While the Eastern Cape battles a 47.5% unemployment rate, Nelson Mandela Bay manufacturers are failing to find people to fill critical jobs needed to keep their factories running.
The Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber has completed a manufacturing skills audit report that reveals a widening disconnect between the skills available in the metro and those required by its manufacturing economy.
Chamber chief executive Denise van Huyssteen described it as a skills misalignment.
“These findings should concern all of us because they expose a fundamental disconnect in our economy,” she said.
“The findings point to a paradox at the heart of the region’s labour market — while unemployment remains high, manufacturers are repeatedly unable to find people with the specialised technical and practical skills required to operate, maintain and modernise increasingly sophisticated production environments.
“Driven by the chamber in partnership with Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, the first-of-its-kind skills audit surveyed and assessed 55 manufacturing enterprises representing 12,662 employees across the Bay.”
The report provided the most comprehensive industry-led picture to date of the skills required to sustain and grow Nelson Mandela Bay’s manufacturing competitiveness.
“The audit establishes a 2026 Bay manufacturing skills barometer as the sector’s baseline against which future progress will be measured.
“Its hard-to-fill index baseline scored 30.4, classified as critical pressure.
“Employers rated failed recruitment searches at 9 out of 10, while both difficulty in filling positions and vacancy duration scored 7.5 out of 10.”
“We have a large pool of people, including graduates, who are actively searching for employment opportunities, while businesses are struggling to find the specialised skills they need.
“We cannot continue treating these as two separate problems.
“They are fundamentally connected and closing that gap must become an economic priority.
“Moreover, we have an unacceptably high unemployment rate of 33.1% in the metro, yet there are vacancies which take many months to be filled or simply remain unfilled.”
Van Huyssteen said it was not about whether a company could find a person to fill a vacancy, but rather whether the workforce was equipped to support the manufacturing technologies that would define the next phase of industrial growth.
Critical future skills identified include programmable logic controller (PLC) and automation diagnostics, electro-mechanical multi-skilling, manufacturing execution system (MES) and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) configuration.
Also, advanced metrology and co-ordinate measuring machine (CMM) programming, predictive maintenance, digital quality assurance (QA) and laboratory information management system (LIMS) or electronic batch manufacturing record (eBMR) administration.
In addition, digital process technicians and information technology (IT) and factory-floor operational technology (OT), as well as new energy vehicle (NEV) and future mobility technical skills.
“The report also highlights a significant challenge in the youth pipeline into manufacturing,” she said.
“While large numbers of young people enter development programmes, far fewer emerge with the competence and workplace experience required for sustainable technical employment.
“Deficits in numeracy, English, digital literacy, practical workplace exposure and work-readiness are compounded by transport and shift-work challenges.
“These challenges affect youth retention, which is reported to be 17.8%.
“In practice, this indicates that young people enter and exit the workplace, and that simply creating more entry-level opportunities will not, on its own, solve the problem.
“For the chamber, the findings point to the need for a fundamental shift from fragmented training interventions towards an industry-led approach.
“The chamber is establishing an industry-led skills pathway agenda aimed at creating a much stronger connection between business, education and the labour market.
“Our message is simple. We cannot wait for the skills crisis to solve itself.
“If we want to attract investment, retain existing manufacturers and create meaningful employment for young people, we need to build the workforce that the economy needs, not only the workforce that our current systems happen to produce.”
Aspen SA Operations skills development board lead and executive of workforce development and strategic management, Branson Bosman, said the findings demonstrated the need to rethink how the manufacturing skills pipeline was developed.
“The issue is not simply that industry needs more technically qualified people.
“We need to look much more closely at whether the skills being developed are aligned with the actual technologies, production systems and workplace requirements of modern manufacturing,” Bosman said.
“Manufacturing is changing rapidly. Automation, robotics, digital systems and advanced production technologies are becoming increasingly embedded in the workplace.
“If we do not build these capabilities into the skills pipeline now, we will continue to train people for yesterday’s jobs while businesses are looking for the skills of tomorrow.”
He said stronger collaboration between industry, education and training institutions would be critical to closing the gap.
“We need to move from a supply-driven approach, where training is provided because programmes exist, to a demand-driven model where industry has a meaningful role in defining what skills are required, how those skills are developed and how young people transition into the workplace.”
Proposed interventions by the chamber include an industry-higher education strategic skills advancement panel, a sector skills advisory panel, a centralised skills database to match technical talent with vacancies, and a structured “knowledge bridge” to transfer the expertise of retiring artisans and engineers to the next generation.
“The agenda also proposes an ‘Adopt a TVET’ lecturer immersion programme, a digital process technician pathway for unemployed youth and accredited technical training in automation, networking and digital technologies.
“Longer-term interventions include shared Industry 4.0 technical hubs and dedicated training in new energy vehicles, battery technologies, hydrogen and other green skills.”
Bosman said the proposed interventions should be viewed as part of a longer-term strategy to ensure Nelson Mandela Bay remained competitive as manufacturing evolved.
“We have an opportunity to build a skills ecosystem that is directly connected to the future of manufacturing in the Bay.
“That means exposing learners and lecturers to real industrial environments, strengthening technical training, creating pathways into emerging technologies and ensuring that experienced professionals can transfer their knowledge to the next generation.
“The value of the Barometer is that it gives us a baseline,” Bosman said.
“But a baseline only becomes useful if we continue measuring against it.
“The skills requirements of manufacturing will continue to evolve, so we need an intelligence system that can track those changes and allow industry, education and policymakers to respond before skills shortages become a constraint on growth.”
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