launch
22 November 2006
It is all systems go for one of the country's biggest single skills
development projects, the R1 billion National Skills Fund Strategic Projects
scheduled for a national launch at Idutywa in the Eastern Cape on 2
December.
Funded by the Labour Department's National Skills Fund (NSF), the project
aims at supporting the Provincial Growth and Development Strategies as a
response to national imperatives on skills shortages. The planned launch could,
however, turn into a disappointment as most provincial Premiers have declined
the invitation, most of them without even indicating replacement officials to
receive the cheques on behalf of their provinces.
Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana has expressed this concern, saying the
lack of responses to invitations thus far made it difficult to know whether
provincial heads would attend.
"Looking at responses so far, it is not clear whether many of them have
accepted invitations and this concerns me," the Minister said today, Wednesday,
22 November 2006. Meanwhile it is expected that the Strategic Projects will
have benefited over 360 000 mostly young people nationwide by 2009 by
developing skills where they are needed most in every corner of the
country.
Enquiries:
Mokgadi Pela
Cell: 082 808 2168
Issued by: Department of Labour
22 November 2006
