Boksburg - Higher Education and Training Minister Dr Blade Nzimande has reiterated his call to turn workplaces into training spaces for young people from Further Education Training (FET) colleges to ensure placement opportunities.
"We must open every workplace into training space, both private and even the municipalities must become spaces of training," Nzimande said.
Speaking at the National Skills Conference on Tuesday, Nzimande said it was impossible to absorb everyone into universities because there was not enough space. He stressed the need to change attitudes in communities towards vocational training.
"The country cannot have effective jobs creation without skills development. It (skills development) enables our people to exploit job opportunities... We need to absorb a big number of people with matric to get skills training at FET colleges for them to initiate jobs," Nzimande said.
A concerned Nzimande said the department hoped to see a balance in the number of young people in universities and FET colleges.
"Under 9 000 students are absorbed by universities and a quarter by colleges. We want to see that changing in the next five years. The numbers should balance."
The two-day conference, which is organised by the National Skills Authority in partnership with the department, aims to bring together stakeholders to share experiences, discuss challenges and how best to address them and also look at the state of skills development.
National Skills Authority chairperson, Eddie Majadibodu, said the stakeholders will get a consensus on how to fast track the issue of artisan development.
"We hope that the discussions will generate public interest on artisanship and information on the role of SETAs because most people don't know its functions and can't utilise its services," said Majadibodu.
He noted that learnerships were not a cost, as most employers think, but an investment in the country.
"There's a concern on the low levels of skills development in the country and without the skills, we can't do anything... We need to produce more artisans.
"We've set a target to produce 10 000 artisans in the next 12 months and 50 000 over a five-year period and we think this is achievable," said Majadibodu.
The department recently signed a National Skills Accord with organised labour, business and community constituencies, committing themselves to join efforts to strengthen skills development as a crucial pillar of the New Growth Path.
In the accord, business committed to develop a plan for workplace exposure to FET college lecturers in consultation with FET colleges; and to support efforts of engineers to teach either part-time or as guest lecturers at colleges to ensure that learners are able to benefit from their experience.
Business further committed to offer support by sponsoring machinery for training laboratories in their adopted colleges.
