Skills development in Municipalities will receive a boost next week Monday when the Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies launches the Capacity Building Programme that dedicated to empowering Local Government officials who are dealing with Economic and Industrial Development. Davies will launch the Bachelor of Economic Development Degree that is sponsored by the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) at the University of the Western Cape.
Minister Davies says that the launch of the Degree is part of the rolling out of the comprehensive Capacity Building Programme which is aimed at building Economic and Industrial Development capacity at local government level in particular.
“This programme will assist in ensuring that municipalities are able to stimulate area based economic development through the identification of opportunities in marginalised areas of the municipalities and assisting in packaging and implementation of appropriate economic development interventions. Ultimately this intervention will assist the dti to achieve its strategic objective of industrial development, competitiveness and employment creation in all corners of the country, ensuring that our key economic policies like IPAP are understood and driven at a local level”, he said.
The Capacity Building Programme consists of four key pillars including the degree that will be launched at UWC. Other pillars are the Short Learning Programme, Mentorship and Research. The capacity building programme was developed in partnership with South African Local Government Association (SALGA), Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) and Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), and these institutions continue to serve on the steering committee chaired by the dti.
“It is envisioned that this qualification will produce the necessary skills to assist our municipalities to develop, implement and review local economic development strategies without the involvement of consultants,” says Minister Davies.
According to Minister Davies, the dti is in the process of initiating a bursary scheme for the degree and will be administered by Learning Centre of the dti. Even though academic excellence will be a key element in the criterion, the issue of geographic spread will also be taken into account when allocating bursaries to students.
The programme will further produce a pool of graduates in the field of local economic development from which the dti as well as other government departments could choose from.
Enquiries:
Sidwell Medupe, Departmental Spokesperson
Tel: 012 394 1650
Cell: 079 492 1774
E-mail: MSMedupe@thedti.gov.za
