- Reform Plan for South Africa’s PSET System: The government has announced comprehensive reforms to overhaul the post-school education and training system, aiming to address longstanding sector challenges and improve integration across various educational institutions.
- Main Objectives and Pillars of the Reform Strategy: Guided by six key objectives—such as equitable access and improved quality—the reform strategy rests on five pillars including economic renewal, green transition, capacity building, research, and social inclusion.
- Immediate Priorities in the Next Three Months: Urgent actions include stabilising NSFAS, creating sustainable funding models, realigning SETAs, and initiating flagship projects like Skills to Work Transitions, Career Choices, and Literacy for Empowerment.
Government has announced a sweeping reform plan to overhaul South Africa’s post-school education and training (PSET) system, following 19 days of consultations with students, academics, employers, labour, and community stakeholders.
The plan responds to longstanding challenges in the sector, including uneven performance, misaligned skills training, governance weaknesses, unstable funding, and limited access for many young people. The reforms aim to integrate universities, TVET and CET colleges, skills centres, and community-based programmes into a single, coordinated system.
Guided by six objectives, integration, equitable access, responsiveness to economic needs, improved quality, stronger governance, and sustainability, the strategy rests on five pillars: economic renewal and jobs, a green just transition, public sector capacity building, research and innovation, and social inclusion.
Immediate priorities over the next three months include stabilising NSFAS, creating a sustainable student funding model, realigning SETAs, and launching three flagship projects. These are Skills to Work Transitions for unemployed youth, Career Choices to guide learners into future-ready pathways, and Literacy for Empowerment to tackle adult illiteracy.
Within 12 months, government will pilot new college models, roll out TVET programmes in emerging industries, establish a national PSET database, and complete legislative reforms. Over the next four years, the focus will be on digital learning expansion, research growth, and cementing partnerships with industry and communities.
A multi-sectoral task team will also review three decades of education reforms, with the goal of creating a high-performing, unified system. The process will culminate in a national higher education convention in 2026 to set long-term priorities.
