The Skills Shortage In South Africa

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A shortage of skills is directly related to the work force not being able to meet the demand for employment in an economy; this can also be referred to as an “insufficiency in the labour force” (Richardson, 2007). A skills shortage is detrimental to countries and their economies because it prevents economic growth. The skills shortage In South Africa has many roots from which it occurs, one of them namely being the education department.
Therefore a shortage of skills within regards to the state of a country’s financial capital means that it is difficult for the economy to prosper because it does not have the necessary capital (in terms of workers) to grow. Not only is labour one of the four factors of production involved in the business environment, but it is the one factor that connects all other things (Tutor2u.net, 2014). Hence, without a capable labour force the economy will remain stagnant. Therefore education becomes an important factor relating to a shortage of skills restraining the economy because education is the basis of all learning for humans and provides the youth (which are the economy’s future) with skills to hold them in good stead for the rest of their lives.
Consequently, the age group in South Africa characterized as the “youth” are individuals aged between 15 to 35 (Bhorat and Oosthuizen, 2007) and they are in the transition phase of life, moving from education to the labour market and hopefully employment. However that is where the shortage of skills in South Africa is evident, the youth are both uneducated; leaving a gap in the labour market, or the circle continues and they are educated with no employment.
In consequence to the fact that the past of South Africa has an influence on the current state of th...

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...ine in the the national tax base as fewer people are able to contribute by paying taxes (Adams, 2006:46). A additional constraint to economic growth includes those people that are too ill to work, as they not only represent lost economic output (Levinsohn, 2013:98) but also contribute to unproductive government spending which include direct and indirect costs relating to the impact of the HIV Aids virus (Oostheimer, 2004). National finance is thus negatively effected and government’s ability to finance public expenditure is weakened (Adams, 2006:46).
Hence the ability to accumulate human capital for an economy to grow is decreased as government spending is cut by fruitless welfare and the funds needed to distribute finance capital into the education sector for skills development and future economic growth of this country is severly compromised (Adams, 2006:46).

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