The purpose of the workshop is to propose and subsequently receive feedback regarding a research methodology that can be applied ubiquitously across provinces to develop a POIHD.
In 2020, the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) drove the process to develop the country’s national list of Occupations in High Demand (OIHD), which was subsequently published under the DHET’s Labour Market Intelligence (LMI) research programme. LMI assists the move towards improving labour market opportunities for the residents of South Africa through the development of crucial labour insights. These insights provide guidance on how the government of South Africa could and should shape the trajectory of the labour market for years to come.
The national OIHD, one such piece of labour market insight, is used in the Post-School Education and Training (PSET) system to achieve the following:
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Assist in signalling the need for the development of new qualifications,
Act as a signpost for enrolment planning , and
Inform career guidance for learners and work-seekers alike
To fulfil this purpose, the OIHD consists of occupations that show relatively strong employment growth or experience shortages in the national labour market. While the list is currently drafted at a national level, there have been growing calls for developing a provincial OIHD (POIHD). The motivation for these provincial lists is clear. In general, the demand for specifically trained individuals at a national level is often used to indicate demand at a state/provincial level. However, province-specific factors (whether the province has mineral resources, is by an ocean or not, and many other factors) greatly impact that occupational demand.
Objectives
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The purpose of the workshop is to propose and subsequently receive feedback regarding a research methodology that can be applied ubiquitously across provinces to develop a POIHD.
This methodology, once stress-tested by workshop attendees, will ultimately lead to the development of province-specific lists that better cater to province-specific labour market needs.
