat skills development as a national priority and not a bureaucratic checkbox,' he said.
The disconnect between what tertiary institutions teach and what employers need is evident in over-academisation. While theory has its place, employers need practical experience, adaptability, and tech-savviness. Many graduates are unable to operate basic digital tools or present solutions in high-pressure environments, Zondo said.
'The gap is evident in ICT and Engineering, where graduates lack hands-on experience with industry software or real-world problem-solving. In Education, teachers are trained with outdated methods. In Commerce and law, students learn abstract principles but lack exposure to digital compliance tools and global regulatory trends. Tertiary institutions must embed industry mentorship, simulation learning, and work-integrated learning to address this,' he said.
Zondo said there is a need for a structured and action-driven collaboration, where a National Skills Compact should be established and be co-chaired by government and private sector leaders, with formal representation from youth organisations and universities.
He added that industry-specific advisory councils must be mandated to shape curriculum reform in real time.
'The government must fund Public-Private Skills Academies that offer certification in high-demand sectors such as fintech, cybersecurity, and green energy. Youth-led monitoring committees must be created to track the implementation and success of these partnerships. Young people are not just beneficiaries; they must be co-designers of the solutions. Real transformation will only happen when all stakeholders move beyond talk and into collaborative, measurable action,' Zondo said.
Palesa Phili, chief executive of the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry NPC, said many graduates are taught theoretical concepts or outdated technologies, while employers seek proficiency in current tools.
'Some candidates hold advanced degrees but lack practical, hands-on experience, so the qualifications need to be more inclusive of industry needs. Additionally, as the world and industry are becoming more technologically advanced, qualifications need to be developed to take this into account.
'As an organised business, we believe one of the most important strategies to bridge the skills gap is strong collaboration between government, academia, and the private sector. Too often, when these three stakeholders are not aligned, students graduate with mismatched skills, which contributes to higher unemployment rates.
'However, when they work together to co-create curricula, academic institutions are better informed about the real-world needs of the business sector. This alignment is vital not only for improving graduate employability but also for driving economic growth,' Phili said.
She added that businesses can contribute actively to shaping education by providing honest feedback on both bottlenecks and opportunities within the education system; the private sector enables the business chamber to communicate insights directly to the government.
The private sector has access to real-time data on the skills currently in demand, as well as emerging trends. Sharing this information with educational institutions not only contributes to improving the quality and relevance of education but also helps prevent skills mismatches or an oversupply of qualifications that are not aligned with labour market demands, Phili said.
'Through our 20 business forums, we bring together the private sector, government representatives, academia, and subject-matter specialists to engage in meaningful discussions on issues such as skills development and shortages. Furthermore, we consistently provide structured feedback from businesses on curriculum needs to ensure alignment with industry demands,' she said.
Professor Bheki Khoza, an education expert from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, said one of the intended outcomes of the curricula in South Africa is to prepare learners with knowledge and/or skills of the 21st century.
'Although Curriculum 2005 (C2005) was outcomes-driven and the current Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) is content-driven, they are both underpinned by the ideology of promoting the knowledge and skills of the 21st century. The knowledge and skills were advanced by the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), which emerged at the turn of the 21st century. The 4IR introduced the digitalisation process of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, and Big Data (BD), to name a few.
'The Fifth Industrial Revolution (5IR) emerged during the Covid-19 era, promoting the personalisation processes where the human mind is complemented by technologies such as AI, robotics, and others. As a result of the personalisation process of the 5IR, the Department of Basic Education introduced robotic technology to be taught from Grade 1 to Grade 12,' Khoza said.
He added that educational stakeholders have realised that 4/5IR technologies are useful when used sensibly.
'For example, the introduction of robotic technology in schools may help learners understand their unique needs and develop technologies that are relevant to them. Higher Education Institutions have started to produce policies that guide staff and students in using technologies sensibly to avoid plagiarism. This suggests that they learn to verify and acknowledge the contributions of these technologies as stipulated in the policies,' Khoza said.
Collaborations seem to be strengthened by various grants given to educational institutions by other sectors. For example, according to the South African National Development Plan (NDP 2030), universities should be graduating 5,000 PhD graduates every year to reach a target of 100 PhD graduates per one million people by 2030. The graduates may empower their communities with high-level skills to develop their communities, he said.
Khoza added that other grants are useful in facilitating staff and student exchange.
'Since the inception of the 5IR (2020), universities have been using collaborations with other sectors or countries through a series of webinars. The webinars introduce staff and students to new ways of doing their activities that address their individual needs. For example, during the Covid-19 era, they completed the academic calendar through technologies such as learning management systems (LMSs), social media sites (SMSs), video communication technologies (VCTs), and smartphones, to name a few. These technologies have produced new jobs for those who graduated from being end users to being experts and produce new personised technologies to be used by end users,' Khoza said.
The DBE has started to introduce the use of technologies in schools as a potential intervention for developing new jobs, Khoza said.
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