Ramaphosa moves to address South Africa’s skills crisis
begun taking steps to resolve what the presidency believes is the biggest impediment to growth after persistent blackouts: an acute shortage of skills.
Companies operating in South Africa struggle to find skilled workers, a result of a dysfunctional education system exacerbated by emigration. Still, between 2014 and 2021 only 25 298 skilled work permit visas were approved, according to a report prepared for the presidency. More than half of applications were rejected on grounds including errors in the complex application process.
Eight recommendations in the study, which was released by the presidency in April, include a points-based system, where applicants who meet a minimum education and salary level would be granted work permits.Larger employers could be granted trusted employer status, which would allow them to assess qualifications of workers they bring in without having to subject them to an arduous state verification process.
Current requirements, which include having to submit qualifications to the South African Qualifications Authority in a time-consuming process and often having to prove that a South African cannot be found for the job, have frustrated applicants and potential employers and resulted in a massive backlog of applications.
Some changes have already been made, including doing away with the need for radiological reports to prove an applicant doesn’t have tuberculosis and limiting the need for police clearances from the countries where an applicant has lived to the last five years.
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