South Africa’s youth unemployment crisis is often described as a shortage of jobs. But another crisis is unfolding: a growing disconnect between young people’s preparedness for work and the skills our economy needs.
This country remains among the most unequal in the world, according to the World Inequality Index, with the top 10% receiving about 70% of pretax income. Many factors contribute to this inequality but unemployment remains one of its biggest drivers. Among South Africa’s poorest households, unemployment is particularly severe, deepening the country’s economic divide.
Yet the crisis exists alongside a significant expansion in access to education and a growing number of young people entering tertiary institutions after completing school.
South Africa has not only a job availability crisis; it has a workforce-readiness crisis.
Widening access to higher education has been one of the most important achievements of our post-1994 democracy. But our continued reliance on a single route to economic success has eclipsed our ability to create diverse routes into opportunity.
We have created the illusion that, for someone to become prosperous and successful, they need a university qualification. In doing so, we have taught an entire generation that a desk and a degree are the sole definitions of success.
As a result, our universities have become increasingly crowded, industries are facing shortages of critical technical skills and millions of capable young people are left without a clear pathway to economic participation.
This is the contradiction at the heart of South Africa’s youth unemployment crisis: we have expanded educational opportunities but we have not expanded enough pathways from education into livelihoods.
The latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey highlights the paradox. While 45.8% of our youth are unemployed, many sectors continue to struggle to find people with the practical skills needed to fill available positions. Opportunities exist across various sectors — manufacturing added 38 000 jobs, mining 32 000 and agriculture 10 000 — yet many young people are not equipped with the workplace-ready skills the roles require.
We need an urgent shift in mindset. A university education is one pathway to employment and success but it is certainly not the only one.
Instead, we need a broader post-school education and training system, of which universities form an important part. We need more vocational training opportunities and our technical and vocational education and training (TVET) system needs to operate at a much larger and more effective scale.
If South Africa wants to develop accomplished, economically independent citizens, we need to learn from countries that have built strong economies while creating more equitable societies.
Countries such as Switzerland and Germany, for example, are not tethered to the notion that everyone should go to university.
In Switzerland, about two-thirds of young people learn a trade after school rather than following the general academic route into tertiary education.
The Swiss vocational education and training system combines workplace learning with vocational schooling, preparing young people for the jobs that are available. As a result, Switzerland has one of the lowest youth unemployment rates in the world.
Germany similarly offers apprenticeships and school-based programmes, with flexible entry routes and recognised qualifications
that support employment and further education.
Its vocational education and training system combines classroom learning with workplace experience, allowing young people to develop practical skills while gaining recognised qualifications.
Both nations have managed to build greater equality into their societies because they nurture a parity of esteem. Being an expert artisan, technician or tradesperson carries the same middle-class stability, social dignity and respect as being a doctor or lawyer.
When speaking in London recently, I found myself returning repeatedly to an undeniable truth: the youthfulness of Africa is our greatest latent potential. Yet the potential remains trapped behind the walls of structural inequality.
South Africa will remain one of the world’s most unequal societies, partly because our educational framework has not yet fully embraced diverse pathways to economic opportunity and skills development.
We have to admit that we have not done enough to create opportunities for our youth to succeed and thrive beyond school.
While expanding access to university has been a milestone of our democracy, we should have invested as heavily and intentionally in building a stronger and more diverse post-school education and training system.
Universities, long viewed as the gateway to a better life, have a significant role to play in enabling the shift. Their role is not diminished by the change; rather, it expands. Universities can help build bridges between learning, innovation and the world of work.
Universities can be part of the solution. For example, in 2023, the Stellenbosch University Water Institute coordinated the establishment of the first regional Centre of Vocational Excellence in Water, making it the first initiative of the Platform of Vocational Excellence in Water outside the European Union. It serves as an intermediary between TVET colleges and industry.
The Stellenbosch Business School runs the Young Minds Programme, which equips school-leavers with the skills and knowledge they need to be better prepared for study and work.
But universities alone cannot widen access to economic participation.
There needs to be a comprehensive and collaborative commitment to broaden civic and vocational skills development. Government, higher education institutions, TVET colleges and industry must work together to create learning pathways that respond to the realities of the economy.
The political will for the shift is gaining momentum.
In a recent engagement with the Consul General of Switzerland, I discussed the implications of the bilateral agreement signed by Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter and President Cyril Ramaphosa, focused explicitly on accelerating vocational training in South Africa.
Higher Health, a non-profit organisation and the implementing arm of the department of higher education and training, is making strides in holistic youth development across the post-school education and training sector.
It operates across all 26 public universities, 50 public TVET colleges and nine community colleges, covering more than 1 000 campus sites and reaching more than
two million young South Africans annually across 52 districts in all nine provinces.
As a country, we must make the most of this momentum. Business leaders also need to become partners with TVET colleges to design agile, role-specific occupational programmes that respond to the needs of industry.
True citizenship is rooted in agency. When we equip a young person with skills, we do more than make them employable; we give them the confidence, capability and independence to participate meaningfully in society.
South Africa’s future depends not only on creating more jobs but on creating more ways for young people to access opportunity.
A broader post-school educa-
tion and training system is not an alternative to universities; it is essential to building a more inclusive economy and a society of skilled, engaged citizens.
Professor Deresh Ramjugernath is rector and vice-chancellor of Stellenbosch University.