The missing link in Gauteng’s fight against unemployment

Every year, Gauteng invests billions of rands in education, training and skills development. Every year, businesses report shortages of critical skills. And every year, thousands of young people leave schools, colleges and universities only to join the unemployment queue.

That contradiction tells us something important. Unemployment is no longer simply a job creation problem. It is also a coordination problem. Too often, there is little connection between what the economy needs and what the education and skills development system produces.

Fixing the disconnect

Until we fix that disconnect, unemployment will remain stubbornly high, regardless of how many programmes are launched or how much money is spent.

That is why the Gauteng Human Resource Development Council matters.

The Gauteng Provincial Government has placed economic growth and job creation at the centre of its Growing Gauteng Together 2030 strategy and the Gauteng 13 priorities. From infrastructure and logistics to manufacturing, the township economy, digital innovation and energy security, the province has identified the sectors that will drive future growth.

But identifying growth sectors is only half the task. Those sectors will not grow without a workforce with the right skills.

That requires closer alignment between government, universities, TVET colleges, SETAs and employers. It requires education and training to respond to the needs of the economy, not in isolation from it.

Gauteng tackling the scourge

Gauteng has not lacked ambition in responding to unemployment. Programmes such as Nasi iSpani and the Unemployed Youth Skills Development Initiative have created opportunities for thousands of unemployed residents, particularly young people, to gain work experience and develop new skills.

Those programmes have made a difference. They have also highlighted an important lesson.

Creating opportunities is not the same as creating employability.

Training that is poorly aligned to labour market demand has limited value. Weak oversight of service providers, uneven implementation and limited pathways into sustainable employment can undermine even the best-designed interventions. Young people do not enrol in skills programmes simply to collect certificates. They do so because they believe those programmes will improve their chances of finding work.

That is why investment in skills development must be matched by stronger coordination, better oversight and closer partnerships with industry.

Role of Gauteng Human Resource Development Council

This is where the Gauteng Human Resource Development Council has an important role to play.

Its purpose is not to create another committee. It is to bring together the institutions responsible for education, skills development and economic planning so they work towards the same outcome.

The Council should use labour market intelligence to shape skills planning, encourage employers to play a bigger role in curriculum development and workplace learning, and strengthen accountability for the public resources invested in training.

That matters because Gauteng’s economy is changing rapidly.

Artificial intelligence, automation, renewable energy, advanced manufacturing and digital technologies are reshaping the labour market. Occupations are changing faster than many education and training systems can adapt. If Gauteng continues producing qualifications that are disconnected from these realities, skills shortages and unemployment will continue to exist side by side.

The Human Resource Development Council will not solve unemployment on its own. But it can address one of its underlying causes: the gap between the skills our economy needs and the skills our institutions produce.

Its success should not be measured by the number of meetings it convenes or strategies it publishes. It should be measured by whether more young people find sustainable employment, whether employers can recruit the skills they need and whether public investment in skills development delivers real economic returns.

Gauteng does not suffer from a shortage of talent. It suffers from a shortage of alignment.

Until education, skills development and economic planning pull in the same direction, unemployment will remain one of the province’s greatest challenges.

The Human Resource Development Council gives Gauteng an opportunity to change that. If it succeeds in closing the gap between learning and work, it will do more than strengthen the skills development system. It will help build the skilled workforce on which the province’s future growth and competitiveness depend.

 

• Ntshangase is a communicator in the Gauteng Provincial Government

Bongo Ntshangase