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Human resources development and the skills crisis in South Africa: the need for a multi‐pronged strategy

2005; Routledge; Volume: 18; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/1363908052000332311

1469-9435

André Kraak,

Global Educational Policies and Reforms

This article presents a critique of the ‘high skills’ argument which, in the international literature, presents a high skill strategy as an adjunct and necessary condition for the successful expansion of human resources development (HRD) alongside social market institutions and ‘joined up’ policy 1 See work of Finegold and Soskice (1988 Finegold, D and Soskice, D. (1988). The failure of training in Britain Analysis and prescription. Oxford review of economic policy, 4(3): 21–51. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]); Finegold (1991 Finegold, D. (1991). Education, training and economic performance in comparative perspective. Oxford studies in comparative education, 1: 57–68. [Google Scholar]); Ashton and Green (1996 Ashton D Green F (1996) Education, training and the global economy Cheltenham Edward Elgar [Google Scholar]); Crouch et al. (1999 Crouch C Finegold D Sako M (1999) Are skills the answer? The political economy of skill creation in advanced industrial countries Oxford Oxford University Press [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]); and Brown et al. (2001 Brown P Green A Lauder H (2001) High skills: globalisation, competitiveness and skill formation Oxford Oxford University Press [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). . For a developing country such as South Africa, with a large proportion of its populace unemployed and possessing very low levels of skill, a privileging of high skills is inappropriate as the single focus of HRD. The article argues the case for a multi‐pronged HRD approach, comprising a joint high‐skill and intermediate‐skill strategy on the supply side, underpinned by a demand‐driven strategy that seeks to stimulate large‐scale labour‐absorbing employment growth and is supported by appropriate inputs of training for the unemployed. The analysis then examines the actual skills deficit in South Africa in each of the three (high, intermediate and low) skill bands, drawing on evidence from the recent HRD Review 2003 (HSRC, 2003 Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) (2003) Human resources development review 2003: education, employment and skills in South Africa Cape Town HSRC and East Lansing; Michigan State University Press [Google Scholar]). The article concludes that the skills problem in South Africa relates not only to high‐skill needs but also to intermediate and low‐skill needs.