Attention matriculants: These are the most in-demand skills in SA

If you have just completed your matric year and are expecting stellar results, but not sure yet what you want to study, perhaps looking at the skills shortage list in SA could help you make that decision. It’s one way to guarantee yourself employment after graduation.

Skills shortages are a major challenge for companies, not just in SA but around the world. The absence of these skills generally results in unfilled vacancies, ultimately resulting the growth of a company.

South Africa has its fair share of skill shortages. This, according to the Career Junction Employment Insight Report for 2022, is as a result of expensive tertiary education resulting in a smaller proportion of the population being able to receive tertiary education, and low wages resulting in highly skilled workers leaving South African employers for better paid jobs and opportunities overseas.

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According to the report, the most severe skill shortages are evident in the Finance and IT sectors. The country also experiences skill shortages in the medical and health sector, the field of marketing, Design, Media and Arts, as well as business management and engineering.

The states that recruiters were experiencing a shortage of skills such as software development, technical/business architecture, database, design development/administration, as well as systems, analysis, data analysis/data warehousing and business analysis.

Sectors in dire need of skills

In the finance sector there is a skills shortage of professionals in External Auditing, Taxation, Actuarial Management / Administration, Financial Analysis, and Cost and Management Accounting.

Within the Medical and Health sector, there is currently a severe shortage of skills for nursing and professional caregiving staff.

A shortage of Product Management professionals, while skills shortages in Design, Media and Arts sector have been evident for Web Design, Multimedia and 3D Design as well as Graphic, Print and Packaging Design.

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In addition, business development roles within the business and management sector as well civil structural engineer roles (within the engineering sector) are scarce and difficult roles to fill.

What can SA do to bridge the skills gap?

The report suggests that training facilities and tertiary institutions should align to industry needs in terms of skills and qualifications. To do this, the report stated that there needs to be more collaboration between employers and training/tertiary institutions.

It also went on to suggest that employers become the ideal candidate’s employer of choice. “Providing employee perks, flexibility and benefits, career development and training opportunities, as well as a meaningful and inspiring work and projects keeps employees happy. As a result, employee retention becomes easier and attracting the right talent might become easier too,” the report suggested. Upskilling existing employees was also an option.

*Compiled by Devina Haripersad