SAMDI JIPSA placement launch
1 June 2006
Programme Director
Ms Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, Minister of Public Service and
Administration
Mr Sydney Mufamadi, Minister of Provincial and Local Government
Mr John Gomomo, Chairperson: Portfolio Committee on Public Service and
Administration
Directors-General present
Senior Government officials present
Mr Gwede Mantashe, Chairman of the Joint Initiative on Priority Skills
Acquisition (JIPSA) Technical Committee
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen
It is a pleasure for me to address this special occasion this afternoon.
Certainly what we are gathered about here is a matter very close to my heart
and a priority for our country, this is the maintenance and acquisition of
scarce skills for our countryâs development. We are very grateful to
responsible corporate citizens such as Old Mutual for coming to the party in
this regard.
The Government and Old Mutual Business School aim to provide foundational
project management training to 100 employees within local government, in
support of the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa
(AsgiSA) and particularly the Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition
(JIPSA). We all know about the challenges of skills capacity faced by our
municipalities.
Ladies and Gentlemen, AsgiSA has identified six factors that constrain
growth in South Africa. One of these factors is the shortage of skilled labour.
Hence JIPSA is a high-level task team, which is led by me, which will identify
solutions to these priority skills shortages. JIPSA will thus support AsgiSAâs
objectives of promoting economic growth and halving poverty and unemployment by
2014.
How will JIPSA work?
Ladies and gentlemen, JIPSA is a multi-stakeholder working group through
which government, business and labour will join forces to fast-track the
provision of priority skills required to support AsgiSA.
So what we are launching here today is already putting the principles of
JIPSA to work - Business and Government have clubbed together in this project
to deliver the skills we so dearly need. In JIPSA we, however, recognise that
there is room for direct involvement by the private sector.
JIPSA Terms of Reference
As we may now know that skills development has been identified as a
short-term blockage to the achievements of AsgiSA goals of higher growth and
effective service delivery. Consequently, JIPSA has as one of its objectives
to:
* "Mobilise senior leadership in business, government, organised labour and
the education and training and science and technology institutions to address
national priorities in a more co-ordinated and targeted way.
I have just returned from an overseas trip where I had an opportunity to
speak on the issue of skills with private sector leaders of global companies on
what seems to be a global crisis of skills in a world economy that is growing.
Almost all of the skills we have identified as scarce in South Africa, are
scarce globally. So, not unless we train our people, we have no way of solving
our problems of skills. The issue of skills cannot and will not be solved by
Government alone because Human Resource Development is an issue of survival and
profitability of industries, which companies must see as a strategic investment
not a social responsibility, so must government in relation to skilling the
public service.
The challenge has to be seen as not only affecting the needs of those we
employ but starting from schooling level so that we have a bigger pool of
trainable young people.
In the longer term, we will ensure that maths and science are taken up in
greater numbers by learners in schools. Ensuring that there are teachers for
these and other crucial subjects in schools will be our objective. We would
like to see more students taking up engineering at tertiary level so as to
enable us to maintain our national system of innovation and to deal with our
developmental challenges.
What are the critical skills for JIPSA
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 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 Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (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 benefit all our people.
Established educational institutions such as universities, Further Education
and Training Institutions (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 which are
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.
Objective of the training
For us to gain the skills we need to make medium and long-term plans
starting from schools. But in the short term, we need a faster process to
consolidate middle managers technicians and to absorb unemployed graduates.
Ladies and gentlemen, the objective of the training in the OM-JIPSA Project
is to 'fast track' the development of project management skills for individuals
currently employed in public service who already have work experience, and who
have a direct responsibility in managing projects related to AsgiSA . In AsgiSA
we identified project managers as another much-needed skill for our elected
public representatives including myself.
Old Mutual Business School has based the JIPSA development programme on the
design of its current Project Management Curriculum, which includes
international best practice project management methodologies, as well as a
focus on change management and action-reflection learning. A community of
practice in project management will be set up to enable sharing of learning and
continuous professional development. Government's Management Development
Institute (SAMDI) is partnering with the Old Mutual Business School to ensure
that the learning is contextualised within local government practices,
policies, and challenges. The
alignment with SAMDI is highly appreciated as SAMDI is our main trainer of our
civil service poised to rise in importance in this area of skill hunger and to
be a premier trainer of choice.
This approach is likely to ensure that participants are able to quickly
acquire the skills necessary to improve their ability to deliver on AsgiSA
projects, as well as to enable them to quickly apply their learning in the
workplace, thus leading to improved impact of training on service delivery. The
training will be delivered via the Old Mutual Business School and its
established partnerships with accredited project management training providers.
The civil service needs to grasp the universal and tested business skills as
they work in local economic development, service delivery indeed requires those
competencies.
The programme will consist of four modules of five contact days each over a
total period of about five months. Training will take place in Cape Town and
Johannesburg and Old Mutual will carry all the costs associated with the
training components of the programme. That we fully appreciate.
Congratulations
I wish to congratulate and encourage the trainees in the Old Mutual
Programme. I will be accompanying you in this journey. I will also take pride
to read as one of the students. This is a great step in your national service
that all of us 'each one teach one' as a learning nation. As a country we need
the skills for our economy to thrive and for us to can collectively pick each
other up to ensure a guaranteed better life for all. Your efforts will bear
fruit that will feed the whole country.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am very thankful to Old Mutual, SAMDI, and the
Department OF Local Government for choosing to walk this road with us, the
JIPSA Task Team, instead of watching by the sidelines waiting for things to
happen.
I thank you.
Issued by: The Presidency
1 June 2006
Source: SAPA
