Programme director
Minister Blade Nzimande
Senior managers present here today
Distinguished delegates
Ladies and gentlemen
Thank you very much for allowing me to share my modest thoughts during this important 2010 Skill Summit. This occasion is important both as established in its purpose as well as the extent of its inter-connection with the Higher Education and Further Education and Training summits already held.
The Higher Education summit brought together all stakeholders in the higher education sector to consider key challenges facing the sector. It was significant because it brought students, workers, academics, university managers and Council members together; indeed a first of its kind in many years.
Similarly, the recent Further Education and Training Summit gathered an all inclusive group of stakeholders to review detailed work that has been done to improve the sector.
This skills summit is a strategic encounter at which all of us charged with the responsibility of driving the reconstruction, growth and development of our country can consolidate our work and assess the effectiveness of the strategies we have adopted in this mammoth task.
Most importantly, this skills summit brings together the entire training and development sector to consider key goals across the entire post-school education and training system.
It is envisaged that this summit will result in a joint declaration which will constitute the department's "delivery agreement" with the sector. More than anything the joint declaration will underscore the weight given to cooperative efforts as we continue to pursue the objectives of developing the requisite pool of skills to meet the demands of our economy.
Programme director,
You are certainly aware that government has revamped its style of work to better position itself to achieve maximum results. To this end, and based on the medium term strategic framework (MTEF), government has, through comprehensive consultation, developed a set of 12 outcomes reflecting desired developmental impacts we seek to achieve.
And, this skills summit is focusing on one of the 12 outcomes of government, namely: a skilled and capable workforce to support an inclusive growth path.
Through this outcome, government aims to ensure that we produce the skills that are suited to our particular industrial development trajectory and technology platform needs.
We need a more effective alignment between a differentiated skills development strategy and industrial policy, guided by the sectoral conditions. We must improve learning provision for young people by providing broader, more flexible options matched by enhanced support and guidance.
In this regard, I wish to acknowledge the new initiative by the Higher Education Department and the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA), which involved the launching of a national help line to advise young people and adults regarding education and training opportunities.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Skills development is a critical component of our overall human resource development strategy (HRDS). An educated and skilled human resource is a key lever for accelerating economic growth and human development.
By enhancing the skills, the knowledge and the abilities of individuals, human resource development serves to improve the productivity of people in their areas of work, whether these are in formal or informal settings.
Similarly, our current human resource development strategy is designed to complement a range of purposeful development interventions. It is a coordination framework intended to combine the key levers of the constituent parts of the human resource development system into a coherent strategy.
The strategy thus aims to:
- bring about articulation between subsystems to allow for optimal achievement of systemic outcomes
- facilitate holistic analyses of education and training and the functioning of the labour market
- link both of these to the economic development strategy which inter alia, includes diversifying and transforming the economy, attracting foreign investment, and ensuring a better strategic fit with citizen involvement and empowerment
- deal with shortcomings in labour market information
- ensure economies of scale with regard to complex analytical work (such as labour market supply and demand forecasting); and
- initiate activities that cannot be performed in any of the subsystems, but which are critical for the HRD system in the country.
Of necessity therefore, the human resource development strategy spans several domains, including education, labour market, industry and society.
The problems that are intrinsic to these domains cannot be reduced to one institution or policies of one government department or institution. Rather, they impact on the collective ensemble of institutions in the system and relate to a cross-sectoral mix of government policies, private sector initiatives, higher education and other academic institutions as well as the broader society.
Programme director,
Government has therefore established the Human Resource Development Council (HRDC) with a view to supporting the human resource development strategy.
This Council is a multi-sector, multi-stakeholder and expert-led advisory group which provides an environment promoting optimal participation of all stakeholders in the planning, stewardship, and monitoring and evaluation of human resource development activities in the country.
Thus, the Human Resource Development Council (HRDC) as well as the relationships that will be sustained beyond this summit will be important for our efforts to improve our human resource systems.
The Ministry of Higher Education and Training has the responsibility to coordinate your sustained involvement and I do hope you are all prepared to stay the course!
The scope and importance of the human resource development strategy for South Africa's development agenda, dictates that its success be predicated on the full contribution of all social partners.
Government has a significant role to play in terms of its mandate and the public resources it holds in trust, but it cannot perform this role optimally without substantive input from communities, organised labour and organised business.
Accept my congratulations in anticipation of your joint declaration and your commitment to achieve a skilled and capable workforce to support an inclusive growth path.
We expect your declaration to be translated into firm commitments from each stakeholder in the post-summit bilaterals, which will be led by Dr Blade Nzimande's department.
Honourable guests,
I am confident that we as stakeholders have the will, the strength and the wherewithal to achieve our set objectives in the area of human resource development in order to meet our nation’s developmental imperatives.
Consequently, I am equally confident that this summit will meet its intended objectives and serve as a platform to consolidate the social compact.
I wish you much success on the second and final day of this gathering.
I thank you.
Source: The Presidency
