Tourism is a top economic performer in South Africa, but there are growing concerns that the country will not be able to deliver the necessary skills to further boost the industry, especially with the 2010 Soccer World Cup approaching.
According to South African Tourism CEO Moeketsi Mosola, the skills shortage is the biggest challenge facing the sector.
Mosola said last year that more investment must take place. “Tourism will probably be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the 2010 World Cup,” he said, “but one of the key issues is skills development.”
Under government’s growth initiative Asgisa, tourism is one of the priority industries expected to increase the number of small and medium businesses, and to contribute to reducing unemployment.
At the moment, the sector contributes more than R54-billion to the economy and has created more than 700 000 jobs in the past 10 years.
It is also expected to increase its contribution to the GDP from 8% to 12% and to create 400 000 jobs by 2014.
But a Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition (Jipsa) report says that the sector is hampered by a failure to deal with skills gaps.
A skills audit revealed that at least 90% of the scarce skills in the tourism sector are in the high skills-level band. It identified critical shortages in technical management skills, skills in information and knowledge management, product knowledge, and language and communication skills.
At last year’s National Tourism Skills Consultative Conference, Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said he was not surprised by the results of the audit. “Weak linkages between industry and training institutions is one of the most significant of these,” he said.
The minister said, in principle, the sector education and training authorities were intended to strengthen this link and improve the relevance of training.
“However, in practice, the study has found that the industry view of the Tourism Hospitality and Sport Education and Training Authority [Theta] has been that of a barrier rather than a facilitator,” he said.
Van Schalkwyk was particularly worried about the low investment in skills development by SMMEs.
He said SMMEs carry a large portion of the employment load in tourism, but that “a recent study found that 26% of South African SMMEs in the sector had no need or wish to expand”.
He added that: “More than 80% of workers surveyed in South Africa said that they had not received formal training. This figure compares dismally with that of other growing economies in the world.”
Research has shown that most SMMEs in the tourism sector are operated by owner-managers, who themselves do not have much formal tertiary education. Among informal firms, about 60% of owner-managers had not passed matric and less than 2% had degrees.
“This in turn has negative implications for the long-term sustainability of their businesses, and ultimately the tourism sector,” Van Schalkwyk said. “Joint strategies need to focus on greater uptake of incentive programmes by smaller businesses.”
At the conference, stakeholders developed an action plan to boost skills. Milestones include improving knowledge by developing a single information-generating system, improving curriculum development and participation in education and training by reviewing the current tourism curricula, and establishing a user-friendly accreditation system.
SMME and community participation in education and training will be boosted by the establishment of a specifically designed training programme. Theta will lead the task team and ensure that these programmes are in place by the end of June 2007.
One of the pillars of the plan is the establishment of the National Tourism and Sports Skills Development Forum, comprising key partners in the sector, which will focus on improving industry skills development coordination. The forum was launched in November last year.
The plan also dictates that the Revised Sector Skills Plan be finalised by the end of April this year. The research report, outlining skills gaps, recommendations and action plans, has been drafted, the department has said.
Other “quick win” projects include the training of previously disadvantaged people as tourist guides, SMME mentorship programmes and the placement of unemployed graduates. Unemployed tourism graduates have also been placed in India and the United Arab Emirates for experiential learning, the department said.