(AGENPARL) – Fri 30 January 2026 PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
30 JANUARY 2026
Skills system under the spotlight as key stakeholders explore new solutions
South Africa’s skills system is under growing pressure to deliver the right skills for a changing economy. Research and engagement with users of the system highlights that the current system faces serious problems with some players calling for the closure of the skill levy institutions and others for a radical reform of the system.
In response, the Centre for Researching Education and Labour (REAL) based at the University of Witwatersrand is convening a series of Research-led Skills Dialogues to examine how skills planning and training can be better aligned with industry needs.
The importance of this conversation is reflected in the fact that the Minister of Higher Education and Training, Buti Manamela, will be involved in the dialogue process, with his senior management team also in attendance and engaging with key stakeholders.
The Dialogues are informed extensively by numerous research initiatives undertaken by the Centre which have explored why the skills levy institutions function sub-optimally, including their institutional design, how they are managed by the state, and unrealistic expectations. This research also highlights that these challenges are not unique to South Africa: policy makers around the world are struggling to reform vocational education and skills systems. The endeavour is a complex one, and expensive, and most countries struggle to find adequate budgets for it, which is why many have shifted to skills levies. Employer coordination is central both for building insights into industry priorities, and for enabling systematic long-term training, but this is difficult to achieve. For this reason, industry and sectoral coordination is necessary, but the real changes that are needed.
The first dialogue being held on Friday 30 January will explore industry concerns with the current systems, including the view expressed by some industry representatives that the old Industry Training Boards served them better than the current systems.
The second dialogue (being held on 27 February) will focus on improving workplace skills planning and funding to support training, as well as how SETAs can best be structured to support skills planning and provision.
The REAL Centre Research-led Skills Dialogues bring together employers, employer associations, workers and policymakers to share their lived experiences and perspectives on the system with the aim of identifying practical solutions to ensure the users of the system are better served.