Sectors & skills: the need for policy alignment

Abstract

Sectors & Skills: The Need for Policy Alignment presents the results of a large-scale study of the skill demands of five economic clusters in South Africa:

The high-tech sector - automotive, aerospace and 'big science' technology such as space science, nuclear energy and biotechnology; The resource-based sector - metals, chemicals, wood, paper and pulp; The labour-intensive sector - clothing and textiles, agro-processing and the creative industries; The services sector - financial services; ICT and tourism; and Public infrastructure - energy and transport.

Drawing on the skills of scholars and expert consultants throughout South Africa, the findings point to highly differentiated socio-economic conditions and divergent prospects for future growth in each sector. The analysis shows that each sector requires customised skills development strategies to meet specific sectoral conditions. This places widely diverging demands on the education and training system that, in turn, necessitate far greater levels of alignment between skills development and industrial policies.

The monograph is based on a study of sector-specific research and related skills requirements commissioned by the South African Department of Labour in 2006. It formed part of a wider research project related to the National Skills Development Strategy and the National Industrial Policy Framework of 2007, for which the Human Sciences Research Council led a research consortium comprising the Development Policy Research Unit at the University of Cape Town and the Sociology of Work Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Economic policy-makers, small business development and funding agencies, academics, development planners and human resource strategists will find this a vital resource in conceptualising and formulating new skills development strategies.