

Unlocking opportunities: Collective X’s national plan to address South Africa’s digital skills crisis
A highly coordinated strategy involving both the public and private sectors, with a focus on developing entry-level digital skills, is essential to tackle the digital skills shortage in South Africa.
Collective X, a not-for-profit organisation, is a coordinating intermediary driving a national digital skills strategy to address market failures and unlock scalable, demand-driven solutions. Historically, South Africa’s digital skills ecosystem has operated in silos, leading to inefficiencies and a mismatch between skills supply and market demand.
Our role is to align skilled youth with employer needs, using outcomes-based funding to quickly scale solutions. Our immediate goal is to build a robust entry-level digital skills pipeline, ultimately positioning South Africa as a global competitor.
Through a national collaborative initiative, Collective X has developed a plan to drive a national digital skills strategy to address current market failures. Our change strategy will address the inefficiencies in the skilling system to ensure businesses have access to the right digital skills to remain competitive, foster growth, and generate employment.
If successfully implemented, this plan could double South Africa’s national output of digital skills and create approximately 500,000 high-value digital jobs over the next decade for marginalised young people.
Our innovative financing programmes are employer-informed and demand-led — ensuring that the skills we build align with what the market needs.
Our innovative financing programmes are employer-informed and demand-led — ensuring that the skills we build align with what the market needs.
We partner with employers across all sectors to define critical ICT roles, select priority skills, and actively co-create work-integrated learning experiences.
We’re not just building talent for individual organisations — we’re creating an inclusive, scalable, and credible talent pool that meets the needs of South Africa’s growing digital economy.
Our next co-investment programme opens on 15 April 2025.
Our four strategic pillars for
transforming South Africa’s digital talent pipeline
As part of our change strategy to address the way in which digital skills development and
absorption has taken place in the South African ecosystem, Collective X is focusing on four key areas for success.
Innovative financing for change and scale
Implement work-integrated learning
Apply the SFIA Framework
Ecosystem
advocacy
Driving change: Collective X’s mission to double South Africa’s digital workforce
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