The Ikusasa Student Financial Aid Programme (ISFAP) is calling for stronger collaboration between government, universities, schools, industry and funders to strengthen South Africa's engineering and information technology talent pipeline.

The call comes amid growing concern over the country's shortage of critical STEM skills. Recent reports in the Business Day and IOL respectively indicate that only 42% of prospective employees currently meet the requirements for IT positions, while South Africa is estimated to require an additional 60,000 engineers to support infrastructure development, industrial growth and innovation.

For ISFAP, these figures reinforce the importance of strengthening the entire student journey, from career guidance at school through to graduation and entry into the workforce.

"South Africa has no shortage of talented young people with the potential to succeed in engineering and technology," said Werner Abrahams, CEO of ISFAP. "The opportunity lies in ensuring that learners are guided into careers that match their strengths, supported throughout their studies and equipped to graduate into sectors where their skills are most needed. Achieving this requires collaboration across the education ecosystem."

ISFAP continues to invest in qualifications that are critical to South Africa's future economy. During the most recent academic year, the organisation supported 386 engineering students and 21 information technology students, helping build the next generation of professionals needed to strengthen the country's infrastructure, digital economy and innovation capacity.

Drawing on its experience supporting students studying qualifications in occupations in high demand, ISFAP has found that financial assistance alone is not enough to ensure success. Academic readiness, career guidance and wraparound support, including mentoring, counselling and academic development, are equally important in improving student retention and graduation, particularly in demanding STEM disciplines.

The organisation believes there is also an opportunity to strengthen career guidance before learners enter university by expanding access to National Benchmark Test (NBT)-style assessments, or equivalent diagnostic tools, to help learners better understand their strengths and make informed study choices.

"Helping learners understand where their strengths lie before they enrol benefits everyone," said Abrahams. "Students are more likely to thrive, universities experience improved throughput, and employers gain access to graduates whose skills are aligned with labour market demand."

ISFAP believes South Africa has a valuable opportunity to strengthen collaboration across the education sector.

"Building the country's future engineering and IT workforce requires more than funding alone," Abrahams concluded. "By aligning career guidance, student support, higher education and employer needs, we can help more young South Africans succeed in scarce-skills careers while strengthening the country's long-term economic growth."