A degree is not enough in South Africa – these are the skills you need to invest in

Skilled jobs have staged a massive recovery in South Africa, not only returning to pre-Covid levels but actually surpassing them.
This stands in stark contrast to the semi- and unskilled job sectors, which are still struggling to get back to pre-pandemic levels.
According to PwC’s latest economic outlook report for South Africa, this is indicative of the massive need for skilled labour in the country – a need which is till not being adequately addressed by the job market and even educational institutions.
“The South African narrative around skills and labour is most often focussed on how to create jobs for the large number of unskilled adults in the country. Indeed, we have a massive unskilled labour problem. However, South Africa also had 4.1 million skilled jobs in the first quarter of 2023,” the group said.
The 4.1 million skills jobs were 6.3% more compared to 2019Q4, i.e. the last quarter before the arrival of Covid-19.
While the number of semi-skilled and unskilled jobs are still below their pre-pandemic levels, skilled jobs have powered back strongly, the group said.
“Skilled jobs are more likely to recover quickly from an economic downturn due to demand for specialised expertise to address business challenges,” the group said.
Skilled jobs include professionals like chemists, engineers, doctors and nurses, teachers and lecturers, as well as business and legal professionals, among many others. These skills are not only in high demand locally but are also being sought-after by other countries – like Germany, Ireland and Canada – which are looking at ways to incentivise the import of these skills, adding another layer of trouble for South Africa.
While skilled jobs have staged a strong recovery, unskilled jobs (e.g. domestic workers, waitrons, cashiers, etc.) are vulnerable to being made redundant due to cost-cutting measures.
Semi-skilled jobs (e.g. clerks, salespersons, machine operators, etc.) meanwhile are vulnerable to being made redundant due to accelerated automation, changes in client demand, and skills mismatches compared to evolving demands of the market.
Skill challenges
But even with skilled positions being in high demand and recovering in South Africa, this does not mean that everyone who has a qualification or certification of skills is guaranteed a job, PwC said.
Notably, a tenth (10%) of South Africa’s unemployed adults carries a tertiary education qualification. While this is a relatively small percentage compared to those with just a matric or no qualification at all, the number has doubled from 2010 (5%).
Universities and other tertiary institutions are trying to address this, PwC said, mainly through various employment programmes and course restructuring to ensure that graduates have the necessary skills for the contemporary jobs market – but the response from businesses points to South Africans still lacking the skills needed for a competitive environment.
As a result, even with some skills, South Africa’s skilled workforce needs in-job and specialist training to be brought up to speed. This is especially the case in the financial services and information technology fields.
According to PwC, the skillsets lacking in these sectors include both hard and soft skills.
Hard skills relate to critical technical skills relevant to the job at hand, while soft skills include things like adaptability, interpersonal communication and empathy.
The current critical gaps in critical technical skills identified include:
- Organisational change;
- Leadership and transformation;
- Data science and governance,
- Cyber security;
- Improved commercial orientation/acumen;
- CX (Customer Experience);
- Data engineering (including data architecture);
- Software engineering (full stack);
- Testing / quality capability;
- Cloud engineering;
- Enterprise, solution, general, and tech architecture;
- Entrepreneurship (proposition development);
- Business architecture;
- Business analysis; and
- Behavioural economics.
Critical future skills identified include:
- Ability to work with blockchain;
- Augmented reality and the Metaverse;
- Problem-solving;
- New digital business models; and
- Innovation in digital.
Critical required soft skills identified include:
- Entrepreneurship;
- Communication;
- Interpersonal skills;
- Empathy;
- Growth mindset;
- Comfort with technology;
- Leadership;
- Adaptability; and
- Curiosity.
Read: These in-demand jobs in South Africa don’t need a degree