The Principal of Tshwane North College
Ms Thembi Tsibogo
Deputy Principal: Mr Charles Pule Other College Principals present The College Council Members
Members of the Mayoral Committee of the City of Tshwane Metropolitan
Senior Managers and staff of the college
Representatives from the Gauteng Department of Education
The Acting Director-General (DG) of the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) Mr G Qonde
Officials from the DHET Educators
Business leaders Stakeholders Students
Members of the media present ladies and gentlemen
Programme Director
Good morning
It is a great honour and privilege, for me, to be afforded an opportunity to address representatives of the captains of industry and our community college representatives under one roof. I greatly commend the Tshwane North Further Education Training (FET) college management for making this possible.
This event is taking place at a time, when the department is rolling out, an improved national skills development framework. The National Skill Development Strategy III (NSDSIII) is a strategic skills development framework, resulting from the NSDSI and II, both of which, were previously located in the Department of Labour.
The Department of Higher Education and Training, through Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs), is in the process of evaluating the outputs of NSDS II, and, developing a five year implementation plan, for NSDS III. Based on these outputs, the NSDSIII links skills development to career paths, career development and the promotion of sustainable employment and work based experience. The strategy also puts an emphasis on forging partnerships between employers, public education institutions, SETA’s and private training providers, to ensure that inter – sectoral and cross – sectoral experiences are shared.
The NSDSIII talks to a vision and a political will, to decisively shape the skills acquisition landscape, transfer of technology and education and training, which are all pillars of our economic participation and sustainable development. Our ultimate agenda is to support a thriving and a globally competitive economy. However, we rely on all our partners to ensure that, our programmes are in line with the demands of emerging markets and technological developments of the 21st century and beyond. We are making a clarion call, for business to actively assist in providing the means and strategic inputs so as to ensure that our products, meaning graduates, have relevant knowledge and appropriate skills to support and drive a complex, interconnected and competitive global economy.
Ladies and gentlemen, our premise is that, it is only a skilled workforce which can improve productivity, lessen inequalities and meet national growth targets.
Admittedly, it is only recently, during the establishment of the new Department of Higher Education and Training by the current administration, that as a country, we are revisiting the status of the FET sector in skills development and knowledge accumulation. You would agree with me, that a commitment to training and continuous learning is crucial for industrial growth and for the economy to remain competitive.
I want to remind you of what former President Nelson Mandela said, “Education is the great engine of personal development.
It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine, that a child of farmworkers can become the president of a great nation. It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another.”
Clearly, our skills development agenda, is at the core of our icon’s powerful words. Without a revolutionary agenda, his words will remain a rhetoric. Our successful skills development interventions, would ensure that those who acquire mines will be able to produce the desired minerals, and those who acquire agricultural farms will be able to assist in the alleviation of food insecurities.
Lessons learned worldwide, clearly indicate that, quality and targeted skills development is best achieved through strong partnerships between government, business, labour and the SETAs. The partnerships are meant to fundamentally turn around and to broaden the skills development pipeline. In terms of the new strategy, colleges which were previously a dead end would produce graduates who could either work immediately or continue with their education and training. The proposed public private partnerships (PPP’s) in skills development is a challenge to a belief that “the business of business is business”, rather than development. The private sector is key to our turnaround strategy. Our responsibility as government, is to create a conducive environment for business to flourish and to foster investor confidence. The NSDS III framework provides an enabling environment for the collaboration between labour market analysis, demand and supply productions, with the SETA’s, and the FET institutions being key delivery partners for re-skilling, up-skilling and multi-skilling.
Recently, in a related but different occasion, the Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Blade Nzimande, while giving a lecture at the Tshwane University of Technology, articulated the challenge thus, “Government has committed itself to developing a new growth path for our economy. This is largely informed by the fact that our current economic growth path is unable to create enough jobs and provide opportunities for sustainable livelihoods. It is a growth path that is still largely based on extraction and export of raw mineral resources, with a weak manufacturing base, and whose growth has also largely been premised on consumption. The New Growth Path prioritises job creation, thus challenging our higher education institutions to be innovative in their research and training programmes in order to produce graduates who are able to get and create jobs.”
He continued to say, “Within the framework of a new growthpath, government has adopted the Industrial Policy Action Plan 2, whose primary goal is to revamp our manufacturing and productive capacity, through planned and systematic interventions.”
It is encouraging, to also refer to what the Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Rob Davies reported during his budget vote debate yesterday. He said the Industrial Policy Action Plan 2 (Ipap2) is expected to attract R115 billion in investment projects and also yield at least 129 000 jobs.
All the aforementioned initiatives, are a testimony to the fact that, we are aggressively pursuing these partnerships so as to promote social inclusion and cohesion. In the case of the poorest of the poor, the success of our waged revolution, will be judged by the country’s success in poverty alleviation through accelerated economic growth and the creation of decent jobs.
In all our efforts, we should pay close attention to the needs of women and young people from rural areas, the disabled, farming communities and other vulnerable groups.
To be specific, our innovative approaches to skills development, are based on a belief that, we do not only expect the industry to provide students with employment, but rather to be active participants in their career development, in compliance with workplace standards and assessment requirements.
Partnerships with industry, which are informed, not only by legislation, but by a good will, would ensure that acquired skills are relevant to the demands of labour markets.
We are fully aware that, government, the education sector and business, might not always agree on certain issues and policies, but our shared mission will foster necessary compromises and understandings. In order for industry to become an effective partner, it is imperative that it becomes constructively involved in the design, development, and implementation of FET programmes and curricula. In turn it is imperative that industry inform the Department of Higher Education and Training and the colleges when certain programmes need to be reviewed and made relevant to industry needs.
Ladies and gentlemen, I also have to make mention of the significance of mentorships. This is a key area which the private sector can make a significant contribution to, as it is better placed to provide young trainees with mentors, who can act like role models. There are lessons to be learned from other countries who have instituted a levy system, to reinforce collaborations. Others have adopted legislation, which makes work placements compulsory.
There are many other incentives and models that could be considered. What is important is that, each chosen model must be appropriate for the purpose and ensure large scale absorption of trainees. As the Department of Higher Education and Training, we have incorporated into the NSDSIII, a funding levy that will reward companies for
providing work experience opportunities for graduates from Colleges, Universities, and Universities of Technology
It is also through the NSDSIII, that as government, we will ensure that access to training and skills development opportunities is increased and the challenges of skills shortages are addressed, thereby improving productivity in the economy. In view of the fact that, sustainable partnerships are always based on a belief of mutual benefit, both education and business have to be convinced, that each can provide what the other needs. The overall objective is to have training interventions, which will result in employment for the trainees and productivity improvements for the employers, sustainable self-employment for those who so desire and decent jobs for many
It is imperative, that we guard against providing education and training that is so narrow, that it restricts our people to highly circumscribed job descriptions, denying them lateral and upward mobility in the workplace. Such workers tend to be extremely vulnerable in the workplace, particularly in times of massive economic upheavals and retrenchments. Retrenchments should be the last option and instead, we should explore mechanisms that will promote retraining and redeployment opportunities when such structural changes occur in the economy. The inability to re-skill and up-skill, may at times, commit workers to lowly paid jobs throughout their working lives. The most painful part of such social ills, is that many are doomed for exploitation; an experience which we should avoid, so as to realise the goals of social and economic justice in our lifetime!
Indeed, even as we create meaningful opportunities for the absorption of new entrants into the formal economy, we should also apply ourselves to the skills enhancement needs of those who are already in employment. Ours should be an approach that is embedded in an overall ethos of life-long learning and human capability enhancement.
The post school system especially FET colleges have to address the skills needs of our country. It is our responsibility and duty to make sure that we produce not only skilled and seasoned graduates but also those that are employable, and can easily and effectively transfer their theoretical knowledge into practice.
I sincerely hope that after this important event, there will be meaningful partnerships formed between the college and the industry, for the development of our young people. Let us commit ourselves today to partner in working towards making sure that, workplace learning becomes an integral part of all vocational programmes. Together we can certainly do more and we can create better communities!
Ngiyabonga! Ndiyabulela, Ndaylivhuwa, Kealeboga, Baie dankie, Thank you!
“Forging partnerships towards a renewal vision of Tshwane North College to contribute in developing a skilled workforce” by Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training Professor Hlengiwe Mkhize, MP during the Tshwane North College business breakfast,
