The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) has submitted its preliminary Critical Skills List to the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) for review.

“The list is publicly available from the DHET’s website and companies should start reviewing it in anticipation of a round of public commentary before it is finalised,” says Marisa Jacobs, Managing Director at Xpatweb.

Jacobs confirmed that Xpatweb’s own research was used as a refence of input for the DHET Occupations in High Demand (OHID) report and, subsequently, informed the preliminary Critical Skills List by the DHET.

Availability
The current Critical Skills List was published in 2014. Significant macroeconomic events have affected the country’s foreign skills demand since then, like the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the impact of COVID-19. This makes the new list vital to enabling the recruitment of emerging business-critical talent internationally to promote economic growth.

Jacobs anticipates that, with the recent publishing of the OIHD report from the same research base, the momentum of that work will carry forward to the finalisation of the new Critical Skills List.
“The new List is likely to be published in early 2021,” reports Jacobs.

Exclusions
Notably, several occupations on the current Critical Skills List have been excluded from the preliminary list. These include corporate general manager; risk assessor; certain ICT designations; electrical and chemical engineer; toolmaker; pressure welder; boilermaker; certain trades, such as millwright, pipefitter, double-coded welder and rigger; foreign language speaker; and business analyst.

This may concern employers who have difficulty sourcing these skills locally. Visas for foreign nationals listed on the Critical Skills List are typically processed two to six months faster. This puts companies who urgently need to replace scarce workers not on the List at a disadvantage.

“To make their needs heard, organisations must provide feedback proactively as the opportunity to comment becomes available,” says Jacobs. This will ensure the finalised list aligns with actual national business requirements.

Input
As the only private company invited to present its findings in an interdepartmental session to develop the OIHD, Xpatweb provided research from its own Critical Skills Survey, taken annually over the last five years. This research is also incorporated into the DHET’s preliminary Critical Skills List.

Jacobs believes Xpatweb’s participation can be attributed to the quality of its Survey data. “Of the 32 occupations listed in our report, 24 were already included in the preliminary List, so there was a significant complementary overlap in the research” she says.

The Survey provides a channel for organisations to pre-emptively participate in initiatives like the development of the national Critical Skills List. “Instead of waiting for the public comment process, they can contribute to the early stages of policy formulation,” says Jacobs.

Conclusion
Jacobs urges organisations to become active players in the final Critical Skills List. “This will help ease immigration constraints that may limit access to occupations essential to economic growth,” she says.

She also commends the DHET and DHA for their outstanding work and for openly engaging the private sector.

ENDS

MEDIA CONTACT: Rosa-Mari Le Roux, 060 995 6277, rosa-mari@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za

ABOUT Xpatweb:
HOLISTIC EXPATRIATE SOLUTIONS
The Xpatweb group has been in existence for over 15 years and includes over 100 professionals, including immigration specialists, mobility practitioners, tax practitioners, attorneys, and chartered accountants. They offer holistic, client-centric, and fully compliant expatriate and work visa solutions. Clients can expect an exceptional end-to-end service that starts with an initial technical meeting to discuss any past challenges, a recommended optimal solution, and the creation of a roadmap and protocol for service delivery. They also offer an on-premises immigration audit service to confirm expatriate employees hold legally obtained, valid visas, and that their duties align with their visa conditions. In addition, their unique online immigration tracking system helps you to easily manage and track expatriate assignees across the globe, is fully customisable and dashboard-driven, and provides a secure repository for storing assignees’ documents.

For more information on Xpatweb please visit:
Website:  http://www.xpatweb.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/work-permit-south-africa/
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/xpatweb/

​

At a media briefing held on 26 November, the Minister of Higher Education, Dr. Blade Nzimande, formally published the Government Gazette containing the highly anticipated 2020 National List of Occupations in High Demand (OIHD).

“The OIHD list is an essential resource for skills development initiatives across the tertiary education, public and private sectors,” says Marisa Jacobs, Managing Director at Xpatweb, a private firm that was invited to contribute to the list’s compilation.

Why the list is important
The OIHD list alerts tertiary education institutes, professional bodies, employers and other stakeholders to occupations that indicate relatively high employment growth in the past, present and future but are currently in shortage. This allows them to establish courses and internal skills development programmes to alleviate future shortfalls in business-critical competencies.

The Gazette regards an occupation as being in shortage when the demand for labour exceeds the supply of people willing to work for a particular income, under prevailing working conditions, at a specific place and point in time.

“We encourage stakeholders to review the list against their existing training programmes and human resources requirements to ensure they are adequately prepared,” says Jacobs.

Private sector input
“As the only private sector company to receive special mention in the Gazette, we are proud to have been consulted in this process,” says Jacobs.

She attributes the firm’s inclusion based on the Critical Skills Survey Results, which is an annual survey that reports the skills that organisations consider most difficult to source and recruit.

On the basis of this research, Xpatweb was invited to present its findings as part of an interdepartmental session, also comprising the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), the Department of Home Affairs (DHA), the Department of Labour, and the Department of Trade and Industry. This included the methodology used and impact on employers.

The Xpatweb Critical Skills Survey is in its 5th year running and, with inputs from the DHET in the above consultation sessions, the 2019/20 survey is more in depth to further unpack feedback from the participants.
The inputs received up to end September 2020 have already been incorporated into the OIHD list published on 26 November.

The impact of COVID
The 2020 OIHD list takes into consideration the impact of COVID-19 on economic activities and the consequent shift in demand for affected occupations. These are highlighted either in red, indicating possible slower recovery in or lower demand for the skill, or green, indicating possible faster recovery or increased demand.

“This introduces some uncertainty into the equation, and we will closely monitor how the pandemic plays out and if there are lasting effects on the job market,” says Jacobs.

Towards a critical skills list
The OIHD list is not a critical skills list and does not indicate those occupations requiring the employment of skilled foreign nationals for whom visas may be obtained.

The DHET will work with the DHA to amend the existing national critical skills list, which was last updated in 2014. The list is expected to be published in early 2021 and incorporate occupations that have recently emerged.

“Our research suggests these will include occupations in the growing oil and gas sector, ICT skills and STEM teachers,” says Jacobs.

ENDS

MEDIA CONTACT: Rosa-Mari Le Roux, 060 995 6277, rosa-mari@atthatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za

ABOUT Xpatweb:
HOLISTIC EXPATRIATE SOLUTIONS
The Xpatweb group has been in existence for over 15 years and includes over 100 professionals, including immigration specialists, mobility practitioners, tax practitioners, attorneys, and chartered accountants. They offer holistic, client-centric, and fully compliant expatriate and work visa solutions. Clients can expect an exceptional end-to-end service that starts with an initial technical meeting to discuss any past challenges, a recommended optimal solution, and the creation of a roadmap and protocol for service delivery. They also offer an on-premises immigration audit service to confirm expatriate employees hold legally obtained, valid visas, and that their duties align with their visa conditions. In addition, their unique online immigration tracking system helps you to easily manage and track expatriate assignees across the globe, is fully customisable and dashboard-driven, and provides a secure repository for storing assignees’ documents.

For more information on Xpatweb please visit:
Website:  http://www.xpatweb.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/work-permit-south-africa/
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/xpatweb/