THOUGH LEADERSHIP ARTICLE:
The growing unemployment crisis in the Eastern Cape and across South Africa demands urgent attention. Yet the challenge is not simply a shortage of jobs. It is a shortage of pathways that connect people to meaningful economic participation. Despite continued investment in education and training, many young people, including graduates and school leavers, remain excluded from employment and entrepreneurship opportunities.
By Sipho Masinga
This raises an important question.
Are current skills development models sufficiently aligned to the realities of the economy they are intended to serve?
In my experience, many young people are doing what society has asked of them by pursuing education and training, yet too many still struggle to find a meaningful pathway into the economy. This suggests that the challenge extends beyond skills acquisition to how those skills are connected to economic opportunity.
For many years, skills development has largely been viewed through an educational lens. But the real opportunity lies in viewing skills development as an economic development tool. Skills are not only about employability. They are about creating the capabilities required to participate in and contribute to economic growth.
Innovation plays an important role in this process.
The East London Industrial Development Zone occupies a unique position in this regard. As one of the Industrial Development Zones in South Africa to incorporate skills development into its business activities, the ELIDZ has recognised that sustainable industrial growth depends on more than infrastructure and investment. It also depends on capable and skilled people. Through its Innovation Hub, innovators and entrepreneurs are supported in transforming ideas into practical products and solutions that can contribute to industrial development.
What has become increasingly evident is that innovation is not limited to laboratories or technology start-ups. Some of the most promising ideas emerge from ordinary people who understand the challenges within their own communities and industries. The opportunity is to create stronger connections between grassroots innovation, technology development and industrial application so that ideas can be scaled into sustainable economic opportunities.
The challenge is not a shortage of ideas.
Across communities in the Eastern Cape, there are individuals with innovative concepts, practical skills and entrepreneurial ambition. The opportunity lies in creating stronger mechanisms to identify, support and develop these ideas into commercially viable products, businesses and industries. Innovation succeeds when local potential is connected to real economic opportunity.
Over the years, I have encountered many innovators with practical solutions and business concepts, but access to meaningful support, markets and development opportunities often remains the biggest obstacle.
The Eastern Cape already possesses a significant industrial advantage.
As one of South Africa’s key automotive manufacturing hubs, the province hosts globally competitive manufacturers and well-established supply chains. These industries create opportunities that extend far beyond direct employment within large factories.
The question is how these opportunities can be leveraged to create broader participation in the economy.
Too often, communities exist alongside industrial development rather than participating meaningfully within it. Yet there is considerable potential to develop small-scale manufacturing hubs within townships and rural communities that can contribute to larger industrial value chains. Local entrepreneurs, cooperatives and small enterprises can become suppliers of components and services that support existing industries, including the automotive sector.
The real opportunity lies in helping smaller enterprises see themselves not as businesses operating on the margins of the economy, but as potential participants within established industrial value chains.
This is not simply about expanding supply chains.
It is about expanding economic participation.
Successful industrialisation is not measured only by the success of large manufacturers. It is also measured by the extent to which communities are integrated into economic activity and able to benefit from industrial growth.
Achieving this requires a different approach to skills development.
South Africa’s education system continues to place significant emphasis on academic achievement, yet economic success requires a broader range of capabilities. Not every learner will pursue a university qualification, nor should that be the only recognised pathway to success. Vocational and technical skills must be elevated as equally valuable contributors to economic development. At the same time, the province will continue to require engineers, technicians, researchers, digital specialists and entrepreneurs capable of driving innovation across key sectors of the economy.
Earlier exposure to vocational training can help create alternative pathways into productive economic activity. More importantly, it can help align skills development with the practical needs of industry and communities.
Vocational development should also recognise traditional skills that continue to support livelihoods in many communities. Skills such as beading, weaving and pottery remain important forms of economic activity and should be given greater consideration within skills development programmes. Recognition of traditional skills should, however, complement ongoing efforts to develop capabilities in areas such as advanced manufacturing, digital technologies, automation and industrial innovation.
At the same time, valuable skills already exist within communities.
Across townships and villages, experienced artisans continue to practice trades such as welding, bricklaying, vehicle repairs, metalwork and other specialised skills. These individuals represent an often-overlooked source of knowledge and expertise.
The real opportunity is not only to preserve these skills, but to transfer them.
An Informal Apprenticeship Subsidy could provide a practical mechanism for encouraging skills transfer between experienced artisans and unemployed youth. Such an approach would recognise the value of informal learning while creating opportunities for young people to acquire practical capabilities that can support self-employment, entrepreneurship and participation in local industries.
Many of these artisans have spent decades developing highly specialised skills. Creating opportunities for them to transfer that knowledge would preserve valuable expertise while helping prepare a new generation of skilled workers.
This conversation extends beyond skills development.
It requires a fundamental shift in how communities are positioned within the economy.
For too long, many townships and rural communities have been viewed primarily as centres of consumption. The goods used and consumed in these communities are often manufactured elsewhere and transported in, creating limited opportunities for local economic participation.
Yet this raises another important question.
Why should communities only consume economic value when they have the potential to create it?
This is a question that should challenge all of us involved in economic development and skills planning.
The future of inclusive industrialisation will depend on the ability to develop local production capacity closer to where goods and services are consumed. Whether through food production, light manufacturing, metal fabrication, component manufacturing or other small-scale industries, there is a significant opportunity to build productive economic activity within communities that have historically been excluded from mainstream industrial development.
Industries such as bakeries provide a practical example. There is no reason why products consumed daily within communities cannot be manufactured closer to the markets they serve. The principle is simple: where demand exists, there should also be opportunities for local production and local enterprise development. Expanding local production in this way creates opportunities for entrepreneurship, skills development and greater participation in economic activity.
This is not simply about creating more businesses.
It is about changing the role communities play in the economy.
Communities that produce become communities that participate. They develop skills, create enterprises, generate income and contribute to broader economic growth. In this way, skills development becomes directly linked to economic empowerment rather than employment alone.
Government and industry both have a role to play in enabling this transition. Local content programmes, targeted incentives and supplier development initiatives can help create pathways for community-based manufacturers to participate in larger value chains. The objective should not only be to attract investment into communities, but to create environments where communities themselves become active contributors to industrial development.
The discussion must also consider how economic participation can be enabled with limited resources.
Manufacturing is often associated with expensive equipment and sophisticated facilities that remain inaccessible to economically disadvantaged communities. Yet many productive activities can begin with basic tools and practical skills. Communities can be empowered to do more with limited resources while building capabilities that support local economic development.
The objective is not to replicate models from elsewhere.
The objective is to adapt lessons that can support local development and create opportunities that reflect the realities of South African communities.
There is value in learning from countries that have successfully embedded practical skills transfer within local economies. International experience demonstrates that practical apprenticeship models can play an important role in transferring skills, strengthening entrepreneurship and improving participation in the economy.
There is value in examining these experiences and identifying lessons that can be adapted to support skills development within South African communities.
The automotive sector itself presents opportunities for this approach. Not every component within a vehicle requires highly sophisticated manufacturing processes. Products such as suspension springs, basic nuts and bolts, sound-deadening materials and other less complex components offer opportunities for local production and participation within existing value chains. At the same time, opportunities also exist in higher-value activities linked to advanced manufacturing, digital production systems, engineering services and industrial technologies.
The Eastern Cape possesses many of the ingredients required to pioneer this approach, including industrial capability, manufacturing expertise, entrepreneurial potential and communities that are eager to participate more meaningfully in the economy.
The encouraging reality is that many of these ingredients already exist. The task ahead is not necessarily to create entirely new systems, but to strengthen the connections between skills development, innovation, entrepreneurship and industry. The challenge is bringing these elements together. The debate, therefore, is not simply about addressing a skills shortage. It is about building a stronger connection between skills development, innovation, entrepreneurship and industrial growth.
If that connection can be achieved, the outcome will be far greater than the creation of employment alone. It will create producers, innovators, artisans and entrepreneurs capable of contributing to a more inclusive and resilient economy.
In my view, the success of our skills development efforts should ultimately be measured not only by the number of people trained, but by the number who are able to apply those skills in productive economic activity, build sustainable livelihoods and contribute to local economic growth. The future of the Eastern Cape will not be determined solely by the industries it attracts. It will be determined by how effectively it develops its people’s capabilities and connects them to economic opportunity, as skills have become a competitive issue for businesses to settle in an investment location.
That is where the real opportunity lies, and it is a conversation that deserves far greater attention.
For media enquiries:
Mr Siphosethu Tikana
Acting Manager: Marketing & Corporate Communications
Email: siphosethuti@elidz.co.za
Tel: 064 900 8392 / 076 800 5317