Pretoria - The recent pledge taken by education stakeholders and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to increase the number of artisans in the country, in line with industry needs, will give the country a much needed boost, writes Gabi Khumalo.
The declaration was signed during a recent two-day summit which brought together relevant constituencies and stakeholders for a consultative engagement on the skills challenge, including the mismatch between the supply of and demand for skills in the labour market.
Among the issues facing the country discussed at the summit included the establishment of a credible institutional mechanism for skills planning and increased access to intermediate and high level learning for the youth and adults, who do not meet entry requirements for post school programmes.
The outputs also included increased access to occupationally directed programmes in needed areas with a special focus on artisan training, increased access to high level skills in target areas such as engineering, animal and health sciences, physical and life sciences and teacher education as well as research, development and innovation in human capital for a growing knowledge economy.
In the declaration signed by all stakeholders, including Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande, delegates acknowledged that skills shortages exist in a number of occupations and economic sectors which co-exist with a relatively high level of unemployment.
Delegates also acknowledged that many South African learners are ill-prepared to undertake further learning when they leave school and cannot access post-school education and training opportunities.
Delegates noted that a low-skill, low-productivity, low-wage economy is unsustainable in the long term and is incompatible with poverty reduction.
"This is the vicious circle of inadequate education, poor training, low productivity and poor quality jobs and low wages that traps the working poor and excludes workers without relevant skills from participating in economic growth and social development in the context of globalization.
"A large number of youth and adults are not in employment, education or training with poor educational foundation and these South Africans are overwhelmingly black and from the poor and working class," delegates said.
According to the ILO, skills development is an essential factor for achieving the objective of decent work both by increasing the productivity and sustainability of the enterprise and for improving working conditions and the employability of workers.
"Effective skills development requires a holistic approach, which encompasses continuous and seamless pathways of learning that start with pre-school and primary education that adequately prepares young people for secondary and higher education and vocational training, provide career guidance, labour market information, and counseling as young women and men move into the labour market, and that offer workers and entrepreneurs opportunities for continuous learning to upgrade their competencies and learn new skills throughout their lives," the ILO said.
The ILO said it believes that the development of core skills including literacy, numeracy, communication skills, teamwork and problem-solving and other relevant skills and learning abilities as well as awareness of workers' rights and an understanding of entrepreneurship were the building blocks for lifelong learning.
The stakeholders pledged to increase access to high level occupational directed programmes for adults and youth to increase graduate production, put in place measures to improve the trade test pass rate in line with industry needs and the needs of the country's development state.
They further pledged to increase the number of unemployed people, especially young people, entering learnerships and the number of workplace learning opportunities for those who have completed vocational programmes, through the provision of appropriately restructured learnerships, internships or apprenticeships.
A concerned Nzimande noted that South Africa is facing massive challenges in its efforts to sustain its national intellectual projects and research and innovation.
"Only 33 percent of academics who have PHDs are actively involved in research activities and can competently guide research students," Nzimande said.
He added that the biggest research and development challenge lies in South Africa's aging and shrinking population of academics that will soon retire, leaving a serious continuity gap in key research infrastructure.
"While we recognize apartheid's crippling structural, racial and economic ravages, we have yet to increase the number of black and women scientists, technologists and engineers in our academic ranks."
Nzimande said that access to Further Education and Training (FET) colleges needed to expand to meet the demand for increased training opportunities noting that the skills shortage underpins many of the challenges government faces with regard to service delivery, the expansion of decent work and social justice.
"Enrollment at FET colleges must be expanded substantially if we are to come anywhere close to meeting both the need for mid-level skills and the demand from youth for increased training opportunities," Nzimande said.
He said South Africa currently suffers from high unemployment and a shortage of critical skills needed to drive economic growth and social development, adding that in a few weeks, the National Skills Development Strategy III, the overarching strategic instrument for skills development, will be implemented to guide sector planning for the next five years.
Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, who chairs the Human Resource Development Council pointed out that an educated and skilled human resource is a key lever for accelerating economic growth and human development.
"By enhancing the skills, the knowledge and the abilities of individuals, Human Resource Development serves to improve the productivity of people in their areas of work, whether in formal or informal settings," Motlanthe said.
He explained that the county's current Human Resource Development Strategy (HRDS) was designed to complement a range of purposeful development interventions.
"It is a coordination framework intended to combine the key levers of the constituent parts of the HRDS into a coherent strategy."
The strategy aims to bring about articulation between subsystems to allow for optimal achievement of systemic outcomes, facilitate holistic analyses of education and training and the functioning of the labour market and link both of these to the economic development strategy which among others includes diversifying and transforming the economy, attracting foreign investment and ensuring a better strategic fit with citizen involvement and empowerment.
It further aims to deal with shortcomings in labour market information, ensure economies of scale with regard to complex analytical work such as labour market supply and demand forecasting, and initiate activities that cannot be performed in any of the subsystems, but which are critical for the HRDS in the country.
Motlanthe said that the HRDS spans several domains including education, labour market, industry and society noting that the problems that are intrinsic to these domains cannot be reduced to one institution or policies of one government department or institution.
Business Unity South Africa President, Jerry Vilakazi, warned that an unskilled workforce does not contribute to sustainable growth of the economy.
"We are committed to play our role in the development of required skills as South Africa has a responsibility to play a part in the region and the continent," Vilakazi said noting that government should play a leading role towards the establishment of strong collaboration to address this challenge.
