Hard-to-fill (HTF) vacancies are prevalent in the automotive component supply base in South Africa, a survey has found.

High Gear’s second Quarterly Skills Survey, which is administered by National Association of Automotive Component and Allied Manufacturers (NAACAM), shows that 90% of respondents have reported at least one occurrence of HTF vacancies in the last six months.

The survey found that, while respondents anticipate changes to what the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Sector Education and Training Authority reports as critical occupations of the future, toolmakers are ranked as the top critical HTF occupation based on current vacancies in the sector, and respondents lamented that “it is likely that this will endure into the future”.

Component suppliers have noted the lack of the right experience and skills as the main drivers behind the numerous HTF vacancies in the sector.

Additionally, component manufacturers, on average, have a low staff turnover rate, which implies a less ‘fluid’ pool of potential new candidates and contributes to the shortage of experienced individuals available in the market.

A lack of adequate skills supply is also creating a bottleneck to companies’ transformation and localisation objectives.

Respondents noted the need for greater representation of employment equity candidates, especially youth and women, across all occupation levels. A skilled pipeline of candidates is, however, limited partially owing to the quality of education, and remuneration offered in the sector which often see high-calibre individuals entering other industrial sectors, the survey stated.

High Gear programme director Colin Hagans emphasised in a statement that technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges have an important role to play in reducing HTF vacancies.

“Through industry partnerships facilitated by High Gear, the TVET college system is well-placed to develop a more reliable pipeline of graduates with the key foundational technical and life skills required by industry,” Hagans said.

He added that “this can be an effective strategy for addressing scarce skills and advancing transformation — including at more advanced occupational levels — as a pipeline of highly-competent and motivated young people are better positioned to advance through the ranks”.  

Meanwhile, and more positively, recognising the South African Automotive Masterplan, or SAAM2035, objective of 60% local content by 2035, just under 90% of NAACAM members have identified localisation priorities which they seek to support.

While many companies have localisation objectives and leverage multiple avenues of support, including industry-led initiatives, NAACAM said that, tangibly, “there has been minimal improvement seen in the overall percentage of local content in recent years”.

Some of this may be attributed to the previous incentive framework, it noted, adding that NAACAM members agree that the lack of appropriate skills, technical competencies and access to proprietary global technology as their most significant hinderances to deeper localisation among their tier two and three supplier base. 

“From NAACAM’s activities in the localisation space, it is clear that skills are a cross-cutting barrier to localisation. Should a South African component supplier be able to navigate the other discreet barriers, they will always be constrained by a lack of appropriate skills to embed technology, develop local capacity to supply sophisticated grades of raw materials and implement original-equipment-manufacturer-endorsed testing frameworks, and thereby prevent localisation from occurring,” commented NAACAM commercial director Shivani Singh.

"By using a platform such as High Gear, which operates at the coal face of developing industry-relevant and validated course content, the component supply base will be able to proactively unlock new localisation and leverage their position in domestic and global markets”, she said.

Survey respondents have overwhelmingly pointed to the need to tackle skills development and experience in potential candidates looking to fill critical roles, as well as promote the attractiveness of the industry to encourage skilled individuals to enter the component sector.

The prominence of toolmaking as a critical occupation both currently and in the future provides a clear directive that interventions need to place some focus on developing the pipeline of skilled toolmakers entering the sector.

To this end, High Gear is taking steps to create a demand-driven TVET system that offers quality courses that are aligned with industry needs.

Steps include developing an enhanced demand-driven TVET system through industry-informed course upgrades, lecturer training and expanded workplace exposure for both students and lecturers; as well as creating an online career experience platform to provide students with sound career guidance regarding jobs in the industry and promote ‘attractiveness’ of the component sector

In alignment with the findings of the HTF vacancies in the sector, High Gear is focusing on profiling numerous HTF vacancies on the online careers experience platform, so that young jobseekers may have a more robust understanding of the opportunities pathways in the sector and the key competencies required to access and succeed in these roles.

The quarterly survey is supported by the three High Gear initiative funders, namely the UK government’s Skills for Prosperity Programme, the US Agency for International Development, and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, and by the implementing partner IYF.