P Mlambo-Ngcuka: Launch of Joint Initiative for Priority Skills
Acquisition

27 March 2006

Cabinet Ministers,
Deputy Ministers,
Directors General,
Members of the JIPSA Joint task team,
Members of the JIPSA technical working group, Excellencies, distinguished
guests, ladies and gentlemen,

It is an immense pleasure and a privilege for me to be part of this
significant day. This is the day on which we shift the gear lever and launch
the Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA).

Today JIPSA opens for business. The concrete step we are taking marks the
culmination of an intense but exciting process which began when Cabinet
unveiled the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA)
in July last year. JIPSA alongside other educational bodies, most of them
represented here today are the most important building blocks for AsgiSA. If we
fail in the human resource and skills development sphere, AsgiSA fails.
JIPSA has a narrow but important mandate which must begin to yield results
within a relatively short space of time.

Nothing short of a skills revolution by a nation united will extricate us
from the crisis we face. We are addressing logjams, some of which are systemic
and therefore in some cases entrenched even in the post apartheid South Africa.
The systemic nature of some of our challenges undermine our excellent new
policies, at least in the short term, hence the need for interventions such as
JIPSA to enhance implementation of our policies.

Only if we have a nation that is united in partnership can we reverse the
trend with regard to skills and give our policies a chance to succeed in the
medium to long term.

But what is this JIPSA?

South Africa is a country that is full of hope and good prospects. The
opinion polls universally confirm this. So do the facts on the ground.

The growth of our economy which is now at more than four percent of the
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is proof of that. Yet both unemployment and
poverty are still at unacceptably high levels, which mean our growth is not
fairly shared. The most fatal constraint to shared growth is skills, and it
should be noted that skills are not just one of the constraints facing AsgiSA
but a potentially fatal constraint. That fact should be admitted with emphasis.
We have to overcome the shortage of suitable skilled labour if our dreams for
this economy are to be realised; the task is huge. And JIPSA is only one of the
interventions which seek to address the skills challenges.

Our departments of Education, Labour, Science and Technology, Public Service
and Administration (DPSA) and others, as well as Sector Education and Training
Authorities (SETAs), private sector and organs of civil society all intervene
at different levels.

With JIPSA we are only focusing on scarce and critical skills without which
we cannot deliver on our AsgiSA commitments and targets. However, JIPSA must
make a sustainable, not a superficial, intervention and relate with our
universities, technikons and schools, which have a much broader mandate.

I need not remind this audience that skills are the backbone on which every
successful economy relies. We have learnt that from economies such as Malaysia
and Japan, and most recently we had interesting discussions with the Deputy
Prime Minister of Ireland and Prime Minister of New Zealand which can only
confirm this essential truth. In both countries, their economic revival and
turn around had the Skills Revolution at the core.

Our support for skills development includes poorer schools and increased
efforts to support maths, science and English language skills in schools. JIPSA
will be focusing specifically on teachers of these subjects. Teachers are being
regarded as a scarce and a priority skill.

JIPSA will support the alignment of Further Education and Training (FET)
colleges and Higher Education institutions in their work of producing graduates
that we can employ who meet the demand and needs of employers in the public and
private sector.

JIPSA will therefore work with both higher education institutions and
employers, all of whom are represented in JIPSA. The Department of Trade and
Industry (DTI), Department of Education (DOE), Department of Labour (DOL),
Department of Science and Technology (DST), the Department of Public Service
and Administration (DPSA) are our key training departments.

Those adults who are illiterate and poor, particularly, need to be actively
drawn into the economy. JIPSA will indirectly support the Department of
Education's work in Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET).

We also need a credible plan with targets and timeframes to train and supply
artisans. FETs, the private sector and State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) are key
to delivering artisanal training for the nation. Artisans are part of the range
of priority and scarce skills.

From where I stand, I have no doubt that the Skills Revolution is the most
important task on our shoulders at this point and to succeed we have to be
partners and give our the subject all we have. I am appealing to you to put the
education challenge above other important tasks you have for a couple of years
until we achieve the desired shift, and can say we are on a safe and secure
trajectory.

JIPSA should not duplicate any of the existing structures, but should lean
on them. For the work of JIPSA we do not need new policies. So we have to
proceed with speed as we change gear to maximise our effort in the chosen
direction. In 18 months we must emerge with concrete benefits in alignment with
the thrust of many who are here today, and indeed many others with whom we work
as we proceed.

JIPSA Structure

JIPSA is a two-tiered structure comprising a joint task team and a technical
working group. The joint task team, which I chair, comprises of 26 members who
are leaders in business, labour, higher education and civil society, many of
them here with us today.

The joint task team is to be:
(1) The engine for unblocking acquisition of targeted skills;
(2) It will oversee the work of JIPSA and ensure that it delivers on its
mandate of acquiring scarce and priority skills in the shortest time
possible;
(3) Build partnerships with different institutions;
(4) Ensure sustainability of the initiatives of JIPSA.

The technical working group is chaired by Mr Gwede Mantashe, and is made up
of specialists and experts in areas ranging from research, all levels of
education, labour, business and government.

The technical working group will identify blockages and seek solutions. It
will ensure that systems and programmes are in place to attract the skills, and
they will forward and recommend researched interventions for decisions by the
task team. The joint task team will fast-track training and ensure that it
maintains quality. Secondments and placements will be used extensively to
enhance experience.

JIPSA will see to reliable data and engage with training institutions for
curriculum relevance and use of under utilised training facilities, in the
public and private sector. A secretariat provided by National Business
Initiative (NBI) creates an opportunity for JIPSA to run uninterruptedly with
fulltime personnel. We thank NBI and Business Trust for their contribution.

The Department of Home Affairs and the joint task team must look at
facilitating the importation of scarce and priority skills to assist us to meet
our short to medium term skills demand.

In addition to the obvious departments already mentioned, the other crucial
department, especially for specific AsgiSA sectors, is the Department of Public
Works (DPW), Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) also for infrastructure
undertaken by SOEs. There is also involvement of the Department of Defence due
to the array of training facilities and capabilities programmes they
possess.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has an important contribution to make in
sourcing and attracting scarce skills from the international community,
including Africans in the Diaspora, to assist us to train our people in foreign
academic institutions and for international placements when we train people
through placements in foreign private companies and governments. South Africa
is most sensitive to the brain drain, and the potential of the brain gain, in
Africa.

JIPSA will also engage with business to meet its Broad Based Black Economic
Empowerment (BBBEE) obligations to skills development. All empowerment Charters
have an obligation for skills development that need to be realised.

We will also look at organised labour to lead and demonstrate innovation in
working together with government and business to enhance productivity and
secure training for quality jobs. One must stress that, as with AsgiSA, JIPSA
is not a government programme. It has to be a national agenda. All partners
will have to assume meaningful responsibility.

What are the priority and scarce skills?

The immediate focus of JIPSA will be on the skills identified by AsgiSA.
These include skills needed for infrastructure development in government,
private sector and state owned enterprises, the Expanded Public Works Programme
(EPWP) and public service and social services delivery e.g. health and
education.

Then there are the skills required in the sectors that we have prioritised
such as tourism and Business Process Outsourcing (BPOs).

Both are in our short term plans and both need languages and information and
communication technology (ICT) skills. Other sectors are agriculture, creative
industries, mineral beneficiation, chemicals, forestry, and cross cutting
skills such as finance. Our skills development must also benefit SMMEs within
the sectors we have identified.

Beyond the urgent scarce skills, JIPSA will be sensitive to long term
fundamentals for the supply of skills needed for sustained shared economic
growth which benefits all our people.

Established educational institutions such as universities, FETs and schools,
will always be the backbone for the training that JIPSA will need. Obviously
JIPSA cannot succeed without standing on the shoulders of these core
institutions.

In summary and based on the AsgiSA priorities, the following working areas
for JIPSA have been identified:

* High level, world class engineering and planning skills for the 'network
industries', transport, communications and energy all at the core of our
infrastructure programme;
* City, urban and regional planning and engineering skills desperately needed
by our municipalities;
* Artisan and technical skills, with priority attention to those needs for
infrastructure development;
* Management and planning skills in education, health and in
municipalities;
* Teacher training for mathematics, science, ICT and language competence in
public education;
* Specific skills needed by the Priority AsgiSA, sectors starting with tourism
and BPO and cross cutting skills needed by all sectors especially finance;
project managers and managers in general;
* Skills relevant to local economic development needs of municipalities,
especially developmental economists.

JIPSA will be a support measure for our people who are still locked within
the Second Economy, so that they can also have a chance to participate in the
First Economy and in the growing South African economy in general. Empowerment
through education must be given a big boost in the work of JIPSA.

JIPSA must put in place a system to:

* Bring in volunteers, retirees and other people with the skills required
and identified by JIPSA. DBSA is already playing a critical role of receiving
Curriculum Vitae and even deploying to municipalities. Eskom is also recruiting
scarce skills for its needs; this work is being consolidated. The work of NACI,
HSRC, CSIR, DOL, SETAs, Department of Home Affairs have provided important data
with regard to defining scarce and priority skills.

* The number of unemployed graduates has grown significantly in the past
five years. JIPSA must seek ways of absorbing unemployed graduates into the
economy whilst addressing the mismatch in relation to the type of training
offered to these students as compared to skills needed by the job market.
Retraining on the job and elsewhere will be part of what JIPSA must assist with
to ensure their employment. That work has begun. Umsobomvu Youth Fund has also
helped us to access unemployed graduates. Thanks to the support from the
private sector, SOEs, government departments, especially the Department of
Public Works, are taking the graduates.

* JIPSA will maintain a living database of skills needs in the economy,
including providing an understanding of patterns, trends and key indicators of
priority skills demand and supply. Various databases and research work exist,
from sources such as Departments of Labour, Education and Public Service and
Administration, industry bodies, our eminent research institutions such as
HSRC, NACI and University research bodies, which are key sources.

* These databases are being collated for purposes of synthesis and
confirmation of the nature of skills challenges in the priority areas. A team
led by Professor Haroon Bhorat of the University of Cape Town is completing
this work. Further, through the generous support of Standard Bank, Professor
Haroon Bhorat's team is improving the database of unemployed graduates.

To date JIPSA is undertaking the following:
* In May 2006, training of 100 local government practitioners will commence in
the field of Project Management, by Old Mutual in conjunction with SAMDI and
DPLG. This will be a practical, hands-on course for practitioners, and we thank
Old Mutual for this support.

* The Department of Public Works and The Presidency have co-ordinated a
programme to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to secure suitable placement of
women in infrastructure projects. Placement offers have also been secured in
the Hospitality and Finance Sector. A total of 100 women and unemployed
graduates are targeted. The process of matching available placements and
candidates is underway and the DPW, DFA, IDT DBSA and women in construction
have played a significant role in this regard.

Another 120 women and youth are soon to be placed with the Bombela
Consortium to be part of the Gautrain Project. We were very pleased about the
number of women with qualifications in the built environment who have responded
to our recruitment for both UAE and Gautrain Projects.

An approach to give women and youth a head start has already been adopted,
to ensure that growth is shared with these historically marginalised groups.
This year we are celebrating the 50 years of struggle by women since that
historic march to the Union Buildings to protest against the pass laws, and
also this year marks the 30th Anniversary of the students' uprising which took
place on 16 June 1976.

Therefore, the improvement of the lot of women and youth is uppermost in our
minds. JIPSA's work will obviously be much wider than these designated groups.
Certain skills will need people who are already trained and able to engage and
perform at a higher level and take on supervisory and mentoring roles.

Conclusion

I want to express appreciation to my colleagues in Cabinet and their
officials, the private sector and the role of NBI, Business Trust, Business
Unity South Africa (BUSA), Chambers of Commerce and Industry South Africa
(CHAMSA), labour, academics from institutions of higher learning and Science
Councils, Umsobomvu Youth Fund and National Youth Commission, SETAs and other
organs of civil society, especially women, for their support and
commitment.

I have been told there is even an AsgiSA ecumenical reflection group.
Much more closer and systematic collaboration is needed and there is room for
improvement in our co-ordination. We are eternally thankful to those social
partners who have joined us and are collaborating with us.

As a country, South Africa has as yet not taken the matter of skills to a
Skills Revolution level. To achieve that, we must be united as a nation in
pursuit of this goal. It must be one of the indelible marks of the new,
democratic order in which we all share.

Our quest to be a competitive economy and a winning nation depends on us
equipping ourselves appropriately. Institutions mandated to advance the Skills
and Human Resource Development course for the nation is the backbone of
JIPSA.

It is important that, on this day, we commit ourselves to ensure the rapid
growth of a shared economy which benefits many and not just a few.

I thank you.

Issued by: The Presidency
27 March 2006