Non-profit organisations have to grit their teeth against seemingly arbitrary blows of fate.

The department of public enterprises is appealing to the private sector to help tackle the massive development backlog.

The training institutions have agreed to stop fighting over funds and look for solutions, writes Jim Freeman.

South Africa's skills problem remains massive, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said on Wednesday. "The scale of the problem has become bigger in the interim. There's a need for us to up our game," she told a media briefing on the 2007 report of the Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition.