South Africa’s Higher Education system needs to move away from qualifications to skills based.

The Minister of Higher Education, Buti Manamela, speaking to IOL, said, “South Africa’s post-school education and training system remains fragmented and uneven, with too many young people locked out of opportunity.”

South Africa faces a rising graduate unemployment crisis, with the rate climbing to 11.7% in the first quarter of 2025. At the centre of the crisis is a mismatch between the skills produced by universities and labour market demands.

Dawie Roodt, an economist, says that “The nature of economic activities today is completely different from what we had five to ten years ago.” He further adds that today’s economic activities centre around a service-driven economy and a technologically driven economy; it’s no longer a primary-driven economy anymore. If you want to participate and be part of the modern economy, we have to produce the kind of skills which are required in the modern economy.

‘The problem in South Africa is we put a lot of emphasis on qualification and not nearly enough emphasis on skills,’ said Dawie.

 Professor Jabulani Nyoni said, “The focus on rectifying the past injustices overshadowed direct focus on skills for employment and entrepreneurship.”

The South African education system remains fragmented as a direct result of apartheid design. This, combined with curriculum design and an institutional landscape designed to still struggle to produce job-ready graduates, has resulted in profound misalignment for the labour market needs.”

“After three decades of transformation, ten years since Fees Must Fall, and twenty years since our universities and colleges merged, we must admit that progress has been uneven,” the minister said. “We must learn from the past, fix what is broken, and re-imagine what is possible.”