The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) with support from the National Skills Fund (NSF) has approved the implementation of a new phase of the Labour Market Intelligence (LMI) Research Programme. The University of Cape Town (UCT), and specifically the Development Policy Research Unit (DPRU), will be acting as Project Managers. The aim of this programme is to establish a credible institutional mechanism for skills planning.
The LMI research programme comprises several research projects related to the identification of current and future skills needs and shortages, the identification of interventions required to address skills needs and shortages, and the exploration of ideological, philosophical and empirical approaches to understanding the relationship between education and the economy. Broadly speaking, the overarching work of the researchers undertaking this project will, over a five-year period, essentially involve identifying and measuring the extent of skills imbalances in the labour market. It will conduct research, collect information, track vacancies, analyse findings and inform labour market information users of ‘bottlenecks’ in skills demand and supply in the labour market.
The project website was launched in the latter half of 2020, and is available here.
