Remarks by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa at the send-off function for the World Skills SA Team, St George Hotel, Tshwane
Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Blade Nzimande,
Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training, Mr Mduduzi Manana,
Brazil’s Ambassador to South Africa, HE Mr P L Carneiro De Mendoca,
World Skills South Africa Chairperson, Dr Raymond Patel,
Senior Officials,
Leaders of business, labour and civil society,
Students,
Esteemed Guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
This is an occasion to celebrate.
We wish our young champions who will be flying our national flag in Sao Paulo next month well.
The World Skills International in Brazil provides a unique opportunity to exchange skills, experience and technological innovations.
As the largest skills competition in the world, it will build the self-esteem and confidence of our contestants.
We expect that it will be fun, exciting and memorable.
As they journey to the land of the legendary Pele, we are positive about the future of our youth.
The stars who are with us today give us confidence that the South Africa of tomorrow will be in talented, capable hands.
This is an inspiring narrative of hope for a country working to align its skills to the needs of its people and the demands of its economy.
These worthy Skills Ambassadors come from various vocational streams.
They are national winners in fields like mechatronics, mobile robotics, automobile technology, IT software solutions and IT network systems.
They are artists, innovators and achievers in web design, hairdressing, beauty therapy, cooking and restaurant services.
These are young people that will add value to any company they work for or any enterprise they decide to start.
They excel in critical skills like welding, plumbing, refrigeration, air conditioning, plastering, auto-body repair, car painting and electrical installations.
If you need any of these skills, you will find it in this room among our champions.
Here are our future engineers. Industry leaders should take notice, and start making solid offers because their skills and capabilities will soon be in great demand.
Minister Nzimande, thank you for being an outstanding champion of vocational training in our country.
You are passionate about the need to improve the profile of occupational training and technical skills development.
As Chairperson of the Human Resource Development Council, you can count on the full support of my office for the Decade of the Artisan campaign which you launched last year.
As part of our efforts to build an inclusive economy and reduce unemployment, inequality and poverty, the National Development Plan commits us to produce 30,000 artisans year.
We are not yet meeting this target. Millions of young people are poor, jobless and without skills.
A shortage of technical skills in engineering and technology is a challenge to economic growth.
Our multibillion rand infrastructure development project requires a skilled labour force and trained artisans.
We all have a duty to ensure that our young people are adequately skilled so that they can benefit from the construction of roads, schools and new power stations.
The massive opportunities in the green economy and the blue economy require that we constantly develop and refine our curricula.
Our Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges must train our youth not only to participate in the roll out of mega-projects, but also to maintain and upgrade the infrastructure.
We must improve the skills of artisans through in-service training and career development.
We appreciate the role that the private sector is playing in supporting vocational training by partnering with our Sector Education and Training Authoritys (SETAs) and TVET colleges and in providing work experience and employment to graduates.
We must all find ways of ending youth unemployment.
We certainly need more partnerships with the private sector to support artisan training and employment.
Once again, congratulations to our team for being identified as our Skills Ambassadors.
We thank the educators, parents, mentors and sponsors for their part in your success.
We wish you only the best in Brazil and beyond.
I thank you.
