The National Youth Commission (NYC) has welcomed the acceleration of the skills-development process announced by President Thabo Mbeki in his State of the Nation address on Friday.
Particularly welcome was the expansion of the National Youth Service, it said in a statement.
”The buy-in and commitment from various role players, including the 18 government departments mentioned by the president, will ensure that more youth are mobilised to participate in the programme.
”The NYC … will continue to convene government departments, including Umsobomvu Youth Fund, to drive the roll-out of this programme towards achieving the set target of 20 000 NYS [National Youth Service] participants and 30 000 young volunteers into the community-development initiatives.”
The NYC applauded Mbeki’s ”concrete pronouncements” on recapitalising further education and training (FET) colleges, opening the possibility for creating more artisans.
It undertook to inform the youth of the importance of artisans for economic growth.
”The NYC notes with great appreciation the additional resources to be provided towards the Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition in order to accelerate its work on skills development among our youth, including this intervention through FET colleges.”
While noting concerns raised by the president about the capacity of local government machinery, the NYC is optimistic that the interventions in place will overcome the challenge.
”Furthermore, the NYC commits to deepen its interaction with the Department of Provincial and Local Government towards the setting up of local youth desks and establishment of local youth centres in our municipalities throughout the country,” it said.
The NYC will meet at the end of the month to analyse Mbeki’s speech further and ”align it with provincial and local youth-development imperatives”. — Sapa