Government needs private sector assistance to successfully address the country's skill challenges, says deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
The Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition (Jipsa) was launched in March last year to deliver on the skills requirements of government's Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for SA (Asgisa). Led by Mlambo-Ngcuka, Asgisa is mandated to pave the way for gross domestic product growth rates of 6% by 2010.
Speaking yesterday at the launch of Jipsa's first report, Mlambo-Ngcuka outlined the challenges facing the skills environment in SA.
"SA is no exception to the global challenge of skills shortages in various technical areas - it is only that in our case we also have deep structural problems that our government is trying to undo," she explained.
More than money
Despite government's commitment to addressing skill shortages, Mlambo-Ngcuka said government would be unable to overcome the challenges alone.
"The additional allocations in the budget speech have confirmed the political will to increase the financial resources that will address our skills challenges. However, the success of Jipsa will depend not only on additional funding, but on the strength of the partnership and collaboration among all stakeholders.
"South African companies are not doing enough - there is definitely room for more contribution... As international demands for skills increase, we need to realise we cannot chain people to the country. Companies have to be competitive and the private sector must do more to ensure its own sustainability. If you need one person, train five," she advised.
Reaching capacity
In its first nine months of operations, Jipsa developed a detailed plan to increase the number of engineering graduates in the fields of transport, communications and energy. Last year, SA's universities produced around 1 400 graduates; however, Jipsa conservatively estimates a need for an additional 1 000 graduates.
"This year, we expect this number to increase by about 600 graduates. This is not enough, but we have reached capacity at our local tertiary institutions and so are considering overseas scholarships and the importation of skills," said Mlambo-Ngcuka.
"The ICT skills shortage is much wider than the skills required by the ICT industry alone - we urgently need to develop ICT skills across our country. A national human resource development and training plan is being developed to address the requirements for broad access to ICT skills and technology appropriation at a national level."
As a result, the Department of Education is investing in upgrading the quality of maths, science and IT teachers in the schooling system. Additionally, SA's further education and training institutions would add a computer literacy portion to all degrees and diplomas.
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