By Daniel Orelowitz, MD at Training Force
South Africa’s youth unemployment rate rose to 47.4% in the second quarter of 2026, with 264,000 more young people joining the unemployed ranks. Today, 5 million young South Africans between the ages of 15 and 34 are looking for work but cannot find it. Behind these figures sits a frustrating catch-22: companies want workers with experience, but young people cannot get experience unless someone takes a chance on them. For millions of capable young people, this cycle keeps them locked out of the job market. It also brings up a bigger question: if a qualification alone is no longer enough to prove someone can do a job, what is?
Why a qualification is no longer enough
A degree or diploma is an achievement, but it does not automatically prepare a graduate for the demands of a workplace. A qualification can demonstrate subject knowledge, but employers also need evidence that a candidate can apply that knowledge in a practical working environment.
Learning to drive offers a useful comparison. Passing a learner’s licence test demonstrates knowledge of the rules of the road. It does not prepare a new driver for a busy highway in heavy rain, where judgement, timing and experience matter. Those skills develop through time behind the wheel and exposure to real driving conditions.
The same principle applies to work. Formal education provides theory, while practical experience develops the ability to apply it. Without time in a workplace, graduates can enter the job market with the right qualifications but little evidence of how they will perform when faced with real deadlines, systems, colleagues and workplace demands.
Why employers look for experience
From an employer’s perspective, a qualification answers one question: does this candidate have the required knowledge? Experience helps answer another: how will this person perform when that knowledge has to be applied?
That distinction matters when teams are under pressure to meet deadlines, serve customers and deliver results. A new employee may have the right qualification but still needs time to learn workplace systems, processes and expectations. For businesses with limited capacity for extensive training, previous experience can become a way of reducing that uncertainty.
How learnerships create the first opportunity
For someone entering the workforce for the first time, one of the biggest challenges is having something to put on a CV beyond a qualification. A learnership can provide that missing piece.
By combining structured learning with workplace experience, learnerships give young people an opportunity to develop their skills in a real working environment. Over seven to 12 months, learners gain exposure to workplace expectations, systems, processes and the day-to-day responsibilities of a job, while working towards an accredited qualification and receiving a stipend.
That experience can change the conversation when it is time to apply for the next role. Instead of simply presenting a qualification and a willingness to learn, candidates can point to what they have already done in a workplace and the skills they have developed along the way.
For employers, the value lies in being able to develop and assess emerging talent over time. A learner’s technical ability, work ethic and adaptability can be observed in practice rather than judged solely from a CV or interview. By the end of the learnership, both sides have a clearer understanding of whether the relationship could develop into longer-term employment.
What needs to change
The experience gap cannot be left to young people to solve on their own. Education providers and employers both have a role to play in creating opportunities to gain practical experience.
Education needs to connect more closely with work. Universities, TVET colleges and training providers should build meaningful workplace experience into more qualifications. Time spent in a business gives students an opportunity to apply their knowledge, understand workplace expectations and develop skills that cannot be learned in a classroom alone.
Employers need to think further ahead. Businesses that know they will need new skills in the coming years can work with government and accredited training providers to develop that talent before the need becomes urgent. This creates a more deliberate route from training into employment.
Experience needs to be passed on. Many technical industries have experienced employees approaching retirement. Structured workplace training can give younger workers access to the knowledge and practical skills built up over years, while helping employers retain that knowledge within the business.
Closing the experience gap
Solving youth unemployment requires us to look past paper certificates. For thousands of young South Africans, the barrier is not a lack of ambition or education. It is the lack of an opportunity to prove what they can do. Creating that first opportunity through structured workplace experiential learning can give young people something a qualification alone cannot: a track record.
