I recently read a disquieting skills survey report by Xpatweb on how employers are struggling to find sufficiently skilled workers, and why this could pose a threat to the already sluggish economic growth and technological innovation. According to the report, there are 10 critical skills that are difficult to recruit. Chief among them are engineering, hovering at about 38%, followed by information technology and artisans at 22%, with senior financial executives and media and marketing comprising 15%.Most telling, these statistics paint a worrisome picture of how a mismatch between the scale of demand in the workplace and the scale of provision from academia has become a contributing factor to the staggering youth unemployment. Amid these persisting challenges, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges are navigating a course to becoming hubs of specialised skills. These newly announced skills are better known as occupational qualifications, whose aim is to address skills shortages by preparing South Africans for the world of work with blended theoretical knowledge and practical training aligned directly with the needs of industry. They are replacing rigid and outdated N4-N6 curricula that made the TVET sector almost fall off the precipice. But there are fundamental questions: are these public institutions effectively capacitated and positioned to supply employable skills and close this widening skills gap that has derailed seamless education-employment transitions for SA youth? Are occupational qualifications well-articulated and responsive to meet the needs of the economy? The answer, in part, is that, notwithstanding significant progress made over the past few years to turn around the college community and despite the current developmental trajectory, the evidence on the ground suggests that the pace to address institutional capacity constraints in the sector remains anaemic. This is why several public colleges still lag behind being fully accredited to deliver occupational courses, hampered by chronic underfunding, lack of resources for work-integrated learning, ailing infrastructure and inability to develop and articulate clear module transition arrangements to ensure a smooth migration of students from the old to the new curriculum without losing their credits, particularly those who might not complete their N-courses on time as deadlines loom. While TVET pedagogical shift is indispensable in terms of achieving the strategic objectives of the white paper for post-school education and training, introducing occupational certificates framed as job titles such as bookkeeper, retail buyer, internet of things developer, among others, is of grave concern, which might further damage the reputation of the sector. In addition, this could disproportionately affect career pathways of students and thereby make it hard for them to respond to ever-evolving demands of the competitive labour market.If we are serious about repositioning and modernising college bands, these titles need to be reconfigured, starting with three-year occupational qualifications with 360 credits and determining whether they should be considered national diplomas. On the other hand, there is a growing consensus that through this major curriculum reform we are likely to see an improvement in the college ecosystem driven largely by structural change and technological advances. Despite systematic challenges that continue to engulf the sector, having occupational studies could improve the employability of millions of disenfranchised young people who are classified as not in employment, education or training (Neet). As repositories of middle-level skills, TVET colleges should empower local entrepreneurs to thrive and play a crucial role in key economic sectors. With this in mind, I think for these mainstream studies to rapidly gain prominence, we need to stop tinkering at the edges and start focusing on the investment in effective college capacity-building which would enable the sector to move on an upward trajectory. Building a college-university relationship is the first step in the right direction to assiduously bolster the capacity of these institutions not only to achieve objectives of occupational curriculum, but also to ameliorate the integrity and status of the sector. This means that the stronger this partnership becomes, the more governance and management systems are strengthened within public colleges as a key engine for improving institutional performance and quality teaching and learning. Such collaboration should go beyond section 43 of the Continuing Education & Training Act, which authorises TVET institutions to provide higher education qualifications. As I see it, this section tends to compromise TVET provision. Second, as the world surges into digitalisation, coupled with the demands imposed by this new curriculum, public colleges must be placed at the leading edge of digital education. This move will undoubtedly mitigate the impact of the placement crisis in our public institutions, which continues to cripple the ability of the system to absorb a large pool of qualified and well-prepared students seeking entry into such limited spaces of study. Third, agile thinking is also needed to develop a language policy framework for TVET providers aimed at promoting access, inclusion and multilingualism, in line with African and global trends. Removing any hurdles that prevent students from acquiring occupational skills in their mother tongue is urgent and long overdue. Lastly, in pursuit of an inclusive TVET sector, supporting structures accompanied by disability-friendly learning infrastructure should be way up on top of this list as the better options to undo the damages of the past few decades of neglecting students living with disabilities. Now it is clear that this new curriculum requires high-quality, fully funded and well-capacitated public colleges that would prepare graduates to adapt and meaningfully participate in the highly advanced industrial economy. Once we get this right, the sector will no longer be viewed as second-class in the post-schooling landscape. Ncobela is a policy analyst. He writes in his personal capacity.Business Day