Consolidating the General Education Certificate in South Africa

4. Policy issue 3. Promoting pathways to skills and work

Policy Issue 3. Promoting pathways to skills and work

Option 1: Make creating accessible technical and vocational learning options in Grades 10-12 a national priority.

Option 2: Use the GEC to help learners identify future pathways.

The General Education Certification (GEC) aims to support learners to understand their strengths and interests before transitions to upper secondary. In the future, the new Three Stream Model aims to provide a choice of academic, vocational and occupation programmes. However, at present, almost all learners remain in a general/academic programme after Grade 9. This policy issue discusses how the GEC can act as a stepping stone to the general, vocational and occupational pathways that South Africa aims to provide in the final years of school.

4.1. Learners in South Africa have limited options to develop technical or vocational skills and knowledge

Upper secondary education should offer learners diverse pathways that reflect their interests and meet labour-market needs. Across the OECD, in addition to general education, most countries offer technical and vocational programmes to provide pathways that build occupational skills and knowledge for a profession (Stronati, 2023[66]). Providing a range of options that target both further study in higher education and practical skills for the labour market gives learners choice, supports motivation and completion and enables them to build a foundation for future opportunities (OECD, 2024[67]). However, in South Africa, only 1% of 15-19-year-olds are enrolled in upper secondary vocational education, compared with 23% on average across the OECD (OECD, 2025[19]).

4.1.1. Vocational qualifications may not meet learners’ or labour-market needs

South Africa's vocational and technical education landscape features multiple programmes creating a confusing situation for young adults. 79% of 15-19-year-olds in TVET colleges are enrolled in NATED (National Accredited Technical Education Diploma) N1‑N6 qualifications, but these are being phased out (DHET, 2025[3]). The newer National Certificate (Vocational), introduced in 2007, has seen low uptake – just 16% of 15-19-year-olds in TVET colleges are enrolled in these certificates. One reason for low enrolment in the National Certificates (Vocational) is misalignment with learner or labour-market needs (DHET, 2025[3]). Completion rates are also low, with only 58.2% of learners in 2023 completing their National Certificate (Vocational) Level 4 qualification and only 64.2% completing their NATED N6 courses (DHET, 2025[3]). For NATED qualifications, the mandatory workplace requirement may contribute to low completion (Franz and Dulvy, 2020[68]).

Employment outcomes for TVET graduates remain poor. A recent study of almost 4 000 TVET graduates found that only 16.6% were employed 12‑18 months after graduating, while 45.3% were unemployed. Among those employed, under half (45.44%) worked in fields related to their qualification (DHET, 2020[69]). Poor transitions to employment may create little incentive for TVET learners to complete their programmes.

4.1.2. The offer in TVET colleges may not be easy for learners to access

In Grades 10-12, learners can choose to pursue technical education by enrolling in TVET colleges. However, only about 2% of 15-19-year-olds in education in South Africa attend a TVET college (DHET, 2025[3]). Low enrolment might reflect limited provision; with only 50 public colleges nationwide, geographic accessibility varies significantly (DHET, n.d.[70]). Tuition is subsidised or fully funded for many learners, but research suggests costs still limit access for some, especially learners from more disadvantaged backgrounds (Franz and Dulvy, 2020[68]; Kahn and Branson, 2016[71]). Finally, TVET colleges primarily serve older learners: 90% of TVET learners are 20+ (Stats SA, 2023[17]). As campuses are largely adult environments, younger learners may also find them socially and academically difficult to navigate.

4.1.3. Technical subjects are taken by less than 5% of learners

Learners in Grades 10-12 can take technical subjects such as Engineering Graphics and Design or Technical Mathematics, but uptake remains low with no more than 5% of NSC candidates taking a technical subject in 2024 (Parliamentary Monitoring Group, 2025[72]). In 2024, approximately just 12% of secondary schools offered technical subjects (DBE, 2024[73]). Constraints that limit schools’ capacity to provide technical subjects include a lack of qualified vocational teachers, appropriate materials, and infrastructure. Among countries participating in TALIS 2024, South Africa is among the top five countries reporting shortages of vocational teachers at lower secondary level (i.e. Grades 8 and 9 in South Africa), with 36.0% of principals in South Africa reporting a shortage of vocational teachers, Furthermore, almost half of principals in South Africa reported a shortage of materials for training in vocational skills (42.8%, compared with OECD average of 13.8%) (OECD, 2025[7]).

4.2. The GEC gives important recognition to careers education

4.2.1. The Inclinations Assessment guides learners to realise their strengths

Currently, careers education in South Africa is primarily delivered through the Life Orientation subject, yet Life Orientation teachers are often also required to support learner mental health and have limited formal training in career guidance (Pillay, 2012[74]; Diale, 2016[75]). The new Inclinations Assessment as part of the GEC is designed to help learners recognise their own preferences and values, and to encourage reflection on the types of occupations and learning opportunities that align with their personal profile (DBE, n.d.[76]). It is based on Holland’s RIASEC model – Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional – which categorises work environments according to vocational interests (Holland, 1997[77]). The Inclinations Assessment is intended to be completed at the start of Term 3, allowing learners to use their results as input for the Integrated Project on Life Orientation which focuses on careers and entrepreneurship to provide a starting point for learners’ exploration of their future.

Initial feedback from schools indicates that learners and teachers value the Inclinations Assessment. For many learners during the pilot, it was a first opportunity to explore career paths and instigated reflection on their strengths and aspirations.

“[It] was great to experience because it helped some learners to know what they want to be and what subjects they should choose when moving to Grade 10.”

“It changed my perspective about the career path I wanted to follow.”

Quotes from OECD teacher and learner focus groups in South Africa.

4.2.2. A digital-first approach to implementing the Inclinations Assessment is not viable or desired by all schools

The Inclinations Assessment is intended to be delivered via the mobile phone application, WhatsApp. However, in focus group conversations with the OECD, both teachers and learners reported challenges related to device access, data costs and school policy. Not all learners have reliable phone connectivity and schools often restrict mobile phone use during the day. Some learners also did not want to bring a mobile phone to school during the day as they saw value in having school as a phone-free zone.

Internationally, there is evidence to support keeping digital devices out of classes and schools. In PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) 2022, 30% of learners on average across OECD countries reported that, in most or every mathematics lesson, they are distracted by digital devices. Digital device distraction is associated with weaker outcomes in the PISA mathematics assessment, after accounting for learners’ and schools’ socio-economic profile (OECD, 2023[27]). Analyses based on PISA 2022 data show that school phone bans appear to be the most effective school policy approach for reducing distraction from digital devices (OECD, 2023[27]).

4.3. Policy option 1. Make creating accessible technical and vocational learning options in Grades 10-12 a national priority

After completing Grade 9, learners need access to high-quality vocational programmes – where they can acquire skills and knowledge that are valued by employers. The current offer across secondary schools or TVET colleges is not sufficient to meet learners’ or the economy’s needs. The new Three Stream Model is a policy that could result in greater access to vocational education and training (VET) for learners, but further policy implementation is needed.

4.3.1. Simplify vocational and technical options, expand access and raise quality

Previous OECD work on vocational education in South Africa has identified that a key challenge is the complex mix of overlapping and competing programmes and qualifications (Field, Musset and Álvarez-Galván, 2014[78]). South Africa’s new Three Stream Model has the potential to simplify pathways, however key challenges in terms of the ensuring sufficient access to vocational and technical options, and their quality, remain. Central issues to be addressed to strengthen and improve access to technical and vocational learning options in Grades 10-12 include:

• Access: ensuring there is sufficient provision across schools and TVET colleges, including in remote areas, for all learners who wish to pursue vocational education.

• Labour-market needs: working with employers to ensure that vocational and technical education is valued by the labour market and meets its needs.

• Pathways and certification: clarifying the purpose of different and existing planned vocational and technical pathways. Ensuring that all vocational and technical programmes link to credible and relevant qualifications that facilitate access to jobs.

4.3.2. Addressing resource challenges

One of the greatest challenges for providing accessible vocational education in South Africa is the lack of infrastructure, teaching expertise and materials. One option is to leverage resources from industry to access equipment and skilled teaching staff. The OECD team visited a school in South Africa that had already developed a partnership with local industry to provide a technical workshop and become a technical school. Similar partnerships could be encouraged to strengthened collaboration with clusters of schools or businesses. For example, in Bangladesh, France and Malaysia, industry-led skills centres or training institutes provide programmes for upskilling trainees and apprenticeships. These collaborative models enable small and medium-sized enterprises – who may find it harder to take on apprentices – to engage to collaborate with the education sector (OECD, 2021[79]).

South Africa currently devotes a comparatively high share of its resources to education and upper secondary education specifically. Yet, while South Africa spends a greater share of its GDP on upper secondary education (1.2%) compared to the average across OECD countries (0.8%), little of this is devoted to VET. If South Africa aims to have more learners choosing VET and to provide accessible VET options, rebalancing its spending in upper secondary education to direct greater resources to VET will be important. One strategy for increasing net investment in vocational education is to have businesses contribute through the delivery of apprenticeships. For example, in France, where apprenticeships and internships are commonly used in vocational programmes, one quarter (26%) of the initial expenditure on vocational programmes comes from private sources i.e. businesses (OECD, 2025[19]).

4.4. Policy option 2. Use the GEC to help learners identify future pathways

4.4.1. Frame the Inclinations Assessment as a starting point for further reflection and exploration

The Inclinations Assessment can support learners’ systematic access to basic careers education. However, its effectiveness depends on how results are framed and interpreted. It is crucial that the Inclinations Assessment is not presented as a deterministic matching tool. Over-reliance on psychometric assessments can reinforce beliefs that individuals can be precisely matched to a single “best-fit” occupation (Watson et al., 1997[80]; Stead and Watson, 1993[81]). Such thinking risks narrowing learners’ aspirations rather than expanding them. Teachers in South Africa should be supported to provide guided interpretation to learners of their results to initiate exploration and spark curiosity.

4.4.2. Use learners’ GEC reports to ground conversations and choices

The end of Grade 9 represents a decision-point for learners, influencing where they will continue their education – in school or a TVET college – and what subjects they take as they work towards the NSC or vocational qualifications. Reporting a learner’s results in the GEC as a report card or statement of achievement – combining Curriculum Test results, Integrated Project grades, Inclinations Assessment insights and other insights (see ‘Design the GEC as report card that reports a broad set of results and skills’) – can be used as a discussion prompt between learners, teachers and parents. The Curriculum Tests have an important role in providing learners with reliable information about their strengths to inform subject and pathway choices in Grades 10-12. At present, reliance on SBA, given its inaccuracies, may lead to learners to making uninformed subject choices, reflected in what has been observed as a ‘randomness’ in whether learners choose to do mathematics or mathematical literacy in Grade 10 (Claasen, 2025[82]).

To help guide learners, it is important that teachers can access guidance on providing recommendations and avoid biases (Perico E Santos, 2023[83]). Teachers in South Africa, might receive information about pathways learners could explore, based on their strengths, interests and the labour-market needs, and how different FET options are aligned to them. GEC report cards should also be used to help identify which learners need more support as they transition to FET, so that learners with gaps in their learning can still achieve success by the end of upper secondary.

4.4.3. Work with employers to expand current careers provision

It is important that careers education does not start and stop with the Inclinations Assessment. Across the OECD, careers education encompasses a range of activities: at age 15, 49% of learners speak to a career advisor in their school, 45% attend job-shadowing or work-site visits and 35% do an internship (OECD, 2024[84]). While the resources available to schools in South Africa may not enable all learners to do all these activities, it is important that they benefit from the gradual exploration and deepening of the world beyond school and how it relates to them.

South Africa could seek to systemise and increase access to careers education before Grade 9. Research suggests that young people’s understanding of the world of work and career identities begin forming in childhood (Porfeli, Hartung and Vondracek, 2008[85]) (McMahon and Watson, 2022[86]). By age 15, learners’ career aspirations are already strongly shaped by gender and social background (OECD, 2025[87]). Careers education which begins early can help to encourage curiosity and openness in young people’s initial career exploration and to foster the iterative development of self-awareness and career-awareness (Magnuson and Starr, 2000[88]).

South Africa could also explore partnerships with industry and employers to expand careers education – by creating opportunity for real-world interactions – as well as sharing the burden of delivery with businesses and working professionals. As part of partnering with industry to expand resources and opportunities for vocational and technical education, collaboration with industry and employers can also be used to expose learners to possible career pathways. For example, career talks with guest speakers working in employment fields of interest allow learners to hear directly from people in work about their jobs, careers and their pathways through education and training (OECD, 2023[89]).