Education & Training

The legal profession is generally known to be demanding, relentless and, at times, unforgiving. From the point of entry into law school, excellence is expected, and resilience is tested. Purpose is often deferred in favour of survival. In my own experience as an admitted legal practitioner of the High Court of South Africa and as a law lecturer, I have come to the considered view that the sustainability of the legal profession depends not merely on technical expertise.

For years, the conversation around educational equity in South Africa has focused heavily on the physical digital divide. Examples include tablets distributed to schools, fibre rolled out to townships and zero-rated data allocations. These initiatives remain important and commendable. However, the conversation must move beyond infrastructure and focus on something even more critical: context.

We know where the jobs are, and we know our young people are eager to work. So why aren’t we connecting the dots? South Africa has 200,000 agricultural jobs waiting to be filled. We also have a thriving Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector. This sector includes call centres, customer service, data processing and back-office administration. It can absorb entry-level workers at scale.

Organisations across sectors continue to report persistent skills shortages. Yet a large and capable segment of the population remains excluded from meaningful economic participation. Among the most overlooked talent pools are people with disabilities. An estimated 7% of South Africans live with some form of disability. This represents millions of potential workers, professionals and entrepreneurs.

Graduating from university and securing your first job or internship is an exciting milestone. After years of assignments, exams and long nights of studying, entering the working world creates new opportunities to learn, grow and apply your qualifications in practice.

The proliferation of counterfeit goods continues to present legal and commercial risks across multiple sectors. Increasingly, this extends beyond traditional high-value items to functional tools such as calculators. As counterfeiters target price-sensitive markets, businesses and consumers face growing exposure to products that undermine both performance and intellectual property rights.

As the 2026 academic year has now started, thousands of South African students face uncertainty about continuing their studies. They struggle because of outstanding university debt. This challenge has growing implications for access to education. It also affects companies that invest in bursaries as part of their Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) strategies.

By now, most organisations claim to be “learning organisations”, yet few can learn and adapt at the pace their environment demands. Despite rising investment in learning technology, leadership programmes and continuous development initiatives, progress has not kept pace with the speed and complexity of change.

Growth rarely announces itself with fanfare. More often, it begins as a quiet restlessness and a sense that who you are at work no longer matches who you could become. As such, returning to study reshapes not only skills and knowledge, but also confidence, perspective and professional identity. Reflection, continual learning and academic rigour translate into sharper strategic thinking, bolder leadership and greater impact in the workplace.

Professional advancement is increasingly shaped by decisions around education. Qualifications signal capability, open doors and promise career progression, yet their value is often assessed too narrowly. Beyond remuneration, education carries costs and returns that unfold over time. These factors influence professional mobility, leadership access and long-term relevance.