The publication of this special issue of the Development Southern Africa journal is most welcome. The issue draws attention to the importance of the relationship between education and the economy. In a global and local economy it is important to understand what occupations and accompanying skills are required to support social development, economic growth and trade investment. It is equally significant to understand what qualifications and skills training are required to ensure that the development needs of society and the economy are met.
In response to South Africa’s significant labour market and skill challenges, a key strategic priority for the government is to establish a credible institutional mechanism for skills planning. This goal represents a coherent attempt to develop a more realistic approach to skills planning that encompasses stronger coordination across government Ministries, while also establishing links between decision-making processes and outputs from a Labour Market Intelligence System.
The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) has partnered with the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), the Development Policy Research Unit at University of Cape Town and the REAL Centre at the University of Witwatersrand in order to meet the goal on skills planning through a research consortium called the Labour Market Intelligence Partnership. The project is currently providing information, intelligence and analysis to inform the establishment of the skills planning mechanism. It is indeed heartening to see the results of the work undertaken by the team of researchers involved in the Labour Market Intelligence Partnership published in this journal. I would like to thank the editors of this special issue – Haroon Bhorat, Vijay Reddy and Glenda Kruss – and the authors of the articles for advancing scholarship in this under-theorised area.
I look forward to reading the articles in the journal. I have little doubt that these will inform my own thinking about the connectivity between education and the world of work.