Bridging the labour market skills gap to tackle youth unemployment in South Africa

Alexis Habiyaremye, Thomas Habanabakize and Chijioke Nwosu
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Thomas Habanabakize: University of Johannesburg, South Africa
Chijioke Nwosu: University of the Free State, South Africa

The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 2022, vol. 33, issue 4, 786-805

Abstract: South Africa has one of the world’s highest youth unemployment rates despite a high demand for skilled labour, because employability remains severely hampered by a persistent vertical skills mismatch. The flagship upskilling programme deployed by the government to enhance job readiness and enterprise development capabilities among rural youth has, however, shown mixed results. The slow uptakes of alumni calls into question the adequacy of the programme’s skills composition in resolving the labour market mismatch. Using the Outcome Mapping approach and probit estimation on self-reported skills improvements among programme participants, this study finds perceived improvements in non-technical skills to be associated with a higher likelihood of success in comparison to technical skills, both in securing a stable job and in launching a viable enterprise after completion of the programme. These findings confirm the growing importance of ‘soft skills’ in bolstering employability when jobs are scarce. They suggest the need for a stronger emphasis on this set of skills in upskilling programmes aimed to address unemployment challenges. JEL Codes: H42, H57, L26, O31, P37, C35

Keywords: Enterprise development; Outcome Mapping; skills gap; youth unemployment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:33:y:2022:i:4:p:786-805

DOI: 10.1177/10353046221138400

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