By Alicia James
When I was a first-year university student, my late father used to tell me: “Nobody can take away your education. Work hard and get that degree. I want you to have a better life than I did.”
Having come from humble beginnings, I understood that acquiring a degree was an escape out of my socio-economic situation. My father managed to pay for my studies from his meagre weekly wages. I had to work hard because I understood what he was sacrificing for me. Getting out of economic hardship was a non-negotiable for me.
I wanted a spacious house, a car and the financial freedom that came with a good job.
Several years later, with four qualifications, I did benefit from a university education. My qualifications opened doors for me and changed the trajectory of my life.
But the world has changed.
Tragically, South Africa’s youth unemployment rate is now 47.4%: almost one in every two young people cannot find a job, according to Statistics SA. Furthermore, five million young people aged 15 to 34 were unemployed in the second quarter of 2026. High joblessness shrinks South Africa’s tax base while forcing the government to spend more on social grants and welfare.
A consequence is that generations remain trapped in poverty and young people cannot earn money or afford to study further.
From this, I would argue that there needs to be an urgent rethinking of the way young people move from school to work and to higher qualifications.
At a recent Council on Higher Education (CHE) Colloquium on “Shifting participation trends in South African higher education”, Professor Denyse Webbstock, senior director for institutional planning, evaluation and monitoring at the University of Johannesburg, spoke about changing patterns in higher education globally.
She referred to a British Social Attitudes Survey showing that the belief that a university degree is necessarily the answer to everything is no longer as widely held. The survey considered whether a degree was worth the money and time invested in it, with a significant proportion of respondents questioning its value.
Yet in South Africa, a university degree remains highly valued. For many young people and their families, it is still seen as the desired route to a better life, as Prof Webbstock explained.
The challenge is that the South African higher education sector cannot absorb every matriculant who qualifies for university entrance, while the labour market is struggling to absorb many of those who do graduate. Simultaneously, there is a mismatch between what some graduates have learnt, and the skills employers require. Research presented at the colloquium pointed to the growing importance of practical skills, digital competence, problem-solving abilities, experience and workplace readiness. And then there are academics who do not have industry experience but are teaching university students.
This presents South Africa with a difficult question: What happens to the young person who cannot immediately enter university, or who obtains a qualification but cannot find employment?
We need to create more pathways to jobs and post-school qualifications. South Africa needs to introduce a properly recognised and quality-assured framework for microcredentials that enables young people to acquire specific, relevant skills to enter the labour market and continue studying towards formal qualifications.
Microcredentials are short, focused learning programmes that enable people to develop competencies that employers are looking for.
Picture this: a matriculant cannot access higher education due to financial constraints. Instead of spending months or years waiting for a job, he or she could complete a recognised microcredential in digital literacy, followed by one in data analytics, and use those skills to seek entry-level employment.
While working, he or she could complete further microcredentials and, where appropriate, accumulate credits towards a higher certificate, diploma and eventually a degree.
Some income is better than no income. Earning an income while studying can give a young person a sense of independence, dignity and purpose while allowing them to continue building their qualifications.
On the other hand, an unemployed graduate could acquire skills after completing a degree by doing microcredentials. Someone already in the workplace could reskill or an older adult who was retrenched could take on microcredentials to reskill and find a job.
This could help break the cycle in which young people feel they must first obtain a qualification before they can work, while employers say they need experience and practical skills before they will employ them.
At the CHE colloquium, Dr Mandi Joubert, Executive Head of Academics at Eduvos (one of the largest private providers of higher education in South Africa, which offers 20 undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications), pointed out that the traditional trajectory of the school leaver has been “linear”: school leaver, degree-first, one annual intake, continuous study and full-time participation.
However, routes to qualifications are changing.
The private higher education sector’s student population increasingly includes delayed-entry students, students balancing work and study, lifelong learners and students seeking reskilling opportunities. Dr Joubert explained that alternative pathways are not merely academic pathways; they are also financial pathways. This makes flexibility in both pathways and timing increasingly important.
Data presented by Eduvos reinforces this changing pattern. Not all students enter higher education immediately after matric, while some enter through alternative admission routes, enrol outside the traditional intake cycle or interrupt and later resume their studies.
A university education provides much more than technical skills. It teaches students to analyse, question, research and solve complex problems. It exposes them to different disciplines, ideas and perspectives and helps develop judgement and ethical reasoning.
For many South Africans, particularly those from communities historically excluded from economic opportunity, a university education remains an important route to social mobility.
A short course may teach someone how to perform a particular task. A university education should prepare someone to understand the world in which that task exists.
Universities themselves, however, also have a responsibility to respond to a changing economy.
They need stronger partnerships with industry, more opportunities for work-integrated learning, greater support for entrepreneurship and curricula that respond to technological change, including artificial intelligence.
There is also a need to strengthen the connection between academic knowledge and the world of work. Academic qualifications remain important, but students also need opportunities to acquire practical experience and understand how their knowledge is applied beyond the university.
My father was right.
Nobody can take away your education. But education cannot be caught up in a time warp. The degree that opened the door for me to have a better life might not be the door that younger generations are able to enter. There should be other doors to qualifications and jobs.
Alicia James is a higher education writer.
©Higher Education Media Services.