Mismatch: when the needed job skills don’t tally with degree earned

Statistics SA data has shown that in the first quarter of the year, graduate unemployment was 23% lower than the national unemployment rate. But having a degree is not enough, say experts. Being underemployed or having the wrong skills for the job is also a significant problem.

Nombulelo Precious Mncayi, a senior lecturer and researcher at North-West University, has conducted several studies on what young graduates do after earning their qualifications. She says clear trends in the data show mismatches between the skills people gained and the jobs they end up with.

“Such low unemployment rates have been masking the situation that is beneath, because the focus has only been on getting these graduates into employment, and then people stop there,” Mncayi says. She explains that there is not enough reflection or intervention in terms of whether people are in fulfilling and effective positions.

One of the main mismatches Mncayi has found is that the choice of degree seems to correlate with a graduate’s likelihood of gaining employment quickly. She says this is important because skills tend to devalue with time if not used.

“The longer a graduate is outside the labour market, the greater the chances are that they never go back, so this actually just shows you how important it is to pursue a degree with better employment prospects.”

Mncayi says people are likely to wait longer to find employment if they have degrees in the humanities or courses less directly related to a profession, in comparison to those in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields.

“We are not saying there are no jobs,” Mncayi says of the humanities. “There are jobs, but the problem is that those jobs are not able to absorb the numbers of graduates coming from those fields.”

Giulio Di Stefano, marketing manager of CBM Training, which offers a variety of corporate and vocational skills development, says this mismatch is a cause of great frustration for professionals, particularly for those who appear to be qualified on paper but struggle to be employed.

He says this is often due to graduates not being workplace ready and that “there is a very real difference between skills-based competence and academic competence”.

The pandemic and resulting spike in working more digitally has changed the expectations and demands of professionals rapidly, Di Stefano adds.

This idea of a skills mismatch is not new. In 2019, the global Mission Talent– Mass Uniqueness: A Global Challenge for One Billion Workers report that compared about 30 countries found that more than 50% of SA’s labour force experienced a skills mismatch and that the country had low productivity.

Research by the Human Sciences Research Council in 2016 had already shown similar trends and found that people were more likely to be overqualified than underqualified. Women were more likely than men to be underqualified, while workers over 45 years old were more likely to be underqualified for the jobs they were in. Mncayi says the solution starts partly in a focus on stages before graduation. She says learners are making career and study decisions without being adequately informed about the realities of the labour market.

Her work showed that graduates do not feel they received enough career guidance during high school and university. If there are policies around this, she says, she feels they are not enforced fully, particularly in the basic education sector. Mncayi acknowledges that choosing a course and career is influenced by a large variety of factors, including personality type, outcome expectations, family influences, and, importantly, early schooling environment. Those from lower income settings will often not have the early support to be set up for success to pursue certain courses.

“They’re faced with a choice,” Mncayi says of the systemic problems facing many entering tertiary education. “It’s either you’re going to stay at home, or you’re going to go to university, even if it means doing a course that ... you’re probably not going to find employment.” In terms of bringing about change, Di Stefano says: “Simply put, all professionals need to have a growth mindset and be willing to accept that they will need to continuously develop their skills.” It is up to professionals to keep up with changes in the work environment and prepare themselves for career growth. “Since change is the only certainty in the business world, professionals need to develop a continuous learning mindset and not be naive that their academic qualification is sufficient to carry them throughout their career.”

On the other hand, employers and academic institutions should be doing their part by encouraging workplace readiness skills programmes, Di Stefano says.

We are not saying there are no jobs … the problem is that those jobs are not able to absorb the numbers of graduates coming from those fields

Nombulelo Precious Mncayi