An elusive search for skills: assessing debates, practices, and experiences in South Africa

Planning and identifying skills need is mediated by pre-existing social relations and structures of power in the society. The South African state has explored various methods, policies, programmes, and systems to understand the skills needs of the country. The uneven success of these different attempts can be explained by understanding the complexity of undergoing the task of identifying skills priorities due to the contested nature of the notion of skill and varying ideas about what ought to be prioritized through these processes. The article has three focus areas: 1) assesses three sets of critiques of skills planning in South Africa; 2) shows why the process of identifying skills needs has become elusive; and 3) discusses two illustrative case studies that show examples of initiatives that are excluded from the skills planning processes but are crucial in understanding experiences of Black youth in marginalized communities in relation to education and skills.