Some rights reserved 1 2 3 4 16 15 14 13 World Bank Studies are published to communicate the results of the Bank's work to the development community with the least possible delay. The manuscript of this paper therefore has not been prepared in accordance with the procedures appropriate to formally edited texts. This work is a product of the staff of The World Bank with external contributions. Note that The World Bank does not necessarily own each component of the content included in the work. The World Bank therefore does not warrant that the use of the content contained in the work will not infringe on the rights of third parties. The risk of claims resulting from such infringement rests solely with you. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this work do not necessarily reflect the views of The World Bank, its Board of Executive Directors, or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgment on the part of The World Bank concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. Nothing herein shall constitute or be considered to be a limitation upon or waiver of the privileges and immunities of The World Bank, all of which are specifically reserved.
The concept of 'scarce skills' features prominently in South Africa's national development discourse. Over the past decade, the 'scarce skills' concept has been used to frame debate about the relationship between post-school education and training and the economy. In this article, we compare education policy documents articulating 'scarce skills' perspectives with plans from four occupational sectors and general labour market data and analysis. In our analysis, we identify ideological, theoretical, conceptual and methodological limitations to the 'scarce skills' discourse. Each limitation contributes to a reduced and myopic understanding of the complex and dynamic relationship between post-school education and the economy. We conclude by sharing three arguments which post-school institutions could draw on to respond to the skills discourse.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.