The recent registration period at SA universities has been a bittersweet spectacle. On one hand, we celebrate the “best results since the dawn of democracy” from the Matric Class of 2025, who achieved an 88.2% pass rate.
On the other, we face a mathematical impossibility: of the 345,000 pupils who qualified for university, there are only 235,000 available first-year spaces.
This leaves over 110,000 qualified young people in a state of academic limbo. Without a strategic shift toward alternative pathways, we risk consigning a massive portion of our most successful cohort to the “NEET” category—those not in employment, education, or training.
The crisis is underscored by Statistics SA’s harrowing data: youth unemployment stands at 58.5%. Among the 15-24 age group, one in three young people are currently idle. This is not merely a social issue; it is a systemic failure to align the talents of our youth with the needs of the economy.
While universities are vital for professional and academic careers, the SA landscape has a desperate, unfulfilled demand for technical skills in masonry, electrical work, and agriculture. By redirecting students toward these industries, we don’t just “find them a place”—we close the national skills gap.
Promoting technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is a step in the right direction, but the system is currently hamstrung by three main hurdles, Students struggle to secure the in-service placement required to graduate. Many colleges remain underfunded and lack the modern equipment needed to meet industry standards. Marginalised youth in rural and peri-urban areas face prohibitive barriers to entry.
To resolve this, the state should invest in “geospecific” training. For instance, the North West and the Free State should be hubs for expanded agricultural technical institutions, allowing students to contribute directly to their local provincial economies.
The state cannot do this alone. We must promote public-private partnerships to scale apprenticeships and internships. We have seen a successful blueprint for this in the presidential youth employment initiative teacher assistant program. Applying this model to technical trades would provide the “hands-on” experience that traditional classrooms lack.
SA would do well to look at India’s national skill development mission. Launched in 2015, this initiative set a massive goal to train 400-million people in sectors ranging from health care to IT. Their success proves that vocational education is not a “consolation prize” but a primary engine for economic growth and global competitiveness.
It is time to dismantle the stigma that a university degree is the only valid path to success. Not every pupil is inclined toward academic study, nor does the economy require every worker to hold a bachelor’s degree.
By building a well-funded, prestigious vocational parallel to our universities, we can offer our youth a diverse ecosystem of opportunity.
The Class of 2025 has done its part by performing exceptionally. Now, the state and the private sector must do theirs by ensuring that a “no” from a university is not a “no” to a future.
- Kenneth Diole is a co-founder of YTConsultingAfrica, a youth and policy advisory firm.
Sowetan
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