Abstracts

53 As indicated in the skills report depicted in Figure 2, South Africa is behind in terms of both social skills and complex problem solving. Comparing South Africa to Chile and Peru, other emerging economies, it is apparent that South Africa has a severe shortage of social skills. South Africa’s social skills shortage is around 0.4 while shortages in both Chile and Peru are lower than average, meaning both countries are experiencing surpluses (−0.08 and −0.2, respectively) (Reddy et al., 2019). This shortage is three times higher than the OECD average. Additionally, South Africa faces a shortage of complex problem-solving skills. The shortage ratio is twice the OECD average; combined with the shortage of social skills, this is a warning for the country in terms of its capacity to adapt to the next industrial revolution. The report points out that South Africa’s largest skills shortage is in the area of active learning—defined as understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem solving and decision making. In addition to assessing skills shortages, the report measured the knowledge shortages in South Africa, indicating a deficit in computer and electronic knowledge. The report differentiated skills “as all types and facets of competences needed by workers to perform their jobs” versus knowledge as “familiarity with factual information and theoretical concepts acquired through learning” (Reddy et al., 2019). In a digital world, workers no longer will be restricted to one team or role because things will be moving fast, and such change requires the labor force to be flexible and curious to cope with new situations (Phillips et al., 2018). South Africa’s shortage problem in active learning would hinder the country’s ability to be adaptive. Additionally, lack of computer and electronic knowledge will prevent workers from utilizing the technology to increase their productivity, in the long term perpetuating the low-growth problem. Assessing the requirements for success in Figure 2 Skills Need Indicator –0.10 0.00 0.10 0.20 0.30 0.40 0.50 Chile United States Peru South Africa OECD Average Surplus (–) & Shortage (+) Complex problem-solving skills Social skills Technical skills Source: DHET (2019).