The long awaited new Critical Skills List has finally been published by the Department of Home Affairs. This is the first update to the Critical Skills List since 2014. It is a quite comprehensive list with over 100 professions included.

The following are some of the notable new inclusions and omissions:

Notable Inclusions:

• Director
• Corporate General Manager

The Corporate General Manager role was included on the old list as well, but it was widely expected to not feature on the new list. Its important to note that both of the above roles are only relevant to the corporate environment, and may only be used for persons taking up such roles with medium sized or larger enterprises.

• Inbound Contact Centre Consultant with first language speaking and translation capabilities in German, Swiss, Flemish, Greek, Swedish, Danish, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Mandarin, and French
• Outbound Contact Centre Consultant first language speaking and translation capabilities in German, Swiss, Flemish, Greek, Swedish, Danish, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Mandarin, and French

The old critical skills list previously covered this category by reference to Foreign Language Speakers within the BPO sector. It then became departmental practice to only issue a visa on this basis if the applicant was going to work within a Call Centre. This practice has now effectively been formalised.

• FET Phase School Teachers – only for STEM subjects
• Senior Phase School Teachers – only for STEM subjects

The above are completely new inclusions and highlight the shortage of STEM subject school teachers in South Africa.

• Tax Professional
• Forensic Accountant
• Internal Auditor
• Corporate Treasurer

The above are all roles that are particularly relevant within the Accounting and finance professions. The previous critical skills list only contained the External Auditor role (which is also in the new list) and illustrates the shortage of skills that the accounting and finance professions are facing.

• Environmental Manager
• Climate Change Scientist
• Oceanographer
• Conservation Scientist
• Environmental Scientist

The inclusion of the above are interesting and illustrate the growing need for skills and qualifications that are focused on the environment and climate change.

Notable Exclusions:

The previous critical skills list included a number of roles in the Health Professions and Related Clinical Sciences category. These included the following: Public Health Manager, General Medical Practitioner, Nursing Professionals, Registered Nurses, and Vetinarians. These have all been excluded and the only role from this category that is now included is Nurse Educator.

In the same vein a number of Trades, including Boilermaker, Pipefitter, Rigger, Moulder, and Raise-bore Operators were included in the old list, but have now all been excluded.

Finally, another significant exclusion is the category that previously allowed persons that had Doctoral Qualifications that were acquired from a South African tertiary institution to qualify for a Critical Skills Visa. This has also been excluded.