On 3 February 2015 the LMIP LMIP hosted a seminar on a paper by Professor Haroon Bhorat, Aalia Cassim and David Tseng titled Higher Education, Employment and Economic Growth: Exploring the Interactions. The seminar interrogated the impact and nature of South Africa’s post-apartheid economic growth performance through the lens of human capital investment, with a particular emphasis on higher education.
The seminar investigated the link between education and economic growth in three ways:
(1) examining labour market trends including occupational demand by education cohort;
(2) analysing the extent to which the educational attainments of labour cohorts affects the nature and trajectory of post-apartheid economic growth in South Africa; (3) understanding the welfare gains by education cohort.
The conclusion was that the degree cohort contributes to economic growth and also shares in economic growth gains with steady employment demand. Other post-school education and training institutions, including Further Education and Training (FET) colleges, do not contribute productively to economic growth. In turn, welfare gains for this cohort, particularly the poorer amongst this group, are marginal.
The presentation may be found here.
