Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana will be expected to chart the way forward for the skills sector at the third annual National Skills Conference in Midrand this month, while ensuring that the promises and goals made by the government remain on track.
Announcing the conference, Mdladlana said: ‘[The] National Skills Development Conference objectives include an assessment of the progress made in enhancing skills development and will also address the shortage of critical skills.”
The conference follows an undertaking by the labour minister in 2001 that the gathering would become an annual event. ‘It is my intention to ensure that a National Skills Conference becomes an annual event. At the 2003 conference I shall report on the progress we are making in meeting the targets that we have set in the National Skills Development Strategy,” Mdladlana said.
Last year the conference was hosted in Sandton, Johannesburg, and attracted skills trainers, community organisations, unions, business and government. These groups are also expected to attend this year’s conference.
The conference will be divided into several breakaway sessions after which the groups will report back to the rest of the conference.
The first day will see delegates deliberating on the ‘development of a culture of high quality lifelong learning”.
It will be followed by debates on ‘fostering skills development in the formal economy for productivity and employment growth”.
Mdladlana, who will make the opening and closing addresses at the conference, said steps had already been taken to ensure that the ‘scarce skills” phenomenon was addressed.
‘We have taken steps to address these anomalies. We have allocated R135-million to scarce-skills bursaries. From 2002 to 2003, 577 students were awarded postgraduate bursaries in fields of study including auditing, actuarial sciences, biotechnology and mathematical sciences.
‘Another 2 688 students were awarded undergraduate bursaries in the areas of commerce, engineering, computer science and tourism management,” Mdladlana said.
He said the conference was not only meant to showcase the government’s successes but to look for corrective actions where necessary.
‘In tabling that report I hope that I shall be able to highlight successes and describe innovations and ground-breaking initiatives. But I shall also point to poor performance and examples of underachievement,” Mdladlana promised.
More than two-thirds of companies in South Africa who employ more than 150 people have made claims for their workplace skills plan grant this year.
Last year, the minister said, about 67% of companies in this sector had claimed their grants, leading him to hope that the target of 75% by 2005 would be surpassed.
Mdladlana also announced that the 2005 target for companies employing between 50 and 150 workers had already almost been met — 38% of these companies have now received a workplace planning grant.
‘Hopefully it will give the critics of the skills strategy some food for thought,” the minister said.
Another major achievement, Mdladlana said, was in the area of learnerships.
‘More than 15 000 workers are already engaged in learnership programmes, mostly in the finance and tourism sectors, in which clear growth prospects have been identified.
‘Unfortunately most of them are already in employment,” Mdladlana said.