Skills Mismatch, Education Quality, and Graduate Unemployment in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Employer Perspectives on Policy Failures and the Imperative for Decolonising the Education System

Graduate unemployment remain Graduate unemployment remains one of the most pressing socio-economic challenges confronting post-apartheid South Africa despite significant investments in education and skills development. While access to higher education has expanded since 1994, concerns persist regarding the quality, relevance, and labour market responsiveness of educational programmes. This study examines employer perspectives on the relationship between education quality, skills mismatches, and graduate unemployment, while exploring the role of curriculum transformation in enhancing graduate employability. The study is anchored in Human Capital Theory, Skills Mismatch Theory, and decolonial perspectives on education. A qualitative exploratory research design was employed, using semi-structured interviews with fifteen employers, human resource practitioners, recruitment specialists, and industry experts from selected sectors of the South African economy. Data were analysed thematically to identify patterns relating to graduate competencies, employer expectations, curriculum relevance, and employment outcomes. The findings reveal a persistent disconnect between educational outputs and labour market requirements. Employers highlighted deficiencies in practical workplace competencies, critical thinking, communication, digital literacy, and workplace readiness, while noting that many programmes remain overly theoretical and insufficiently aligned with contemporary economic realities. The study concludes that graduate unemployment is driven by both structural weaknesses within the education system and labour market conditions. It proposes a Contextually Grounded Human Capital–Labour Market Alignment Framework that strengthens the relationship between education, employer expectations, and employment outcomes. The study recommends strengthening industry–education collaboration, curriculum relevance, and employability systems to improve labour market alignment and graduate employment outcomes.