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In 2008, South Africa had 400,953 educators, which included school teachers and principals. Were they adequate in number and quality for the 12,239,363 learners in ordinary public and independent schools? Is the country's teacher education system sufficiently geared up to produce the teachers that are required and are sufficient numbers of students being attracted to teaching? How successful have government and union attempts to address specific teacher shortages since 1994 been? What has the contribution of research been in these areas? These are the questions this monograph addresses. It does so by providing an overview and synthesis of the interventions, research and consequences of initiatives related to the demand for and supply of teachers since 1994. What the study shows is that in order to deal with shortages, a bold vision for sustained investment in teacher education is a first priority. This needs to be supported with measures that will not only attract young graduates to the teaching profession, but also retain them and their developed expertise.

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This study forms part of a series of studies on professions and professional education being conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council's research program on Education, Science and Skills Development. This study involved developing an understanding of the professional milieu and professional labour market of social workers. As the implementers of government social policy, social work professionals have been at the forefront of grappling with the practicalities of the changes in focus, approach and methods of social security and social service delivery since 1994. It examines developments in the education and training of social workers within the democratic dispensation, the most significant of which is the development of a national, standardised Bachelor of Social Work degree. The study also reveals that the dominant profile in student enrolment and graduation statistics has changed from white female to African female, and that enrolment has increased significantly. However, the study also shows that graduation trends have been negative and losses due to emigration are an additional concern. Given the scarcity of these professionals against the demand for their services, understanding the factors that contribute to this picture are critical to effective intervention.

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The study investigated skilled labour requirement in the construction industry of Edo State. The study aimed at assessing the current state of the construction industry's skilled workforce, causes and prevalence of skilled labour shortage and the effect of skilled labour shortage in construction project delivery. The method employed for collection of data includes distribution of structured questionnaires. The data collected were analyzed using frequency tables, percentages, mean response analysis, relative importance index and cross tabulation. The research identified the most severe factors responsible for labour shortage to include: no clear [career] path; high mobility of construction workers; and low wages. The study found that construction firms are not sending their skilled workforce for training, and that the skilled workers are unwilling to recommend the profession to their children. The research revealed that the construction firms were paying extra money for labour, and schedule delay in their construction programmes as a result of skilled labour shortage. The study found aging workforce in the construction trades sampled, and that the entrance of young people into the construction trades was very low.

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The purpose of this technical report is to present the background, the theoretical debates, the methodologies and processes leading to the development of the 2018 list of Occupations in High Demand (OIHD) for South Africa. The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) defines OIHD as those occupations that show relatively strong employment growth, or are experiencing shortages in the labour market. More specifically, occupations are said to be in high demand if they: (1) have shown relatively strong employment growth over the past five years; (2) are currently showing relatively strong employment growth (that is, relatively strong growth over the two years); (3) are expected to show relatively strong employment growth in the future; (4) have been identified as being in shortage in the labour market; or (5) are new and expected to emerge in the near future as a result of innovation, technological advancements and the development of new industries (for example, the establishment of new occupations in 'green' industries).

Using a novel methodology adopted after a detailed review of a number of international approaches employed to identify and measure skills and occupational needs, the design of the 2018 OIHD project methodology adopted a hybrid approach where both top-down (statistical) and bottom-up (qualitative) evidence were considered and integrated to identify occupations in high demand. This exercise yielded a list of 129 occupations at the 4-digit Unit Group with 369 6-digit occupations which are currently in high demand or are expected to be in demand in the future. The project team understood the main purpose of the list as to inform the planning processes of DHET with respect to the post school education and training systems, particularly in relation to enrolment planning, resource allocation, career advice and qualification development. The list is however important for a number of reasons and is also intended for use by other stakeholders to inform their decision making processes. In this case the list may require that users adapt or refine accordingly to their needs.

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The problem of getting sufficient numbers of qualified teachers to staff classrooms is one of the most significant public policy issues facing many countries. In Ghana, the problem of teacher shortage has been a perennial one, necessitated by educational expansion as well as adverse socio-economic and political circumstances, and exacerbated by high attrition rate. Efforts to find a solution are still ongoing. This paper aims to contribute to the search for solutions to the teacher shortage problem in Ghana. The paper takes the view that before education policy makers think about whether to recruit more teachers or retain existing teachers, it is important that they clearly understand the complex nature of the phenomenon of teacher shortage. The paper, therefore, reconceptualises the phenomenon of teacher shortage, clarifying it by disentangling and explicating its constituent variables. It also discusses various policy options for addressing teacher shortages, and indicates the implications of those options for teaching quality and teacher status. The ultimate objective is to provide a framework for analysing the problem of teacher shortage in a more critical way so that any interventions would be more focused and appropriately targeted.

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