The Impact of Student Performance in Critical Subjects at Technical Secondary Schools on the Employability in South Africa

Teaching and learning in both public secondary technical and TVET schools and colleges are usually concerned about skills acquisition for employment in the labour market. Because South Africa is increasingly becoming an economy driven by the tertiary sector, learners’ poor performance in critical subjects at the secondary school level is hindering them from entering the job market. Research shows that learners perform poorly in subjects such as mathematics and physical sciences, which young people need to enter occupations such as Engineering and Information Technology. Also, there is a skill mismatch because the economy is becoming more reliant on a tertiary sector that demands a highly skilled workforce and learners are not performing well in critical subjects. In this study, educational data mining of matric student performance records and their employment status in technical nine provinces of South Africa, was used to predict student performance and employability. Data used is matric data reported in technical schools from 2017 to 2022 across nine provinces of South Africa. What is the impact of student performance in critical subjects at technical secondary schools on the employability in South Africa? The results showed that the average performance rate of matric learners in technical subjects has remained at 94.8%. Thus, some technical subjects experienced an increase in enrolment of students, while Civil Technology and Information Technology experienced a decline in enrolment. The findings indicate that South Africa has a high rate of learner drop out, particularly in higher grades. Therefore, improvement in matric pass rates and enrolment rates in technical subjects and critical subjects such as mathematics and physical sciences are essential for South Africa to achieve higher economic growth rates.