Management Forum (BMF) annual conference, Durban
12 October 2006
The human capital challenge confronting a transforming South Africa
I am delighted to be here this morning.
The first 12 years of democracy have witnessed significant progress in a
range of sectors in South Africa. This organisation has gone through
significant changes in that time. From being primarily an advocacy organisation
for black advancement and affirmative action in the private sector, the Black
Management Forum has played a key role in shaping and promoting affirmative
action, equality and the opening of real business opportunities to black
businesspeople. I intend to use this opportunity to reflect briefly on the
importance of education for ensuring sustained success in the victory and
progress we have begun to record.
I addressed this forum six years ago in December 2000. Out of curiosity I
looked up what I had said.
I asked two questions:
(1) What does it take for black professionals and women to make the grade in
the corporate sector?
(2) What will it take for the corporate sector to actively implement
affirmative action and employment equity?
In my answer I began with the exclusionary practices of apartheid and the
damage they had caused to our dignity and our economy.
"It is a well known fact that the exclusion of black people from education
and training opportunities has led to a massive shortage of professional and
technical expertise in the black community, black in all dimensions, but more
particularly and honestly a lack in the coloured and African community."
"In almost every field of training and enterprise that is attractive to the
corporate sector these communities are a minority. Many commentators in South
Africa tend to see this feature of our society as the fault of blacks and
easily forget the intent and impact of apartheid education policy and apartheid
employment practices. Even more surprising, is the failure to appreciate that
South Africa cannot thrive if it lacks skilled professionals able to take on
new and ever-complex challenges."
I then pointed out that we had to make the best use of equality programmes
and affirmative action.
"The potential beneficiaries of equality programmes also have a great deal
to achieve and do. Unfortunately many of them moan and whinge about their
exclusion constantly and do not always pursue active steps to ensure policy is
implemented and organisations are transformed."
I concluded that we needed to widen access to our Black-Economic Empowerment
(BEE) initiatives, that there should be a focus on small and medium enterprises
(SMEs). I pointed to the experience of Malaysia.
"It is clear from the experience of Malaysia and others that the basis of a
strong economy is a lot of opportunity for many rather than the concentration
of opportunity in a few big institutions."
We were, then in 2000, moving into the second phase of BEE, the second phase
of the broad based kind. So I was somewhat accurate in suggesting our future
direction.
All the evidence we have gathered in the first decade of democracy firmly
indicates that South Africa's Achilles' heel is her poor quality education
system and the massive gaps in critical skills that the country inherited from
apartheid.
South Africa introduced compulsory education in 1996 close to the beginning
of this century. This progressive step was implemented on the remnants of
apartheid education: poor school infrastructure, poorly trained teachers,
inefficient practices and a curriculum that advantaged privilege and denied
opportunity to the under privileged people.
But we have come a long way since 1996, millions of children are in school,
there is a new curriculum, education infrastructure is being provided in many
communities and the professional development of teachers is proceeding
well.
The issue confronting the country today is how do we utilise these important
gains to build human resources that will effectively take their place in our
economy and in the social development of South Africa?
The answer is fairly easy and straightforward. Acting on it has proven to be
complex and challenging. The answer is that we need to promote quality and high
levels of performance in all our education institutions. We need to create a
sense of ambition, a drive for achievement in every person who enters a school,
college or university. We need young black people to be better educated so as
to be prepared to engage in work and entrepreneurship beyond formal
education.
Every sector in society needs better trained professionals. We have
recognised that this has implications for all levels of education. We are
working to make schools more relevant, responsive and learning efficient. Our
colleges must become 21st century training institutions producing a wide range
of vocationally skilled individuals. Our universities must become key centres
of knowledge production. They should be able to promote high calibre research
and development. They should support students to succeed, expand graduate
training and strengthen critical faculties such as science, engineering and
technology. Industry, the private sector and the public sector should all
establish partnerships with the higher education sector to support them in
building strong links between education and work.
Such links will also ensure that industry plays a more active role in
promoting success and in encouraging institutions to pay greater attention to
the quality of their programmes and to the success of students. We can no
longer afford to lose half our students at university to the drop-out pool and
we can no longer afford to look at the number of unemployed graduates without
alarm.
Part of our success is that we have widened access to our universities
(three in four students are black, two in four students are women) but we have
to ensure that those young men and women whose parents struggle to send them
there, succeed at university so that they are equipped to meet every challenge
that the corporate world has to throw at them.
Our success in this aspect of social change has been supported by a
progressive Constitution and a strong and visible advocacy for gender equality.
It has helped to move South Africa toward becoming a society of equals in terms
of gender. In education, South Africa has reached gender parity at school and
university level, meeting the 2005 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This in
itself will be a positive contributor to the empowerment of women in South
Africa.
Our response to the human resource development challenges lies primarily in
our promotion of access to quality schooling. It is also shown in the
restructuring of higher education that is underway at present. We are investing
in neglected institutions while also supporting institutions that perform well.
Critical skills areas have been identified for targeted support.
The most important interventions are almost certainly the learnership
programmes through the Department of Labour and the skills revolution we are
initiating through the recapitalisation of Further Education and Training (FET)
colleges. These colleges which had become lacklustre institutions which did not
respond to our human resource development (HRD) needs will from next year offer
59 skills programmes in 11 key economic sectors. BMF could revive its social
activism by becoming an active participant in laying Bantu education to rest
forever.
Our education initiatives require the support of business, young graduates
need placement opportunities, BMF could begin to examine the accessibility of
workplaces to young trainees. Experienced managers could become visiting
lecturers on affirmative action and strategic business practice in our
universities. You could also work with colleges and schools to support them in
achieving quality outcomes. Building the human resources of South Africa is a
massive challenge that requires every organisation to play a role.
Issued by: Department of Education
12 October 2006
