The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) compiles a list of occupations which have seen a high demand for this unique type of skill set but do not have enough qualified individuals within the country to fill those jobs.
Financial services firm PwC revealed that just seven of the 100 companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). While the representation of women in CEO and CFO positions has improved, women still occupy just 19% of top finance posts in June.
The report also indicated that white CEOs make up 78% of the top-100 companies listed on the JSE followed by Black African (14%), Indian 7% and Coloured (1%).
Accenture Africa CEO, Vukani Mngxati believes the challenges faced by many South Africans are driving them to leave the country which exacerbates the skill shortage crisis.
He adds that the country is not training people fast enough with these critical skills to replace those that have left.
He says all stakeholders need to come together to identify the crucial skills needed by the country. Once these critical skills are identified, the private sector, civil society, academia and private business must do their part to grow the skills base in the county.
“We cannot delay any longer. We need to create a mechanism in the nation where we come together with both civil society, academia and private business to produce what I believe could be a national initiative to identify core skills that the nation needs and go hard at building those” said Mngxati.
He adds the country does not have time to continue creating the small-scale initiatives we need because large-scale initiatives are needed. He adds that they need to build one million jobs every five years in this country and build the skills needed to fill these jobs.