Programme Director, Ms Andile Gaelisiwe
MEC for Economic Development and Tourism, Ms Wendy Matsemela
Deputy Mayor of Rustenburg, Mr Rocky Malebane Metsing
Representatives of National Youth Development Agency
CEO of Orbit Further Education and Training (FET) College
CEOs of FET colleges and their senior management present
Representatives of state-owned enterprises
Distinguished guests
Students and parents
On behalf of the Department of Communications, I wish to extend a warm welcome to all delegates attending this launch. It gives me pleasure to address you today on this important occasion.
I think it would be appropriate to give a brief background of what we are launching today before I get to the details.
The e-cadre programme was identified as the flagship programme of the Department of Communications for the National Youth Service (NYS) programme in 2007. The programme is a multi-pronged approach that combines the delivery of information and communications technology (ICT) skills training and life orientation to young people so that they acquire skills in the field of ICT.
This puts them in a better position to act as conduits to their communities to access government services and programmes through the use of information and communications technologies (ICTs). The introduction and establishment of the e-cadre programme is a response by the department to the President’s call on all government departments to support the implementation of the national youth service programme and focus on e-applications i.e. e-education, e-health, e-governance and e-entrepreneurship.
The Presidential International Advisory Council also endorsed these areas for prioritisation and the need to have people at grassroots level who address ICT issues.
The programme provides young people with an opportunity to contribute towards civic responsibility and reconstruction while acquiring skills to enhance their entrepreneurial capacity. The target group for the programme are young people between the ages of 18 and 30 from rural and urban areas. The process of recruiting participants also takes into consideration gender and disability.
My department is implementing this programme in partnership with the National Youth Service and 15 further education and training colleges.
The NYS programme has three different phases, namely: formal training, service deployment and exit strategy. The first phase of the programme was concluded in 2008 with the training of 765 young matriculants on International Computer Drivers Licence (ICDL) through the 15 FET Colleges that are in partnership with my department.
An additional 350 information technology (IT) graduates have since been recruited to provide technical support in respective service deployment areas where they assist communities to access government services through the use of ICTs.
Today’s e-cadre programme launch addresses one of the key challenges facing South Africa, the creation of skilled personnel to respond to the human resource needs our thriving economy requires, especially in the ICT sector. The beneficiaries of this programme will embark on a learning route that has been identified as a scarce skill in government’s Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) programme.
Budgetary constraints continue to limit us from enrolling as many young South Africans as possible into this programme. In the training component of the e-cadre programme, my department has spent approximately eight million rand since the programme was introduced.
This figure covered the tuition and assessment fees for International Computer Drivers Licence training, life orientation module, stipend, travelling and accommodation fees.
We remain committed to this programme and this is demonstrated by the fact that the e-cadre programme is part of what we refer to as the dashboard priority programmes. We further commit to spend an additional amount towards the service deployment component of the programme.
Our success will be measured on our ability to ensure that the participants acquire a set of key skills that would enable them to contribute towards the growth of our economy in general and the ICT industry in particular. This places an enormous responsibility on my department, the Department of Education and others who are involved in skills development to avail resources and to increase access to and usage of ICTs by all South Africans.
Today, FET colleges have begun to make an impact by putting in place systems for producing graduates of high quality standards and by establishing closer partnerships with prospective employers and sector education and training authorities (SETAs). My department also aims to promote FET Colleges as centres of ICT excellence and the first port of call for ICT training in the country.
There is also an urgent need to build more partnerships in knowledge creation and distribution because experience has shown that skills development initiatives are best undertaken through partnerships between government, business and labour.
The initiative being launched today is a clear demonstration of a working partnership which has as its cornerstone the production of cadres who will work with government in addressing the many challenges facing our people. My department is also developing a comprehensive youth and ICT strategy which will in turn guide us as government, state-owned enterprises and the rest of the ICT sector on how youth development can be expedited through ICTs.
We call the private sector to support government in the development and implementation of the youth and ICT strategy.
The strategy is another demonstration of my ministry’s commitment to invest in young people and the promotion of youth development within society in general.
We envisage that the strategy would be finalised by end of the year and will be launched during the first quarter of 2010.
I wish to take this opportunity to congratulate the learners for passing all seven ICDL modules, some of you with flying colours. This is as a result of hard work and commitment to your personal vision. You must fully exploit this opportunity presented to you by the government and remember that there are millions out there who would have loved to be part of this programme and they are counting on you to make it work.
We believe that ICTs can create greater access to opportunities, redress inequalities, improve the quality of teaching and learning and provide learners with personalised learning experiences. I urge you to please use these skills to empower your communities. You must demonstrate the same commitment, dedication and professionalism where you would be deployed to provide services.
To the parents present here, it is important that we inculcate in our youth an understanding of democratic values and a sense of national pride and identity. This would enable the young men and women of our country to appreciate the significance of their contributions to the broader development of our country once they have acquired relevant skills.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the various role players who have contributed to the success of the e-cadre programme to date. I acknowledge that the Department of Communications would not have been in a position to launch the e-cadre programme were it not for your support and cooperation. The e-cadre programme is in action, concretely being implemented with definite achieved milestones in terms of the training and service deployment components as alluded to earlier.
I also thank the parents, coordinators, college and municipality representatives who are here to support the students as they celebrate their achievements. Your presence is not simply a show of support but is also an indication of your belief in the value of education in addressing the socio-economic challenges facing our country, more importantly the lives of our young people.
Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in officially launching the e-cadre programme.
Thank you
Issued by: Department of Communications
20 October 2009
Source: Department of Communications (https://www.doc.gov.za/)
