Degrees of disconnection: realigning education to drive South Africa’s economy

We are a nation of firsts and paradoxes. The first on the continent to industrialise and the last to align our education system with our economy. The most connected generation in our history is also the most unemployed.

South Africans are not confused about what is broken. Ask a teacher, an employer, or a young job-seeker and they will all tell you the same thing: how we prepare people for work no longer works.

It is not a lack of money or effort. It is the absence of a system that speaks to our economy, our people and our moment in history.

The data confirms this disconnect. According to Statistics South Africa, only 7% of Grade 12 learners qualify for STEM-related degrees despite growing demand for engineers, technicians and digital specialists.

Youth unemployment is 45.5% and nearly half of university students never complete their qualifications.

Among those who do, many emerge with degrees that fail to meet market demands—contributing to a paradox where employers can’t find skilled workers. At the same time, thousands of young South Africans remain unemployed.

This is not just an education problem. It is a systemic failure of alignment. The economy is demanding skills in logistics, renewable energy, welding, ICT, agritech and infrastructure maintenance, yet our institutions continue to produce graduates in fields with limited absorption capacity.

The result is visible across industries: vacancies remain unfilled while communities sink deeper into frustration, dependency and disillusionment. This is more evident than in the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) system. TVET colleges are meant to function as engines of economic inclusion, providing job-ready training aligned with sector needs.

However, most suffer from outdated curricula, limited industry partnerships and low completion rates. A 2022 DHET review found that over half of enrolled TVET students drop out before completing their programmes.

Many cannot secure employment among those who do graduate due to poor employer confidence in the system. Compounding this is the digital divide.

In rural South Africa, only 37% of households have stable internet access, cutting millions off from the digital economy.

This gap presents a structural chokehold on progress for a country hoping to leverage technology, AI and remote work as economic enablers.

Education reform cannot succeed unless it is accompanied by infrastructure reform, especially in broadband access, digital devices and digital literacy from primary school upward. We produce more graduates than ever, yet we struggle to fill critical roles in welding, solar energy, logistics and digital technology.

These contradictions are not poetic; they are structural. And the price is being paid in wasted potential and fractured futures. While the system falters at scale, there are glimpses of what alignment could look like.

The Youth Employment Service (YES), launched in 2018, offers one example. It has created over 140,000 work experiences for youth through private-sector partnerships; YES has shown that structured, demand-led interventions can succeed where institutional models fall short.

Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator has also demonstrated that data-driven matching, employer engagement and targeted skilling can unlock jobs at scale, especially for first-time workers without formal education.

Another promising case is Eskom’s Just Energy Transition (JET) Strategy at the Komati Power Station. Rather than abandon a decommissioned coal site, Eskom has partnered with the South African Renewable Energy Technology Centre (SARETEC) to retrain workers and local youth in solar energy, battery storage and grid maintenance.

These are not workshops; they are pathways. And they reflect a truth policymakers must urgently embrace: the transition to a new economy is a transition in skills, too. South Africa is not alone in facing these challenges or seeking tested responses.

Germany’s dual vocational training system provides a powerful global benchmark, combining formal classroom instruction with paid apprenticeships, co-designed and co-financed by industry. It has helped Germany maintain one of the lowest youth unemployment rates in the OECD.

The success lies in funding and design: vocational education is not a second-tier option but a first-rate pipeline into skilled employment. Local artisan training academies, including those aligned to the construction and energy sectors, have also proven that targeted upskilling can create real economic traction when linked directly to employer demand. However, these examples remain isolated.

What is missing is the systemic integration of such models into national planning and funding frameworks.

Without it, promising programmes remain pilots and not platforms. To achieve inclusive economic growth, South Africa must begin by resolving this foundational misalignment.

That means government departments, basic education, higher education, trade and industry and digital infrastructure must coordinate with the same urgency as they would for a budget crisis. Skills development cannot be the work of one ministry or funding cycle. It must be the architecture of a new industrial strategy.

As the Government of National Unity (GNU) reshapes its policy agenda and the Treasury braces for difficult fiscal decisions in 2026, the question is not whether South Africa can afford to realign education with economic demand but whether it can afford not to without targeted investment in youth and skills, the country’s energy, infrastructure and industrial transitions risk stalling before they start.

Public financing will need to be matched with private sector alignment. Employers must not only offer internships or training slots; they must also help shape curricula, signal future labour demands and co-invest in the training pipeline.

The return on investment is clear: a workforce ready to build the infrastructure, manufacture the components and drive the systems of tomorrow’s economy.

The social return is even greater. Realigning education with economic needs does not only produce jobs.

It restores dignity, curbs unrest and lowers grant dependency. It tells a generation of young people that their efforts, talents and ambitions are not misplaced.

President Cyril Ramaphosa noted in his 2024 State of the Nation Address: “We must ensure that our education and training systems are fit for purpose, to equip our people not for the past, but for the future.”

This is not about creating another acronym. It is about fixing a nation’s broken bridge between education and opportunity with data, urgency and shared responsibility. If we fail to act, the degrees of disconnection will only grow wider. But if we act with discipline and intention, we may rewire South Africa’s future, one skill, one job and one aligned learner at a time.

Nomvula Zeldah Mabuza is a Risk Governance and Compliance Specialist with extensive experience in strategic risk and industrial operations. She holds a Diploma in Business Management (Accounting) from Brunel University, UK, and is an MBA candidate at Henley Business School, South Africa.

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