21 Mar 2024

Annual skills reviews conducted by the Human Resource Development Council (HRDC) indicate the existence of a skills mismatch to the needs of the labour market in this country, says Minister of Education and Skills Development, Dr Douglas Letsholathebe

He however, told Parliament on Wednesday that the skills mismatch had reduced over time.

Dr Letsholathebe  explained that objectives of the annual skills review exercise were to determine the priority skills in demand, and the type and level of skills mismatch.

He further said the skills reviews were aimed at providing advice for student sponsorship, and recommend development of new programmes and short courses. He said the HRDC skills reviews identified two major types of skills mismatch.

“First, there is an imbalance of students enrolled in different fields of learning and hence producing more graduates for some of the sectors,” he said.

He added that the second type of mismatch was that the graduates had acquired more theory than practical skills.

However, he pointed out that the Ministry of Education and Skills Development aimed to reduce the skills mismatch through strengthening smart partnerships between industry, universities and TVET institutions.

Furthermore, Dr Letsholathebe said the ministry would improve ICT infrastructure and facilities in training institutions, and continually up-skill trainers and teachers to acquire the much anticipated emerging and future skills.

“In addition to the skills review, conducted annually by HRDC, my ministry is conducting a National Skills Audit. The first phase is being conducted within the Public Service and will be completed in the 2024/25 financial year. The audit will be rolled out to other sectors of the economy including parastatals and the private sector during the 2025/26 financial year,” he said.

The minister stated that the main objective of the audit, conducted through the HRDC, was to profile skills and competencies available and establish the skills and competency gaps with a view to recommend targeted training and skills development interventions for employees.

Furthermore, he said the audit would establish vacancies that were hard to fill due to unavailability of requisite skills or as a result of new and emerging occupations. He said the output of the audit would produce a profile of existing skills, future skills requirements as well as skills gaps.

“The outcome of the audit will further establish the level of skills mismatch in the country as well as the type of skills mismatch,” he said. Dr Letsholathebe said the HRDC was also developing the Labour Market Information System (LMIS). He said LMIS was a portal-based system providing digital access to information on the labour market and supporting the Labour Market Observatory (LMO).

He said information contained in the portal was both qualitative (e.g. information on the various economic sectors) as well as quantitative (i.e. information on key labour market statistical indicators).

Therefore, he said the portal would provide information on both the supply side from the education and training sector and from the demand side (employer/industry side).

“To that end, once the development of the LMIS is completed, the analysis of the labour market information will provide current status on the extent of the skills mismatches in the economy on a regular basis. The project is currently halfway, with the Phase 1 activities being the development of the portal and the Job-matching platform (new jobseeker database) nearing completion,” he said.

Dr Letsholathebe said development of the LMIS was expected to be completed in the financial year 2024-25.

The minister was responding to a question from Member of Parliament of Ngami, Mr Caterpillar Hikuama who wanted to know whether government ever conducted skills inventory in the public service, parastatals and private sector in the country.

If it was done, Mr Hikuama wanted to know, how often and what was their purpose, and whether outcomes of the inventory confirmed or rejected the long held view that there was a high level of skills’ mismatch to the country’s labour market demand. ENDS