The employment levels in South Africa are definitely not something to boast about. Recently we have experienced a lot of political changes and economic recessions that have significantly lowered the jobs in demand in South Africa . That being said; the employment situation in South Africa isn’t as dire as you might think. There are, in fact, still a lot of careers in demand in South Africa such as engineering jobs and accounting jobs to name a few.

Physical and Engineering Science Technicians are people who assist other scientists and engineers with their work. You will engage in developing procedures or conducting research on environmental, safety, biomedical, or industrial and production engineering. The reason there is such a demand in this field is because South Africa produces far too few engineers and by extension, far too few engineering technicians. This has been attributed to the fact that only half of the people who graduate with an engineering degree, go on to work in the industry.

Chartered accountants are responsible for preparing and examining financial records for individuals and entire companies. They handle tax returns and may perform audits on any records with discrepancies. They also help businesses streamline their expenses. They save them a lot of money by paying attention to return on investment and making sure the company is performing as it should financially. The SA Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) believes that we need another 22,000 chartered accountants to fill the gap in the industry. The Department of Higher Education has admitted that they need to review the qualification process and reduce the barriers to enter accounting. The standards are currently very high and this is what is preventing people from going into accounting jobs.

Vocational or Further Education Teachers (FET). These are the individuals that teach others after they leave high school. This includes colleges and universities. These specialized teaching jobs are incredibly important as these are the people that will be preparing our school leavers for degree requiring positions in the employment sector. The reason for lack of educators filling teaching jobs is basically the lack of infrastructure in South Africa. We don’t have enough training institutions to develop people into effective vocational teachers. In fact, the situation is so dire that South Africa allocated R17,4 billion to ensure that FET college enrolments continued to grow. This funding will be used to finance college infrastructure to turn college campuses into education, information communication technology, sports, and entertainment and business incubation centres