Namibia is producing too many graduates in fields with limited absorption capacity while critical industries such as manufacturing, engineering, agriculture and emerging technologies face severe shortages, the Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board (NIPDB) has said.
The findings are contained in the new Namibia State of Skills Demand and Supply Report, which highlights a widening mismatch between the country’s education output and the needs of its economy.
The report shows that Namibia continues to oversupply graduates in business management, public administration, education and health and social services ,sectors that already dominate public employment and do not generate large-scale private-sector jobs.
“Our top five economic sectors and the top five skills we are providing as a country do not match. Globally, the question is always: how is your education system feeding your high-performing sectors? In Namibia, the answer is clear, it is not,” said NIPDB Executive for Talent, Innovation and Productivity, Julia Muetudhana.
She said Namibia’s outdated occupational classifications aggravate the problem, noting that the current framework was last updated in 2004.
As a result, new occupations, especially in engineering, technology, green energy and specialised sciences, are not formally recognised.
“If a country does not have an occupation listed, especially in the technical and engineering fields, you cannot practise because it does not exist on paper. That is one of the key impediments we are facing,” she said.
The NIPDB report also warns that graduate unemployment is rising amid overall youth joblessness of 44.4%.
Only 53.9% of Namibian youth completed secondary school in 2023, limiting future intake for tertiary studies in science, engineering and technical fields needed for industrial growth.
The board said its conclusions were based on evidence gathered over six months, drawing from Namibia Statistics Agency data, the Labour Force Survey, National Training Authority records, employer vacancy reports and international benchmarks.
An analysis of more than 970 advertised vacancies confirmed persistent shortages in agriculture, transport and logistics, finance, science and technical professions.
The report calls for urgent reforms, including alignment of academic curricula with labour market needs, the development of a national critical-skills list and improved forecasting to guide both local training and recruitment of foreign specialists.
It further recommends stronger collaboration between government, industry and higher education institutions.
“Government, education institutions, industry and the public need to come together and understand the skills demand and supply. We are not talking to one another and that is why these mismatches persist,” Muetudhana said.
