The official post-school stocktake
Three rails make up South Africa's post-school system: public universities, public TVET colleges and public CET colleges — supplemented by registered private institutions and 21 sector-funded SETAs. Every figure below is drawn from the DHET's published Statistics on Post-School Education and Training.
Public Higher Education Institutions
The 26 public universities collectively enrolled more than a million students in 2022. African students made up 80.7% of the cohort, and women outnumbered men in every field of study — most sharply in Education, where almost three-quarters of students were female.
Technical & Vocational Education and Training
The 50 public TVET colleges remain the system's biggest bet on intermediate skills. Completion rates at the headline exit levels — N3, N6 and NC(V) Level 4 — show stronger throughput in older N-stream programmes than in the NC(V).
Community Education & Training
The nine public CET colleges serve adults who left school without matric. The GETC: ABET Level 4 examination is the system's flagship qualification, with a national pass rate of 41% in 2022.
Registered private colleges
Sector Education & Training Authorities
Every formal employer in South Africa pays a 1% Skills Development Levy. The money flows to the National Skills Fund and to one of 21 SETAs that fund learnerships, apprenticeships, bursaries and skills programmes in their sector. The full register, as published by the DHET, is below.
Throughput trajectory (placeholder view)
Figures marked Placeholder are illustrative only. They are shown to indicate the shape of analysis the JSSA will publish once a verifiable public source is in place. They are not Stats SA, DHET or National Treasury figures.