province: MEC Africa
8 October 2007
MEC for Economic Development and Tourism in the North West Province, Darkey
Africa, told delegates attending the Provincial Skills Development Conference
in Rustenburg that it is imperative to interrogate whether the capacity of the
province's skills base to respond to the challenges posed by economic
development and therefore job creation.
"Our point of departure is appropriate skills drive development rather than
development dictating what skills to develop. That is a paradigm shift that we
need to make as it foregrounds innovation and creativity as development
enablers." MEC Africa said.
He further said that despite consistent economic growth in the last ten
years, it has been a largely jobless growth, thus raising questions about the
skills scenario and its relationship with the economic development needs of
South Africa.
"This phenomenon of jobless growth, and a number of other skills challenges,
need to be interrogated, unpacked and deconstructed so that they can be better
understood and resolved," MEC Africa added.
He further urged delegates to assess the progress made in so far as
facilitating job creation through skills development interventions, including
accredited learning and other initiatives, by Skills Education Training
Authorities (Setas) and other role-players.
"As we speak of Setas it might behove us to be introspective and determine
the extent to which we have utilised this vehicle, particularly in the local
government space where job creation opportunities abound," he said.
MEC Africa also said that it is important to enquire about business and its
role in skills development, and it would appear self-evident that as a consumer
of skills, business has more than a peripheral role to play in this regard.
He also mentioned that even if business contributes commendably to the
National Skills Development Levy, it needs to be asked about value-added
interventions beyond training within the national skills development policy
framework.
"I am thinking aloud, about such interventions as special bursaries, the
adoption of schools, mentoring and coaching, and myriad other innovative
solution. These would be informed by an empirical determination of the skills
required per sector, beginning with our flagship sectors of mining,
agriculture, tourism and manufacturing," MEC Africa said.
He also commended the participation of the Umsobomvu Youth Fund (UYF) in the
conference and the role the UYF has played in being biased towards youth
entrepreneurship in creating cadres of job creators rather than job
consumers.
The MEC also called for consideration of the skills development challenges
as they relate to women.
He said a question worth posing is whether we are subverting the traditional
notion of women being practitioners of soft skills and men of the more robust
professions.
The conference is held under the theme: 'Employability and Sustainable
Livelihoods through Skills Development.'
The purpose of the conference is, among others, to:
* to allow different constituencies of the Provincial Growth and Development
Strategy (PGDS) to report on the implementation of interventions to address
their critical and scarce skills needs in the province,
* to determine to which extent organisations within the economic sector in the
Province are complying with National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS) and the
PGDS in line with Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa
(AsgiSA) or Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition (Jipsa),
* to evaluate the impact of accredited learning on the unemployed in the North
West province.
Participants range from school learners to those in Further Education and
Training Institutions, key players in the different economic industries in the
province, government officials including municipal officials, non-governmental
organisations, business and elected public representatives.
For more information, contact:
Cornelius Tanana Monama, Spokesperson: North West Provincial Government
Tel: 018 387 3456
Cell: 082 578 4063
E-mail: cmonama@nwpg.gov.za
Issued by: North West Provincial Government
8 October 2007
