Understanding (MOU)
20 February 2007
The National Youth Commission (NYC) and National Productivity Institute
(NPI) signed a memorandum of understanding as part of a national effort to
accelerate youth development in the country.
The agreement was signed by the NYC Chairperson, Nobulumko Nkondo, and the
NPI Executive Director, Dr Yvonne Dladla, in Midrand yesterday, 19 February
2007.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) will ensure that amongst other things,
there will be an integrated skills database for the youth, to enable the
country to achieve the skills targets as outlined in the Accelerated and Shared
Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA).
As a response to the President's State of the Nation address 2007, the
partnership programme will also measure the impact of the recruitment of the 20
000 national youth service participants and 30 000 youth volunteers will have
in the national effort to eradicate poverty and create work.
Through the partnership, the NYC will be in a position to achieve part of
its mandate in the following ways:
* Mentoring: A large number of youth would be enrolled and trained in best
operating practices for world-class manufacturing and implementation of
turnaround strategies.
* Research and Development: Relevant institutions and government departments
identified, indicators for reporting determined and agreed upon, methodology
for collecting indicators established in support of the monitoring and
evaluation framework.
* Youth Development Index: A broad set of indicators related to youth, which
the governments and other institutions may choose to use to monitor the
situation of young people. This index will assist in assessing budget
allocation by government institutions towards youth development
activities.
* Capacity Building: Capacity building for Provincial Youth Commissions -
Assessing the structure, operations, need, utilisation and determine
appropriate key performance indicators.
* National Skills Database: Definition of the technical requirements and
functionality of the skills database developed, interfaces with existing
databases, established new campaigns for enrolling more youth started.
* Skills Development: Criteria to use in evaluating the quality of the
learnerships determined, assess Department of Labour's skills programmes, and
buy-in from all the Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs)
obtained.
* Youth Mobilisation: Link between National Youth Service and NPI's SA (Pty)
Ltd initiative.
The agreement will be followed up by a detailed action plan with clear
deliverables, timelines and resources required to successfully execute the
project.
Among the projects to be launched is mentoring youth in turnaround
strategies and establishment of the Youth Development Index. The youth
development index will also lay a firm ground for the development of a national
youth policy planned to be released in June 2007.
Also to be put under scrutiny will be the learnership programme as
implemented through the SETAs. One of the indicators will be to establish if
the learnerships are contributing to the National Development Programme, both
in public and private sectors.
The National Productivity Institute is tasked with increasing South Africa's
productivity thereby contributing to the country's socio-economic development
and competitiveness and through the MOU will be providing the necessary
research and skills to the NYC. The NYC, as a co-ordinating institution on
youth development throughout the country, will be able to obtain data on youth
development trends and make accurate recommendations on the intervention the
implementing agencies need to make.
Comments:
Monde Mkalipi (NYC)
Cell: 082 575 3976
Bertha Scheepers (NPI)
Cell: 082 785 4367
Enquires:
Meshack Sempe
Communications Directorate National Youth Commission
Tel: (012) 309 7866
Fax: (012) 324 4756
Cell: 076 707 4598
E-mail: sempem@nyc.gov.za
Issued by: National Youth Commission
20 February 2007
