Who is graduating — and into what?
220,758 graduates from public Higher Education Institutions in 2023, plus 60,927 from private HEIs. The pipeline is structurally skewed away from where the jobs are.
Public HEI graduates 2023
Total: 346,758 graduates · DHET HEMIS, extracted Nov 2024
Science, Engineering & Tech (SET)
Employment: ~88% · Salary: R350K–R560K · Maths: Pure Maths required
Information & Communication Tech (ICT)
Employment: ~82% · Salary: R300K–R756K · Maths: Required
Health Sciences & Social Services
Employment: ~90% · Salary: R180K–R324K · Maths: Required
Accounting & Financial Sciences
Employment: ~84% · Salary: R300K–R470K · Maths: Required
Business and Management (general)
Employment: ~75% · Salary: R200K–R350K · Maths: Recommended
Education
Employment: ~80% · Salary: R200K–R380K · Maths: If STEM teacher
Law (LLB)
Employment: ~78% · Salary: R120K–R250K · Maths: Not required
Natural Sciences
Employment: ~85% · Salary: R280K–R480K · Maths: Essential
Other Humanities (BA, languages, arts)
Employment: 73.9% · Salary: R120K–R180K · Maths: Not required
Social Sciences
Employment: ~65–70% · Salary: R120K–R180K · Maths: Not required
Public Mgmt & Administration
Employment: ~65% · Salary: R120K–R180K · Maths: Not required
Agriculture & Environmental Sci
Employment: ~78% · Salary: R200K–R380K · Maths: Preferred
Architecture & Built Environment
Employment: ~82% · Salary: R280K–R480K · Maths: Required
Source: DHET — Statistics on Post-School Education and Training in SA 2023, Table 4.3
"Graduates in public management, public administration and politics waited on average 19 months before finding employment.
TVET completion 2023
50 public TVET colleges, 50,572 N3/N6/NC(V) Level 4 completions. TVET is not a last resort — for technical trades, it is the optimal path.
Highest completion; strong for admin/finance/HR
Strongest TVET pathway — leads to Trade Test → artisan
Entry to trades; progress to N6 strongly recommended
Vocational matric; ICT/Engineering NC(V) strongest
Highest demand of all artisan trades — critical shortage
Infrastructure + housing backlog drives chronic shortage
Renewable energy creating new demand at scale
Toyota/VW/Mercedes dealer networks structure development
Supplement with vendor certs (CompTIA, Cisco, AWS)
WCape strongest absorber; seasonal employment risk
Source: DHET Statistics on Post-School Education and Training 2023
Workplace-based learning: the broken pipeline
WBL placements collapsed under COVID and have not recovered. Tens of thousands of TVET and learnership students cannot complete qualifications.
Source: DHET Annual Report 2023/24 (PMG, October 2024)