Southern Sun Hotel, Pretoria
The formal and systematic information on labour demand in the formal economy hampers the development of a credible and reliable skills planning mechanism. Emphasis has traditionally been placed on supply-side interventions in skills provisioning and forecasting. For this policy roundtable, we will adopt a different approach. The discussion will draw on insights from academics and the private sector to understand demand-side dynamics to support the creation of a responsive skills planning mechanism.It will engage the expertise of contributors from key sectors in the South African economy and highlight the specific skills constraints that each experience, the supply-side interventions they require and hence, propose the way in which the planning mechanism may be responsive and adaptive to their needs.The policy roundtable will serve as a space of critical engagement and dialogue – for conversation – and offer the opportunity for knowledge and expertise sharing amongst all relevant stakeholders including government, the private sector and the research community to engage with demand-side imperatives to address skills constraints. The roundtable functioned to stimulate conversation and contact beteen the private sector and government on the issue of skills constraints and the measures to address these deficits. It also developed a critical understanding and provided insight into the drivers of skills demand in South Africa and the nature and causes of skills biased employment trends in distinct sectors. Policy recommendations will be finalised in a policy brief that will be developed shortly. The theoretical and empirical centrepiece of the event was an LMIP report authoried by Haroon Bhorat et. al..Please click on the link to download below the paper.
