Employers falling short of disability hiring targets – could learnerships be the answer?

Ask AI 3min Khanyo Mantshi, who is living with disability, shares her story of living without electricity.

Every year, thousands of young South Africans with disabilities finish school, university, college, or a training course and then hit a wall. Despite their skills and ambition, they often face a job market that hesitates to recruit them.

Disability Rights Awareness Month, which runs from November 3 to December 3, is meant to put that right on the national agenda. This year it arrives as employers face a harder yardstick than ever.

Published on 15 April 2025, the final sector targets under the Employment Equity Regulations raised the goal for people with disabilities from 2% to 3% across all sectors, and designated employers are required to adopt five-year employment equity plans that incorporate those targets.

In simple terms, a company with 50 staff should have at least two employees with disabilities. For large employers, the math is much bigger.

The gap between target and reality is currently wide; the Commission for Employment Equity’s latest annual report puts the share of people with disabilities in designated employers’ workforces at just 1.3%. The situation is worse at the state level, as government says representation in the public service sits at about 1.2%, while it aims for 7% by 2030.

Industry estimates put unemployment among people with disabilities at more than 90%, and close to 100% in rural areas. The South African National Council for the Blind affirms that only 2% to 3% of blind people are in work, and most rely on social grants. Behind those percentages are people who need medication, transport, groceries, clothing, and other household expenses.

Anton Visser, chief operations officer of SA Business School and Alefbet Learning, says many of these young people sit outside the networks that feed traditional recruitment. Without a deliberate push, he argues, they risk being locked out of the economy for life.

He also says the problem is not a lack of goodwill. Most employers back inclusion in principle, he says, but HR teams struggle to find work-ready candidates and to make inclusion last beyond a single reporting cycle.

Hosted learnerships are one answer. Corporate sponsors fund the training and learner stipends, while a provider runs a 12-month programme in an accessible, workplace-style setting. Learners work towards a recognised qualification and build the confidence and workplace habits required by an entry-level job.

Visser says the aim must be a career, not a certificate. “The end goal is not learnership completion,” he says.

Disability advocates have long warned that learnerships can become a revolving door. Development specialist Bongiwe Mbunge has pointed to low absorption from learnerships, noting that companies earn B-BBEE points for hiring and training disabled people while accessibility barriers remain. The real test of any programme is how many graduates end up in lasting jobs.

The National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) is a key player on the youth side. Its board chairperson, Dr Sunshine Myende, says “inclusion is not an act of charity; it is the cornerstone of justice”. The agency has finalised a disability strategy aligned with its parent department.

It has work to do. An agency official told Parliament that support for young people with disabilities was relatively low at 1.1%, while announcing a new strategy had since been launched to facilitate broader inclusion.

In addition to Phase 4 of its National Youth Service programme, which aims to create 100,000 paid opportunities for young people, including those with disabilities, the NYDA has partnered with SANParks on a programme to promote disability inclusion and economic empowerment for entrepreneurs with disabilities

Advocacy groups and activists urge employers to recognise that the choice is between treating 3% as a box to tick once only or using it to build teams that last. They reiterate that compliance is the floor, not the ceiling. Every placement should mean a disabled person earning a salary and building an independent life. For the thousands still waiting for a first chance, that is what the percentages ultimately measure.