Sona 2026 signals a sharper focus on skills, workplaces and capacity

For education and training providers, employers, and adult learners, this matters because it speaks to how skills will be developed going forward: closer to the workplace, more outcomes-driven, and more tightly aligned to the needs of the economy. It also reinforces an important reality: as more learners pass matric each year, the system must expand access - not only through new infrastructure, but through practical models that help people train, qualify and enter work faster.

Skills delivery: moving from “important” to “core”

A key takeaway from Sona is the emphasis on workplace-linked training. The President stated that government will reform and reduce the number of SETAs to strengthen governance, raise training quality, deepen industry participation, and better align skills development to economic demand.

Crucially, the address linked these reforms to the delivery of occupational training and artisan development, noting that public and private colleges should be better utilised to deliver these practical pathways. In other words, the message is not simply about one institutional category - it is about strengthening work-relevant training routes that lead directly to employment, entrepreneurship, and economic participation.

Sona also referenced mechanisms intended to make workplace learning easier to implement at scale, including increasing the proportion of the skills levy returned to employers, and transforming the National Skills Fund into a more agile instrument that supports unemployed youth into workplace experience and employment.

From a business and labour-market perspective, this direction is significant. It suggests a shift toward a system where employers are not just “end users” of talent, but active partners in developing it, through structured workplace experience, clearer occupational pathways, and stronger accountability for training outcomes.

Optimi Group CEO Stefan Botha says Sona’s skills emphasis is a signal that South Africa is leaning into adult occupational education and skills training pathways that deliver real labour-market outcomes. “Sona reinforces what the economy has been telling us for years: skills development works best when it is tied to real workplaces and real demand. A shift towards practical components and workplace exposure can shorten the distance between learning and earning, but it requires trusted partnerships between providers and employers, and it requires consistent quality in delivery.”

Higher education: capacity, specialised institutions and the accommodation constraint

In the higher education section, the President acknowledged what many families have experienced first-hand: growing matric success is increasing demand for spaces in universities and colleges. Government’s response, he said, is to expand opportunities for young people to enter institutions of higher learning.

He also directed the Ministers of Finance and Higher Education to develop a proposal to build more universities and TVET colleges, including institutions with specialised areas of focus. This is an important signal: specialisation, when done well, can shorten the distance between learning and work by tailoring programmes to priority economic sectors and regional labour needs.

A practical partnership between learners, providers and employers

For the post-school system to deliver on Sona’s intent, reform cannot sit only at policy level. It needs execution: credible programmes, strong learner support, rigorous assessment, and partnerships that help people move from training into work.

That is why adult occupational education and skills training providers have a role to play alongside public institutions, particularly when they are designed for flexibility, employability, and supported progression.

As the country moves toward models that combine learning with workplace experience, the execution detail becomes the differentiator: how quickly a learner can start, how consistently they are supported, how confidently an employer can trust the quality of training, and how clearly the pathway leads to a job role or occupational outcome.

Mr Botha added that expanding access must be understood in practical terms, especially for adult learners who are already balancing work, family responsibilities and financial constraints.

“If we are serious about widening access, we have to build models that meet people where they are. Flexible learning, strong learner support, and credible occupational outcomes allow more South Africans to enter skills pathways without waiting for a ‘perfect moment’, because for most adults, that moment never comes.”

At College SA, our focus is adult occupational education and skills training, delivered primarily through distance and online learning, with additional site-based support for employer cohorts. Our programmes are aligned to relevant South African regulatory frameworks and are built around the idea that learning should translate into practical economic participation: employability, entrepreneurship, and workplace readiness.