The Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation statement on the publishing of the 2022 Technical report on critical skills list
The Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Dr Blade Nzimande, has published the technical report on the Critical Skills List to the Department of Home Affairs.
The Critical Skills List technical report provide details of all the processes undertaken in the development of the Critical Skills List. It provide the actual list that the Minister of Home Affairs gazetted on the 2nd of February 2022. The Department of Higher Education and Training and the Department of Home Affairs signed a Memorandum of Agreement in January 2020 to facilitate the development of the Critical Skills List.
In terms of the Memorandum of Agreement, the Department of Higher Education and Training will undertake research and produce a technical report that will include the methodology, the consultation processes and an evidence-based Critical Skills List and to hand the list to the Department of Home Affairs for consideration.
“The Department of Higher Education has undertaken the research and produced the technical report titled Finalisation of the Critical Skills List, through the major research programme on Labour Market Intelligence,” said Minister Nzimande.
Minister Nzimande said that South Africans live in a globalised economy, where countries often source workers from all over the world to fill gaps in their local economies. “It is therefore not surprising that many countries, especially Western countries, regularly compile and publish lists of occupational shortages,” emphasised the Minister.
The Migration Advisory Committee in the UK publishes a Skilled Occupation List which is used by immigration authorities to grant special skills visas for potential immigrants. The Australian government also publishes a Skilled Occupation List regularly to draw in skilled people into the country. Similarly, Canada regularly publishes a list of Occupations of Demand which it uses to apply its skilled worker visa.
“In South Africa, the Critical Skills List forms the basis to offer suitably skilled foreign nationals a Critical Skills visa in occupational areas where there is a dire domestic shortage. The development of this new list required extensive collaboration between the Department of Higher Education and Training (through the Labour Market Intelligence partnership programme), the Department of Home Affairs, a host of other government departments, and representatives from business, labour, community, and the broader public,” said the Minister.
The technical report can be accessed from our Labour Market Intelligence website as well as from the Department of Higher Education and Training website.
Enquiries:
Enquiries:
Ishmael Mnisi
Cell: 066 037 8859
