SA on track to hit annual target of 30, 000 artisans - minister

Image source: www.vukuzenzele.gov.za

Over the past four years, an average of 15,000 apprentices per year have qualified as artisans.

The government has highlighted the dearth of skilled artisans, workers and professionals as a key constraint to growing the economy and reducing SA's unemployment rate.

The country thus needs to train more artisans, and to do so, the standards of technical and vocational training colleges need to be improved.

Concerns continue to be raised about blunders that have resulted in the failure to provide certificates to more than 100,000 tertiary education students.

Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande said this week that colleges had the capacity to provide theoretical training for the required number of artisans.

However, he said artisan training did not rely on colleges alone, but more importantly on the workplace-learning component.

"The number of workplaces that needs to be secured is therefore critical to meet these numbers," said Nzimande.

In a reply to a parliamentary question, the minister said a number of measures had been put in place to ensure the 30,000 target was met.

The department was developing a dual system of apprenticeship training with assistance from German and Swiss authorities.

The countries would help in standardising the trade curriculum content and improving monitoring and evaluation of what artisans were trained in.

The deployment of the dual apprenticeship training system to all accredited training centres was earmarked for April 1 2018, the minister said.

Meanwhile, the Congress of the People said it had received requests for help from desperate former college students to assist them in obtaining their certificates, some of which have been outstanding from as far back as 2009.

"Students are horribly stuck in limbo. Those wishing to pursue tertiary studies have had to go on twiddling their toes waiting endlessly for the certificates to arrive," said spokesman Dennis Bloem.

"They have now lost out on a whole year's study because of the incompetence of the Department of Higher Education.

"Other students who sought work were turned away because they could not prove they had cleared the required matriculation hurdle," Bloem said.

Source: Business Day