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EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT AND SKILLS IN SOUTH AFRICA
Edited by Andre Kraak & Karen Press
HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT REVIEW
2008
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Published by HSRC Press
Private Bag X9182, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa
www.hsrcpress.ac.za
First published 2008
ISBN 978-0-7969-2203-8
© 2008 Human Sciences Research Council
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of the Human Sciences Research Council (‘the Council’)
or indicate that the Council endorses the views of the authors.
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11 Public schooling 228
Jennifer Shindler
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12 Further education and training colleges 254
Salim Akoojee, Simon McGrath and Mariette Visser
13 Higher education 278
Mignonne Breier and Mahlubi Mabizela
14 Enterprise training 300
Simon McGrath and Andrew Paterson
15 Training in the South African public sector 322
Andrew Paterson
SECTION THREE: HIGH SKILLS AND THE PROFESSIONS
16 High-skill requirements in advanced manufacturing 345
Jo Lorentzen and Angelique Wildschut
17 Financial services professions 365
Elize van Zyl
18 Veterinary skills 388
Andrew Paterson
19 Pharmacists 410
Elsje Hall
20 Social workers 432
Nicci Earle
21 Engineers, technologists and technicians 452
Rènette du Toit and Joan Roodt
SECTION FOUR: INTERMEDIATE SKILLS AND THE MIDDLE OCCUPATIONS
22 Three pathways to intermediate skilling 479
Andre Kraak
23 Intermediate-level workers in the services sector 503
Rènette du Toit
24 The growing skills crisis in the tourism sector 528

integrated and holistic analyses of the pathways of learners through schooling, further and
higher education into the labour market and national system of innovation. The HRD
Review series is the flagship project of this Programme.
Conception of HRD
An important conceptual distinction shaping the content of the HRD Review 2003 was its
definition of skills, in particular, its categorisation of skills into three distinct bands: high
skills, intermediate skills and entry-level skills. These skill bands can be represented in terms
of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) as shown in the table on page vi.
The distinctions between these levels are crucial for three reasons. Firstly, as was pointed
out in the HRD Review 2003,much of the literature on globalisation and the ‘knowledge
economy’ exaggerates the extent of the transition to a new social order in which high skills
are the prerequisites for participation in the new economy. The diffusion of the new high-
skill production techniques associated with the knowledge economy has in fact been far
more uneven than acknowledged in the international literature. It does not totally displace
old forms of social and economic organisation, with their associated skill needs. Rather, the
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new high-skill sectors coexist alongside older sectors. High skills are not the only skills in
demand in the new economy. Workers with intermediate and entry-level skills continue to
form the largest percentile of employed populations world-wide.
Secondly, there has been a serious neglect of the ongoing importance of intermediate skills
in contemporary economies. Even though structural changes have occurred in the South
African economy over the past three decades towards greater capital- and skills-intensity,
these changes have not dramatically reduced the demand for sufficient numbers of
technically competent operatives, artisans and technicians in the manufacturing sectors of
the economy. Additionally, the biggest structural change, the rapid growth of the services
sector, has also brought with it dramatic increases in the demand for white-collar
intermediate-skilled labour – the clerks, sales and administrative personnel who work the
services economy.
And finally, in an economy characterised by great poverty, unemployment and low levels of

such as colleges, sector education and training authorities (SETAs) and private sector
training centres have a massive task to accomplish in providing entry-level skills and other
developmental measures in support of such a low-skill, labour-intensive, employment-
creating strategy.
Many chapters in this volume contribute to the development of such a multifaceted skills
strategy. The need for skills development strategies at the high, intermediate and entry levels
is a common refrain throughout the text.
The structure of the Review
The structure of the present volume is shaped by the HRD Review 2003 in two ways.
It continues the comprehensive coverage provided by the HRD Review 2003 as far as is
possible. Many chapters, therefore, are updates of work published in the 2003 edition. More
importantly, many of the chapters in the HRD Review 2008 are strongly influenced by the
three-level conception of skills developed in the 2003 edition.
The Introduction and Section One of the HRD Review 2008 examine the context in which
HRD takes place. Chapters 1–7 provide an overview of the education–economy relationship
in South Africa; the South African economy and economic policy; employment shifts and
the ‘jobless growth’ debate; the social and human development context in which education,
training and employment takes place; the impact of HIV/AIDS on this context; the informal
economy; and science and technology policy.
Chapters 8–15 in Section Two focus on the supply-side provision of education and training.
The focus, ordering and structure of these chapters mirror very closely the format adopted
in the 2003 edition of the Review.Topics included are: public expenditure on education;
early childhood development; adult basic education and training; public schooling; FET
colleges; higher education; enterprise training; and public sector training.
The last 10 chapters, in Sections Three, Four and Five, aim to illuminate the three-way
conception of skills discussed earlier. Chapters are distributed across the following sub-
divisions:
•High skills and the professions (Chapters 16–21)
•Intermediate skills and the middle occupations (Chapters 22–24)
• Entry-level skills (Chapter 25)

trained per year, with the Performance Indicator results of the National Skills Development
Strategy (NSDS) launched in 2001. The DoL is also heavily reliant on the 23 SETAs for data
collection on the NSDS, and has little power to ensure data integrity and quality in the
production of such SETA data.
Another data issue for readers to note is that there are a few instances in which different
chapter authors have extracted and customised their own tables from large databases
such as the Higher Education Management Information System (HEMIS) or LFS database,
with divergent results. These divergences arise from differing computations during the
customisation process, and not from errors made in the construction of the data tables.
The task of researching off the HEMIS database is complicated further by the fact that it is
retrospectively amended from time to time, as DoE officials audit the enrolment numbers
provided by institutions. Once exact enrolment and graduation numbers are audited, slight
changes in the HEMIS data will inevitably arise. One research account of higher education,
using data extracted on a specific date, may throw up different results to another seemingly
identical effort, because of the time difference in data extraction.
All of these data limitations and restrictions are unfortunate because they make working
with data difficult, and data gaps compromise the value of the research results. Reliable
administrative data are crucial to good, evidence-led research and policy formulation.
It is hoped that one of the effects of the HRD Review series will be to highlight the
importance of reliable data for good government policy-making and, in doing so, to put
the improvement of data production and collection under the spotlight.
The HRD Review 2008 provides the best possible collection of reliable data available in the
cross-sectoral field of HRD. This collection of chapters and its massive assemblage of data
tables will prove invaluable to government officials who are responsible for decision-making
in HRD. It will assist training practitioners in the SETAs and in the private sector with their
HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT REVIEW 2008
viii
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responsibilities for delivering relevant and high-quality training. And lastly, the analysis
presented in each of the 25 chapters will be of use to all those academics and postgraduate

The following academics are thanked for undertaking the demanding peer review of
25 chapters in a very short space of time:
External reviewers
Haroon Bhorat,Director of the Development Policy Research Unit based at the School of
Economics, University of Cape Town
Enver Motala,formerly Deputy Director-General, Department of Education, Gauteng
province, and currently an education consultant
Pundy Pillay,Senior Research Economist for the Research Triangle Institute (SA)
Charles Simkins,Professor of Economics, University of the Witwatersrand
Eddie Webster,Professor of Industrial Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand
Heather Jacklin,Senior Lecturer, School of Education, University of Cape Town
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Sean Archer,Associate Professor of Economics, University of Cape Town
Chris Rogerson,Professor, School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies,
University of the Witwatersrand
Peter Barron,Specialist Technical Advisor, Health Systems Trust
Internal reviewers
Andrew Paterson,Research Director, Research Programme on Education, Science and Skills
Development, HSRC
Glenda Kruss,Chief Research Specialist, Research Programme on Education, Science and
Skills Development, HSRC
Jo Lorentzen,Chief Research Specialist, Research Programme on Education, Science and
Skills Development, HSRC
Mignonne Breier,Chief Research Specialist, Research Programme on Education, Science
and Skills Development, HSRC
Michael Cosser,Chief Research Specialist, Research Programme on Education, Science and
Skills Development, HSRC
HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT REVIEW 2008
xii

100 to give a figure between 0 and 100. The same idea is being represented in both cases,
with 0 representing perfect equality and 1 (or 100) representing perfect inequality.
Gross enrolment ratio (GER) The gross enrolment ratio is a measure of education access
and coverage. It is calculated by dividing the number of learners enrolled at a given level of
education, regardless of age, by the population of the age group which officially corresponds
to the given level of education.
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HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT REVIEW 2008
xiv
Headcount This refers to the number of individual students in an education institution.
Headcounts include all enrolments regardless of the length of the course or programme.
Consequently, each short-term or part-time student is counted in the same way as full-time
enrolments. Headcounts thus present a potentially inflated picture of the size of the system.
To address this, full-time equivalent enrolments are calculated by converting headcounts to
the full-time one-year equivalent of each enrolment.
Higher education This refers to all education programmes at the post-school, pre-degree
level leading to qualifications at National Qualifications Framework Levels 5–8, including
certificates, diplomas, higher diplomas, as well as undergraduate, postgraduate, master’s and
doctoral degrees.
Higher education institution This refers to universities and universities of technology
(formerly technikons) that offer programmes at National Qualifications Framework Levels
5–8.
Internal labour markets These are labour markets located within specific enterprises, in
which jobs are usually filled by internal promotion, and skills are acquired internally rather
than through the acquisition and possession of externally recognised qualifications.
Learner/student Individuals enrolled at schools, in adult education and training courses,
in early childhood educare programmes and in learnerships are referred to as learners.
Individuals enrolled at further education and training colleges and higher education
institutions are referred to as students.
Learnership Learnerships are structured, systematic forms of workplace learning that consist

year. The ‘throughput rate’ is distinct from the ‘pass rate’, which is defined as the number
of students who pass an examination, expressed as a percentage of the total number who
qualify to write the examination, and who actually write the examination. For example, a
programme has 100 students who enrol at the start of the academic year. Ten students drop
out during the year. At the time of the final examination for the year 90 students qualify to
write, and do write the examination, and 45 students pass. The pass rate is therefore 50 per
cent, but the throughput rate is 45 per cent – a lower number reflecting the dropout factor.
Throughput rates as defined at higher education institutions Throughput rates in higher
education are defined institutionally as the total number of students who graduate from a
higher education institution each year, as a percentage of the total number of students
enrolled in that institution.
GLOSSARY
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Tables and figures
INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1
Table 1.1: Cellphone usage, by socio-economic category, 2006 6
Table 1.2: Enrolment in public and independent schools (Grades 1–12), 1998–2004 12
Table 1.3: Gross enrolment ratio (percentage) in public and independent schools, by
province, 2003 13
Table 1.4: Net enrolment ratio (percentage) in secondary schools, by province, 1997 and
2001 14
Table 1.5: National Senior Certificate examination results, 1997–2005 14
Table 1.6: Enrolment numbers in public FET colleges, 2004 16
Table 1.7: Higher education headcount enrolments, 1999–2005 16
Table 1.8: Science, engineering and technology graduates as a percentage of total
graduates, 2002–2004 17

annualised rates), 2001–2003 38
Table 2.12: Employment, by sector and percentage change, 2001–2004 39
Table 2.13: Exports to selected regions (percentage of total, average over period),
1998–2003 40
Figure 2.1: Real effective exchange rate of the rand (1995 = 100), 1990–2004 31
Figure 2.2: Percentage share of government functions in consolidated national and
provincial spending, 2001–2003 35
Figure 2.3: Percentage growth of broad economic sectors (constant 2000 prices),
2001–2003 38
Figure 2.4: Integrated Economic Action Plan 42
Chapter 3
Table 3.1: Simple GDP elasticity of non-agricultural formal employment, 1970–2002 52
Table 3.2: Output–employment elasticity estimates, non-agricultural formal
employment, 1980–1998 54
Table 3.3: Selected output–employment elasticities, 1970–2001 55
Table 3.4: Employment, unemployment and labour force trends, 1995–2005 57
Table 3.5: Simple GDP elasticity of total employment, 1990–2005 59
Table 3.6: Sectoral economic performance (GVA), 1995–2004 60
Table 3.7: Employment expansion, by sector, 1995–2005 62
Table 3.8: Employment growth, by skills level (percentage change), 1995–2005 63
Table 3.9: Skills breakdown of employment, by sector, 1995 and 2005 65
Figure 3.1: Non-agricultural formal employment and real GDP, 1967–2002 52
Chapter 4
Table 4.1: Provincial population, by gender, 2006 70
Table 4.2: Percentage distribution of projected provincial share of the total population,
2001–2006 71
Table 4.3: Breakdown of South African population, by race and gender, 2006 71
Table 4.4: Breakdown of South African population, by province and race, 2006 71
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xix

Figure 4.5: Number of children benefiting from the child support grant, by age group,
2001–2006 84
Figure 4.6: Educational attainment, by age cohort and gender, 2005 86
Chapter 5
Table 5.1: Projections of HIV prevalence in South African population, 1995–2010 93
Table 5.2: Comparison of AIDS orphans projected for South Africa (millions),
2003–2015 96
Table 5.3: HIV prevalence (percentage), by skill level, in selected South African
companies, 1999–2001 100
TABLES AND FIGURES
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HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT REVIEW 2008
xx
Ta ble 5.4: Projected HIV-prevalence rates, by skill level, and survey results of actual
prevalence rates in public health and educator sector (percentage), 2005, 2002,
2004/05 101
Figure 5.1: HIV-prevalence rate among antenatal attendees aged 15–49 years in South
Africa, 1990–2004 92
Figure 5.2: Projected numbers of people newly infected, by sex and age, ASSA2002,
1990–2010 95
Figure 5.3: HIV-prevalence rate of persons 15 years and older, by educational level and
race (percentage), South Africa 2002 97
Figure 5.4: Percentage of girls and boys who have dropped out of school or never
enrolled, 2002 98
Chapter 6
Table 6.1: Formal and informal economy labour market trends (numbers employed),
2001–2003 115
Table 6.2: Percentage of formal and informal workers, by race, 2001 and 2003 115
Table 6.3: Percentage of workers in each race group, by sector, 2001 and 2003 116
Table 6.4: Percentage of workers, by gender, 2001 and 2003 116

Table 7.5: Age distribution of researchers (percentage), 2001/02 145
Table 7.6: South African-authored journals captured by Thomson Corporation,
1993–2003 146
Table 7.7: South African patents at the USPTO, 1993–2003 146
Table 7.8: Manufactured export revenues ranked by 2002 rands, 1992 and 2002 147
Table 7.9: GERD by socio-economic objective, 2003/04 148
Table 7.10: GERD by research field, 2003/04 149
Table 7.11: R&D expenditure (R million) for biotechnology and associated fields, 2002
and 2004 150
Table 7.12: Research collaboration: 2004/05 R&D Survey Business Sector questionnaire
150
Figure 7.1: Ratio of GERD to GDP (percentage), 1983–2005 138
Figure 7.2: Share of GERD (R billion), 2003/04 138
Figure 7.3: GDP per capita in relation to BERD 139
Figure 7.4: Government’s role in the South African system of innovation 152
SECTION TWO: SUPPLY
Chapter 8
Table 8.1: Summary of key inequality measures in provincial education departments,
1995/96, 2000/01 and 2003/04 165
Table 8.2: POS budgets by province (R’000), 2001/02–2004/05 167
Table 8.3: Per learner spending in POS as a factor of the national per learner average
(rands), 2001/02–2003/04 168
Table 8.4: Key inequality measures in provincial POS budgets, 2001/02, 2002/03 and
2003/04 169
Table 8.5: ECD budgets (R’000), by provincial education department, 2001/02–2004/05
169
Ta ble 8.6: The percentage of ECD sites that fall below three national infrastructure index
poverty lines, by province, 2001 170
TABLES AND FIGURES
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Table 9.3: Headcount and percentage of children enrolled in each province, by
population group, 2000 191
Table 9.4: Number and percentage of ECD sites, by geographical location in each
province, 2000 192
Table 9.5: Number of sites, by provincial attendance, 2000 193
Table 9.6: Publicly supported Grade R sites at primary schools and at community-based
sites, by province, 2004/05 194
Table 9.7: Type of site (number and percentage), by province, 2000 196
Table 9.8: ‘Quality’ ratings of school-, community- and home-based ECD sites (number
and percentage), 2000 196
Table 9.9: Learnerships funded by the ETDP SETA, 2003–2005 198
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Figure 9.1: Geographic location of ECD sites, by population group, 2000 192
Figure 9.2: Trends in Grade R learner enrolment in public and independent primary
schools, by province, 2000–2003 194
Chapter 10
Table 10.1: Equivalence between ABET and formal schooling 209
Table 10.2: Literacy and basic education levels of South Africans aged 15 and over, 1995,
1996, 2001 210
Table 10.3: Adults aged 20 years and older with no schooling, Census 1991, 1996 and
2001 210
Table 10.4: Adults with no schooling, by gender, Census 1996 and 2001 210
Table 10.5: Population aged 20 years and older with no schooling or less than Grade 7, by
province, 1996 and 2001 211
Table 10.6: Number of Public Adult Learning Centres, by province, 1999–2001, 2003 214
Table 10.7: Number of educators, by province, 1999–2003 215
Table 10.8: Number of adult learners (national) per ABET level, 1999–2001, 2003 216
Table 10.9: ABET Level 4 examination results, by province, 2001–2003 217
Table 10.10: DoE expenditure on non-formal education (NFE), 1995/96–1998/99 219

Table 11.11: Grade progression in ordinary public and independent schools, 1992–2003
238
Table 11.12: Enrolment and estimated number of years of effort required to attain Grades
7, 11 and 12, 1999 and 2003 239
Table 11.13: Number of educators, growth rate and learner : educator ratios in ordinary
public and independent schools, by province, 2000 and 2003 239
Table 11.14: Percentage of educators, by age, 1997 and 2002 241
Table 11.15: Percentage of educators, by qualification level and province, 1994, 2000 and
2002 242
Table 11.16: LSM expenditure, 2000/01 and 2002/03 242
Table 11.17: Percentage of schools with access to media centres (libraries) and computers
for teaching and learning, 1996 and 2000 243
Table 11.18: Average score in the TIMSS 2003 Grade 8 mathematics and science
achievement test (ranked by mathematics results), 2003 244
Table 11.19: Results of the TIMSS-R and TIMSS 2003 Grade 8 mathematics and science
achievement, by province, 1999 and 2003 245
Table 11.20: Results of the TIMSS 2003 Grade 8 mathematics and science achievement, by
former racially based education departments, 2003 245
Table 11.21: Mean reading and mathematics scores and sampling errors on all test items
tested for all participating countries in the SACMEQ II project, 2000–2002 246
Table 11.22: Mean reading and mathematics scores and sampling errors on all test items
tested in the SACMEQ II project, by province, 2000–2002 246
Table 11.23: Full-time candidates enrolled for and passing the SCE, 2001–2004 247
Table 11.24: Number of SCE candidates in each province in 2004 and percentage change
over 2001 248
Table 11.25: SCE provincial aggregate marks, 2001 and 2004 248
Table 11.26: Number of SCE male and female candidates enrolled and passing, and as a
percentage of the total, 2001 and 2004 249
Table 11.27: Number of SCE candidates writing and passing selected subjects in total and
on the higher grade, and the pass rate in these subjects, 2001 and 2004 250

Chapter 13
Table 13.1: Gross participation rates in public higher education, by population group,
2002 and 2004 283
Table 13.2: Headcount enrolments, by race, 2002–2004 284
Table 13.3: Headcount enrolments, by major field of study, against national targets,
2002–2004 285
Table 13.4: Enrolments, by field of study and gender,for all higher education institutions,
2002–2004 286
Table 13.5: Graduates/diplomates, by field of study, 2002–2004 287
Table 13.6: Major fields of study and national targets, enrolments and
graduates/diplomates (percentage), 2002–2004 287
Table 13.7: Graduations, by field of study, type of institution and gender, 2002–2004 288
Table 13.8: Benchmarks for graduation rates (percentage), 2001 and 2004 288
Table 13.9: Graduation rates (percentage), by type of qualification, 2002–2004 289
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TABLES AND FIGURES