790 artisans receive training in KZN

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Pretoria - A total of 790 artisans in various fields are receiving training in KwaZulu-Natal as part of the Human Resource Development Council (HRDC) Secretariat programme.

This was revealed on Friday at the Human Resource Development Provincial Coordination Forum meeting which was held at the King Shaka International Airport, in Durban.

The Forum is a structure of Council established by the Human Resource Development Technical Working Group as a forum for the provinces to ensure coordination, alignment, integration, communication, collaboration, implementation, and reporting of HRD imperatives with the Provincial Growth and Development Plans (PGDP) as well as Local Economic Development Plans.

KwaZulu-Natal as the host province shared achievements and challenges from the last quarter of 2014/15 financial year.

HRDC Secretariat Lineo Ramataboe said the province has awarded 2 043 external bursaries to out of school youth focusing on scarce and critical skills and 798 bursaries were awarded to students to study in Cuba.

There has been an increase of Academic Staff with Masters from 79 in 2012 to 109 in 2014.

A total of 1 852 public servants have been trained and 1 265 bursaries have been awarded to staff.

“In line with the National Development Plan to produce 30 000 artisans per annum, by 2030, the meeting also received a presentation from the Air Traffic Navigation Services (ATNS) on how provinces are taking full-advantage of bursaries for training as artisans they offer, to young people,” Ramataboe said.

She said the Department of Science and Technology made a presentation on progress achieved in the development of a Research Information Management System (RIMS), that seeks to create synergy on data-collection for Research and Development. 

“The system will provide reliable and comparable data for national surveys as well as routine information required by different statutory bodies.

“The data available can assist decision makers to craft informed policies based on reliable information,” Ramataboe said. – SAnews.gov.za