New additions to the Critical Skills List

Just a few months after the publication of the updated Critical Skills List on 2 February 2022 (2022 List), Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, the Minister of Home Affairs, published a revised Critical Skills List (Revised List) on 2 August 2022, which contained a list of 31 additional skills shortages that have been identified in South Africa.

8 Aug 2022 1 min read Immigration Insights Article

At a glance

  • The Minister of Home Affairs published a revised Critical Skills List in South Africa, which includes 31 additional skills shortages.
  • The Revised List addresses the exclusion of healthcare sector skills in the previous list by including specialist medical practitioners.
  • The inclusion of these medical professionals aims to alleviate skills shortages in the healthcare industry caused by emigration and a lack of specialized training.

When the 2022 List was published, it replaced the previous long-standing critical skills list that was published on 3 June 2014 (2014 List) in its entirety. What was noteworthy from the replacement of the 2014 List, was that all critical skills within the healthcare sector were excluded from the 2022 List. The Revised List, however, seeks to rectify this by including 31 additional skills which relate specifically to specialist medical practitioners. These specialist medical practitioners have been identified as being capable of diagnosing, treating, and preventing illness, disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments in humans through the use of, inter alia, specialised testing, surgical, physical and psychiatric techniques.

Below is a list of some of the newly listed critical skills contained in the Revised List:

  • Dentistry – specialists in maxillo and oral pathology, maxillo and oral surgery, prosthodontics and oral medicine and periodontics.
  • Medical practitioners – specialists in cardiothoracic surgery, clinical pharmacology, public health, dermatology, emergency medicine and neurology.
  • Industrial pharmacists.

The inclusion of the specialist medical practitioners in the Revised List is no doubt due to the skills shortages that are currently being faced in the healthcare industry due to, inter alia, a large number of medical professionals emigrating to other countries and a lack of training in these fields of speciality. This is definitely a step in the right direction.

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