Sectors & Skills: The Need for Policy Alignment

Following a large-scale study of skill demands, this survey presents the results of five economic clusters in South Africa. Covering all vital elements, this report provides an overview of the high-tech sector, the resource-based sector, the labor-intensive sector, the services sector, and public infrastructure. Drawing on the skills of scholars and expert consultants throughout South Africa, these findings point to highly differentiated socioeconomic conditions and divergent prospects for future growth in each area. Demonstrating that each sector requires customized skills-development strategies to meet specific conditions, this reference acknowledges the widely diverging demands on the education and training system, proving that far greater levels of alignment between skills development and industrial policies are needed. Economic policymakers, small business development and funding agencies, academics, development planners, and human resource strategists will find this a vital resource in conceptualizing and formulating new skills-development strategies.