Every year, when South Africa’s unemployment figures are released, the story reads the same way. Overall unemployment ticks up, young people bear the brunt of it, and the numbers used to describe the situation seem to get worse. The second quarter of this year has been no exception. The official national unemployment rate climbed to 33.6%, while youth unemployment reached a staggering 47.4%, meaning almost one in every two young South Africans attempting to enter the labour force cannot find work. By any measure, this is an extraordinary national crisis.
And yet, at the very same time, a growing share of South African businesses say they cannot find the skills they need. Recent industry research shows that 84% of major corporations and multinational employers operating in South Africa struggle to source highly skilled talent locally, with technical, engineering and ICT adjacent skills cited as among the hardest categories to fill.
It would be easy, and wrong, to conclude from this that South Africa simply lacks the talent it needs. The truth is more complicated and, frankly, more hopeful. South Africa is not short of ability. It is short of structured pathways that connect young, capable people to the mentorship, practical experience and platforms that would let that ability show itself.
The truth is that talent shows up when given the chance to
The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 found that the skills gap is now the single biggest barrier employers face in adapting to global economic change. Crucially, the report frames this as a call not for importing finished expertise, but for urgent, collective investment in reskilling, upskilling and structured pathways into fast growing roles, led jointly by government, business and education. That conclusion lands with particular force in South Africa, a country with a young population and, evidently, no shortage of young minds. What it has lacked is enough doors for those minds to walk through.
This entirely supports our own view to support a long-term investment in education programmes that ultimately accelerate the level of technical and vocational skills in South Africa. It is why we have invested in deliberate interventions in each learning phase, and critically why generational programmes which drive from “cradle to vocation” with a deliberate focus on unlocking this “chance”.
A very useful illustration of what happens when that door is opened is currently making its way from Sasolburg to Cape Town. This month, a team of engineering students from Tshwane University of Technology set off in SunChaser 4, a solar powered car they designed and built themselves, on a demanding 2,500km route as part of the Sasol Solar Challenge, mentored throughout the way by engineers from Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa’s Silverton Manufacturing Plant.
Previous SunChaser models had already picked up international awards, which suggests that what is unfolding on the road to Cape Town is not a one-off but part of a pattern: give South African students real technical guidance and a genuine problem to solve, and they consistently produce work that competes on a world stage. It is “industrial mentorship” at the scale and rate we need to see more of
Industry can no longer treat talent development as someone else’s job
It is tempting for businesses to view skills development as the responsibility of universities and the government alone. At Ford, we believe exactly the opposite. The scale of South Africa’s youth unemployment crisis makes clear why believing you can watch others manage the issue no longer holds. When employers report persistent difficulty sourcing local expertise while millions of capable young people sit outside the labour market entirely, the gap is not primarily one of raw ability. It is a gap in exposure, mentorship and the kind of applied, real-world experience that turns a qualification into a genuinely employable skill set. It is why we sponsor teams like Sunchaser IV and it is why we invest in things like the Ford Auto technician Apprenticeships.
This matters enormously for South Africa’s automotive sector specifically, which sends the large majority of our vehicle exports are to Europe, a market moving decisively toward electrification. Whichever direction the sector moves in will be decided largely by whether the workforce of the future, in electrification, battery systems and smarter manufacturing, is being built today. The future of automobility is entirely reliant on the innovations that come from things like the Sasol Solar Challenge.
Businesses that operate in South Africa, whether multinational or homegrown, have a direct interest in ensuring that the next generation of engineers, technicians and technologists is developed here rather than recruited from abroad. Mentorship programmes, apprenticeships, bursaries linked to real project work and partnerships with universities are not corporate social responsibility add-ons. They are the infrastructure through which local capacity gets built, and through which businesses secure the pipeline of skilled people their own future depends on.
Building future ready talent needs everyone at the table
No single institution can close this gap alone. Universities and technical colleges provide the theoretical grounding, but it is the combination of formal education with workplace based mentorship and practical exposure that actually prepares people for the jobs of the future.
Naturally, government has a role to play in aligning curricula and vocational training with the direction industries like automotive are heading. But more critically, industry must be willing to open its doors, its engineers and its facilities to students long before those students become employees.
When the SunChaser 4 crossed the finish line and claimed victory in the 2026 Sasol Solar Challenge, it marked an achievement worth being genuinely proud of. A group of South African students, supported by South African industry mentors, designed, built and drove a solar-powered vehicle to victory across one of the most demanding routes in world motorsport. That success did not require recruiting expertise from abroad. It required opportunity, mentorship and a platform for homegrown talent to prove what was already possible.
If South African business, government and academia can commit to building more of those platforms, at the scale the country’s youth unemployment crisis demands, there is no reason the next generation of world class engineers, scientists and innovators should come from anywhere other than right here.