After the public participation had been concluded the Department of Higher Education has now finalised the National List of Occupations in High Demand. The result shows artisan jobs as being in higher demand this year than two years ago as the government continues to shift its focus towards the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector in the fight against unemployment.
The list now identifies 345 high-demand occupations in broad-ranging sectors such as tourism, agriculture, and finance. Research for the list was done by the Labour Market Intelligence research programme. A number of artisan jobs were marked red in the report, indicating that the sector the job fell under might recover slowly from the impact of Covid-19, or show signals of decreased labour demand due to Covid-19. The pandemic was considered a limitation to the final list since it will likely cause a huge shift in the country’s economic landscape.
Jobs were considered to be in high demand if they:
- have shown relatively strong employment growth over the past years
- are currently showing relatively strong employment growth
- are expected to show relatively strong employment growth in the future
- have been identified as being in shortage in the labour market, or
- are new and are expected to emerge in the near future as a result of innovation, technological advancements, the development of new industries, or government’s strategic priorities.
The National List will not only be used to steer politics in creating employment in those high-demand sectors but will also serve the department of Home Affairs in determining, which skills are critical in terms of the corresponding work visa. So stay tuned and await which skills will be selected by Minister Motsoaledi in order to allow for Critical Skills Work Visa in future.