Programme Director, The National Secretary of the Young Communist League (YCL), Cde Buti Manamela, leaders of delegations from all the youth formations of our country, ladies and gentlemen and comrades.
It is a great pleasure for me to address this important gathering under the umbrella body 'Jobs for Youth Coalition'. This annual conference demonstrates how our youth is serious about creating a skilled workforce to improve our economy. As you are aware, our government has declared 2011 a year of job creation. This is the highest priority of the government and for very good reasons.
I therefore wish to congratulate the YCL for this initiative which it launched last year. This is very important as it points to the fact that tackling youth unemployment as well as education and training require sustained focus, engagement and hard work, and is a matter that cannnot be dealt with through populist stances or short-termism that undermines the necessity for the broadest possible alliances and engagements, with progressive youth formations at the centre of this. This initiative might as well go down in history as having laid the foundations for lasting solutions to the sociology-economic challenges facing the youth of our country.
Unemployment in our country is abnormally high. Even if we take the narrow definition of unemployment (i.e. not including workers who are so discouraged that they are no longer actively looking for a job), almost a third of the workforce is unemployed. True unemployment is closer to 40%. And the sector of our society that is the worst affected by unemployment is the youth.
A study done on 2007 statistics shows that there were 2,8 million young people
between the ages of 18 and 24 who were not in employment, not in education and not in training of some kind. Given that the economic crisis hit us just after this study, it is certain that the number of these young is now over three million. And if one adds those youth over the age of 24 – say up to the age of 35 – the total unemployed who are not studying is probably closer to seven or eight million.
This is clearly a crisis and that is why government’s economic policies have placed employment creation at their centre, with a particular focus on the youth and their education and training. This crisis affects our country and its people in a number of ways. Firstly, it affects its our youth by not allowing them to make a decent living for themselves and their families. It also leads to depression and hopelessness for many who feel that their country does not want the contribution that they are capable of making.
Furthermore, unemployment is an enormous waste of the country’s resources:
millions of people who should be making a contribution to the country’s wealth with their work and their skills are not able to contribute. And quite frankly, it makes no economic sense to say that we have massive poverty in our midst and yet we have a system organised in such a way that millions of people cannot work to alleviate that poverty.
Well, that’s capitalism!
But even capitalism can be organised in a better way than the one we have. The South African economy is still shaped to a large extent by the centuries of colonialism and the decades of apartheid that preceded our democratic dispensation. And so, as long as we are stuck with this irrational system we must struggle to ensure that the lives of the working class and the poor are improved and that we strengthen the masses both materially and intellectually. The struggle for jobs is the struggle of all of us. It’s a real struggle because it is difficult and it can best be tackled by the cooperation of committed people working together with their government, a government which is deeply committed to fighting unemployment, illiteracy and poverty. This struggle needs concrete programmes, focussed political and social activity and the establishment of the material conditions for decent employment. It’s not a struggle that can be won by millionaires who, for reasons of their own, claim to represent the interests of the poor, and attempt to intimidate the democratic forces in order to exploit the very conditions of the poor to further enslave them and enrich themselves. The importance of this gathering also lies in the fact that the conditions of the poor must never be exploited for sinister motives, but should instead galvanise all genuinely patriotic workers and the poor youth to act together to defeat poverty, unemployment and ignorance.
One of the characteristics of South African society today is mass unemployment coexisting with a shortage of labour. This situation seems anomalous. But it points to the fact that many jobs could be available if people had the skills to fill them. Modern economies have for decades been shedding unskilled jobs. Scientific and technological advances in the production of goods and services mean that there has been a declining need for the kind of unskilled labour that many of our parents and grandparents were involved in. And concurrently, there has been an increase in demand for skilled labour, labour that requires a knowledge of science and technology, that requires technical skills, sophisticated thinking processes and creativity. In short, it requires people who are well educated in a variety of ways.
Now all this does not mean that education – even high-level education – can, on its own, create jobs. It cannot. Creating jobs requires investment by both the public and private sector, and it needs a wise industrial policy which encourages and nurtures our industries, makes us more internationally competitive and develops new areas of production where we, as a country, have advantages. Our government does have the necessary policies and plans for economic growth in the form of the New Growth Path and the Industrial Policy Action Plan as well as rural development policies and sectoral policies in the areas of mining, communications and so on.
However, all these plans for economic growth and job creation require a more educated workforce. They require people with the skills to drive the expansion of production and the creation of new industries. We are a country with a massive unemployment problem but we also have a shortage of labour in all areas where a high level of skills is concerned. You can ask virtually any employer and they will tell you that finding high personnel with high skills levels is extremely difficult.
This means that we must train more engineers, technologists, technicians, and artisans, people with expertise in manufacturing, mining, construction, agriculture and financial services. We also need many more skilled professionals who can look after the direct needs of our people such as doctors, nurses, teachers and social workers. We need those who can cater for the cultural and artistic needs of our people – for example, musicians, artists, actors, and film-makers. We also need those who will study our environment – both physical and social – and help us to understand it better: natural scientists and social scientists. And we need good managers in all areas and many, many more skilled people in various areas.
What all this means is that we must expand access to education and training
opportunities. The Department of Higher Education and Training is planning this
expansion in the universities, colleges and other institutions. In particular we plan to radically expand the Further Education and Training (FET) college sector. In South Africa, we currently have about three university students for every college student. These numbers should be reversed. We have a very serious shortage of mid-level personnel and expanding this must be our highest priority as people with these skills are able to fill many of the jobs necessary to expand the economy and make a good living for themselves and their families.
Consequently we are intending to expand the number of university students from the current 890 000 to about one and a half million in the next twenty years. In addition our plans are very advanced in building two new universities in Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape. We will also in the next few years going to open a new Medical School in Limpopo, so that the youth of that province can become doctors, nurses and professional health practitioners, and move them away from the mentality of tenderpreneurship. To them we say we shall create opportunities so that they know that the only path to genuine empowerment is not ill- gotten tenders but education and skills, which, when acquired cannot be taken away from them like the award or withdrawal of a tender!
College enrolments, in the plans of our department, though, will grow much faster.
College enrolments will increase from the current approximately 350 000 students to about 4 million students in 2030. This is an increase of over ten times. In addition, we are looking at establishing a new type of institution – provisionally called Community Education and Training Centres – which will absorb the current public adult education and training centres and expand their numbers and their scope to including more that the current academic education and take on training for vocational and other skills. A task team is currently working on conceptualising these centres.
In order to make it possible for students to access post-school educational opportunities we have ensured that the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has been expanded significantly. For all its challenges, the NSFAS has made a significant contribution to the development of educational opportunities. Between 1999 and 2008 the funds managed by NSFAS grew from R441 million to R2 375 billion, providing financial aid to almost one-fifth of higher education students over this period. By 2011 the funds made available through NSFAS had grown to R5 billion and are expected to continue growing.
NSFAS has been instrumental in providing access to higher education for almost a million students from poor and working-class backgrounds who would otherwise not have been able to go to university. Now the NSFAS funds are also being used for bursaries – not loans – to FET college students. All students who qualify for financial aid are now able to attend FET colleges without paying any fees at all.
In addition to all the above, our department has this year set aside R200 million to help all those students who have completed their degrees but have not graduated because they owe money to those universities. Now they can go and apply for a loan against this money from their universities,settle their debts, graduate and get their certificates. They will pay back when they are employed. This amount is for all such students who have completed their studies between 2000 and 2010' and this will benefit an estimated 25 000 students who will now enter the labour market as fully qualified graduates. These are but some of the commitments of the ANC-led government genuinely committed to the only real empowerment of our youth, through access to higher education, and not through tenders that can be given or taken away. Education can never be taken away from you, unlike a tender!
The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) has also this year set aside an amount of R78 million for bursaries for disabled youth to access higher education in our country. This will go a long way towards ensuring that academically capable disabled youth is also able to access further and higher education. We urge delegates to this gathering to also mobilise youth with disabilities to access these opportunities.
An important element in any strategy of developing the education and skills of the workforce is career guidance so that young people know what careers are available and which ones are is suitable to their interests and their abilities. Over the past two years, the DHET has started to place a lot of attention on expanding and strengthening the career guidance available to the youth. At my request, SAQA has initiated an important career guidance programme, called 'Khetha' (Choose). They have established a website and developed career guidance materials, both in electronic form and in hardcopy. They also have a career hotline that young people can phone for career advice (086 0111 673). As a result of an agreement between my department and the SABC, all nine African language radio stations now have a weekly half-hour career guidance programme. I urge you to make use of these facilities and tell your friends and relatives about them.
While we work on expanding access to education and training institutions, we must also not lose sight of the quality of the education offered. In other words, access is not enough; success is equally important. This will involve greater attention to teaching and learning, to student support and to ensuring that universities have the facilities necessary for learning to take place: adequate libraries, laboratories, IT facilities and, very importantly, adequate student accommodation which is properly furnished and is conducive to studying and accessing the internet. We call upon all youth formations represented here to join us in waging a campaign for improved learning, teaching, and graduate outputs in both our colleges and universities. The struggle for access without an equal emphasis on access is bound to undermine the goal of free education for the poor!
Also very important for ensuring that students – particularly those in colleges and universities of technology – get a good education, is the opportunity for them to get practical experience, especially in a workplace. Government has been engaging with employers to ensure that closer relationships are developed between the colleges and employers in both the public and private sectors. Through NEDLAC, the government recently signed a national skills accord with all the social partners in which business and state owned enterprises have made concrete, numerical, commitments to start increasing significantly the number of apprenticeships and to take on learners and interns for practical workplace experience. Our slogan has become, ‘Every workplace a learning space!’ Let the YCL and all the youth of our country join us in this campaign to makemevery workplace a training space, as part of skilling our youth.
Of course, as the country’s biggest employer, the government must lead from the front.
Cabinet has taken a decision that government departments must start engaging in providing practical experience to trainees. The DHET has now taken on over 80 interns this year and other are doing the same and yet other will follow this trend. We will make every effort to ensure that the provinces and the municipalities also take training and skills development seriously.
All this training will take place, wherever it is appropriate, in partnership with FET colleges, universities and other colleges or academies run by the various state departments.
The SETA’s have an important role to play in all this. They are in contact with the
overwhelming number of employers in the country and they have resources necessary to facilitate partnerships between institutions and employers. These partnerships should encourage colleges or universities to establish training partnerships so that students getboth theoretical and practical knowledge. And the SETA’s must also direct most training to full occupational courses, especially in public colleges and universities and not to short courses with no real value offered to dubious private providers. Of course there are good providers and they are a valuable part of our education and training system.
However, our first priority as a state must be to use and to strengthen the public institutions.
The SETAs have recently been restructured and I believe that their governance
structures have been strengthened. The National Skills Development Strategy III which I published earlier this year gives them clear direction as to what is expected of them in the new post school system and in strengthening skills development in South Africa. I call upon this initiative to get closer to the SETAs in order to ensure that they indeed play their role as required by our department and indeed society as a whole.
Finally let me wish you well with the rest of this important conference and express my appreciation that youth organisations in South Africa have taken up the issue of jobs in such a serious manner. Unemployment and poor levels of education, are undoubtedly the most important problems facing our country today and we must all fight it together.
Government is serious about this issue and is prepared to work with and encourage all genuine attempts to ensure a brighter future for all our youth.
Let me once more congratulate the YCL and all other youth formations represented here for your farsightedness, yet very practical initiative that will contribute immensely towards the education and skills revolution our country so desperately needs. The DHET is ready to work together with you as the vanguard for job creation, education and skills development for the youth of our country. Let's make education, vocational and skills development fashionable!
I wish you a successful summit!
Keynote Address at the Jobs for Youth Coalition by Dr. Blade Nzimande, Minister of Higher Education and Training, Eskom Conference Centre, Midrand
