Address by the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Dr Blade Nzimande on the occasion of the Black Business Council Summit held at Radisson OR Tambo Hotel and Convention Centre, in Kempton Park
Program Director;
President of BBC, Mr Elias Monage and the Leadership Collective of the BBC; BBC Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Kganki Matabane;
The entire membership of the BBC; Ladies and Gentlemen; and Esteemed Guests;
Members of the media Good evening
I am delighted to be joining you, on this auspicious occasion, under the theme: “20 years of the Broad-Based Black Empowerment Act – Accelerating Implementation, Creating Jobs and Growing the Economy”.
I am also pleased that this Summit has considered me to make an input under the topic: “Skills Development and the Fourth Industrial Revolution – Their Roles in Economic Transformation- Skills for the Future”.
Mr President
I must indicate that one of my priorities is to continue to work closely with the private sector, including the BBC in a partnership for skills development and innovation.
The central mandate of the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) is to develop a skilled and capable workforce whilst broadening the skills base of our country to support an inclusive growth path.
In advancing skills development in our country, we are guided by a number of instruments, including but not limited to the National Development Plan (NDP); White Paper for Post School Education and Training; National Skills Development Plan; Economic Reconstruction and Development Plan; Skills Strategy; Sector Skills Plans; Occupations in High Demand; Critical Skills List.
These instruments are a signpost towards our enrolments, whether by our post school education and training institutions and entities, as they are instructive, in response to the skills required for our socio-economic development.
Our department is also involved in the developing of critical skills for our economy which includes in the Hydrogen Economy within the context of the Hydrogen Society Roadmap for South Africa, the Agriculture, Health and Energy sector and development of skills for both the public and the private sector.
As part of implementing this mandate, my Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) oversee an institutional landscape comprising twenty-six (26) universities, fifty (50) Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges, nine (9) Community Education and Training (CET) colleges, twenty-one (21) Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs), National Skills Fund (NSF), Quality Councils as well as Private Providers.
We doing this work also in collaboration with my other Department of Science and Innovation, which is responsible for the National System of Innovation.
Our key outcomes, in this drive, include amongst others, expanding access to post- school opportunities and improving the quality of provision and the responsiveness of the post-school system.
In doing so, our immediate task is firstly, the massification of the college system with 1 million enrolled in the Community Colleges and 2.5 million in public and private TVET colleges by 2030.
Our second task is the diversification of the public universities based on their strengths and the needs of the communities in which they are located supported by a 1.6million enrolment target.
This is the reason that our immediate task as a department is to change the size and shape of our PSET system particularly to expand the college sector.
For us to achieve our task, we have developed some strategic interventions to support our college sector to remain relevant to the economic needs of our country.
We have established thirty-four (34) Centres of Specialisation at twenty (20) TVET Colleges with an investment of R68 million and sixteen (16) of our Colleges have thirty-three (33) Trade Test Centres.
Our Centres of Specialisation are well positioned to prepare students for the workplace, or for self-employment, through the maintenance of close working relationships with employers in their areas of study.
I must indicate that through these centres, we now can conduct trade tests in all thirteen (13) of our priority trades at TVET Colleges. These trade test Centres have already trade tested over 500 people that have qualified as artisans.
When this department was established in 2009, there was only one trade test centre for the whole country at Indlela, and this was presenting a huge obstacle in the pipeline of producing more artisans.
We have also established entrepreneurship hubs at TVET Colleges to support students to move into self-employment after completion of their programmes.
In collaboration with Universities South Africa (USAF), we have also introduced a national program called Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education (EDHE) Programme that aims to build an entrepreneurship system in universities focused on developing student entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship in academia, and entrepreneurial universities.
Ladies and gentlemen
Through our Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) we have injected R138 600 000 for the workplace training which was paid directly to employers to produce more artisans and needed occupations!
Through our SETAs combined, we opened up 52 701 learnership opportunities to the value of R1.6 billion in the last financial year.
We opened up 14 475 internships opportunities to the value of R758 Million.
We opened up 14 954 TVET placement opportunities to the value of R726 Million and we also committed to achieve a target of 20 000 placements of TVET graduates work placements.
Our SETAs combined opened up 7 095 university students work placements to the value of R311 Million and we also awarded 13 169 bursaries in various fields on skills in high demand to the value of R970 Million.
We opened up 34 514 skills programs opportunities for the unemployed to the value of R278 Million.
We also reskilled and upskilled 36 502 individuals in various sectors of the economy to the value of R494 Million.
A sum of R1,7 billion was disbursed by the National Skills Fund towards its bursaries programme in 2021/22, benefitting students enrolled in undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in scarce and critical skills.
Fourth Industrial Revolution in skills development
In relation to the 4IR in skills development, I established the Ministerial Task Team to look into the implications of the 4th Industrial Revolution in our post school education and training system. This work has since been concluded as a sector we are already embracing the 4IR and its associated technologies.
Ten (10) of our colleges have introduced a new programme in Robotics. This is part of our curriculum transformation strategy for the TVET sector in ensuring that our colleges remain responsive to the needs of a changing economy.
We have also embarked on massive TVET lecturer development in 4IR related skills programs in collaboration with our SETAs and their international and local partners, associations and federations.
Through the ETDP SETA, MerSETA, and Intel, we have established in twelve (12) of our TVET colleges 4IR Centres of Excellence.
These Centres of Excellence are equipped with laboratories to provide a variety of 4IR programs like coding and robotics; artificial intelligence; 3D printing; internet of things; networking; cybersecurity; drone technology, etc.
Our Community Colleges have also introduced Digital Literacy programmes for lecturers in partnership with the National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa (NEMISA) partnership for Community College lecturers.
I am also pleased to say that our Community Colleges will this year be launching civic education, which is a very important dimension in producing citizens who understand their civic duties and responsibilities. It is a pilot we hope we could expand into the entire post-school education and training sector.
Through my Department of Science and Innovation the Technology Innovation Agency, which is one of our agencies we have established, i is setting up Innovation hubs and we have completed four innovation hubs in the Eastern Cape, Kwazulu- Natal, Northern Cape and North West.
We are establishing digital learning platforms in the all nine (9) CET Colleges with funding support from the ETDP SETA.
In partnership with the National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa (Nemisa), we have undertaken lecturer development on digital literacy.
As the interventions are being rolled out, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has put in place a process for the provision of network infrastructure to enable all our colleges and their fifty-four (54) centres to have access to the internet and the web.
Mr President
I would like to conclude my remarks by calling out for enhanced relationship between the Black Business Council and all my institutions particularly with the TVET Colleges and the Community colleges as we are working to increase their enrolments and role in our economy.
I have previously stated that TVET college management, especially Principals, must know that they are not running TVET colleges unless they prioritise building partnerships with industry.
I gave a directive that all TVET college Principals should sign new Performance Agreements that include Industry Partnerships as one of their Key Performance Indicators.
I want to indicate that there is nothing that frustrates me like visiting even a medium sized industrial area, and where there is a TVET college campus in the vicinity, only to find that there is not a single TVET college student or graduate placement in any of the workplaces there.
I wish to urge South African industry to adopt programmes in our TVET colleges and support them through the supply of training equipment and facilities, as well as part time lecturing by industry practitioners.
From our experience such partnerships benefit all participants: government is able to provide quality training through our colleges, and employers are able to identify the best trainees for recruitment into their companies.
I am again calling upon the BBC to work closely with my Department of Science and Innovation, as part of building your own capacity in Science, Technology and Innovation. No further transformation will take place or meaningful empowerment without firmly locating yourselves in the sphere of STI!
I therefore call on the BBC members and partners, to join us in our drive towards a skilled and capable workforce whilst broadening the skills base of our country to support an inclusive growth path.
Thank you for your attention.
