Provinces report progress in the Production of Artisans initiative in South Africa, a challenge that prompted Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande to declare 2013 a year of the Artisan. This was revealed in the 9th Human Resource Development Provincial Coordination forum meeting held in the North West province on 28 March 2014.
The Forum, established to create a link and to encourage alignment between provincial Human Resource Development activities and the Human Resource Development Council of South Africa (HRDC), affords provincial representatives an opportunity to report progress on the 5-point plan with the following initiatives: Production of professionals including Artisan and Technician Development; Alignment of the Provincial Resource Development strategy to the New Growth Path; Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Colleges; Production of Academics and Industry/University partnerships; Worker Education; and Foundational Learning.
Most reports in this meeting recorded progress particularly in the Artisan and Technician Development initiative with the North West province, represented by Ms Tselane Letseli of the office of the Premier, reporting 141 Artisans certificated by end of 2013; and on a plan to produce over 500 artisans yearly from 2014.
Northern Cape reported that over and above training and development, there are recently completed two training centres of excellence and two other green skills centres are in construction for Artisan Development. This is an addition to the newly established University in the province. The two newly launched universities in Northern Cape and Mpumalanga have started with their programmes with the first intake done earlier this year.
In comparison to the North West province report, Gauteng reported 100 Vocational Development Programme graduates identified for the automotive artisanal programmes with 90 placed in the electrical engineering Learnerships. The province also reported exposing 351 TVET leaners to the Petro-Chemical industry; with 15 Students under training at the Rand Refinery gold Zone- Germiston.
"Accumulatively, these numbers show a positive trajectory in dealing with the shortage of Artisans in the country and ultimately building the human resource development base required to ensure a prosperous and inclusive South African society and economy”, said Brenda Ntombela, Head of the Human Resource Development Council of South Africa Secretariat.
Following the success of 2013 as the year of the Artisan, the Department of Higher Education and Training is embarking on a ten-year campaign called 2014 - 2024 Decade of the Artisan under the theme "It's cool to be a 21st Century Artisan”.
The HRDC is a national multi-tiered stakeholder advisory body established in 2010 under the leadership of the Deputy President and under the management of the Higher Education and Training Minister to build the human resource development base required to ensure a prosperous and inclusive South African Society and Economy.
Statement by the Secretariat of the Human Resource Development Council of South Africa
Enquiries:
Ms Brenda Ntombela: Head of the HRDCSA Secretariat
Tel: 012 312 5075
Cell: 082 573 3716
E-mail: Ntombela.b@dhet.gov.za
