Abstract
The shortage of skills amongst employees in both the private and public sectors in South
Africa continues to be a topical issue as exemplified by the continued existence of a list of
scarce skills which is published by the Department of Higher Education (DHET). However,
the notion that there is a shortage of skills in the country has begun to be challenged with
some scholars arguing that the real problem is a jobs shortage attributable to structural
inequalities which are a legacy of apartheid and failure by the government post-1994 to
address these inequalities. This, we argue, is the reason why unemployment,
unemployability and wide workplace inequalities, especially as they affect people from
previously disadvantaged groups (mainly women and black employees), persist. We further
contend that what is missing from the debates around skills shortage in South Africa and
the wider phenomenon to which these debates belong, that is, employee learning, is a
holistic conceptualisation of the culture associated with it on the part of the government,
employers, workers’ unions and even academia...