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Deputy Minister for Higher Education and Training, Mr Buti Manamela today concluded an exciting two day visit to the Northern Cape to popularise the “Decade of the Artisan” campaign and ensure it achieves its objectives.
On the first day Deputy Minister Manamela visited employers namely Toyota, MEAPSA Solar and Kalkpoort Soutwerke to encourage them to partner with TVET Colleges, avail their workplaces as training spaces for artisan learners to expose lecturers to the latest technologies. During the visit the Deputy Minister had the opportunity to interact with learners who are receiving in service training who shared their different experiences.
Employers have committed to partner with the Northern Cape Rural TVET College to continue availing their companies to take in students. The College has also committed to address some of the challenges that have been raised by the employers in order to make the partnerships efficient.
Today, Deputy Minister Manamela addressed more than 1000 learners from local high schools at Northern Cape Rural TVET College under the theme 'it's cool to be a 21st century artisan'.
“Artisan careers are in demand in the labour market and will remain so for some time to come. TVET Colleges are the best institutions to offer the artisan directed programmes. In 2015 a research study conducted by the Swiss-South African Cooperation Initiative (SSACI) on the employability of graduates with artisanal skills found that 76% of the artisan graduates are able to find employment after qualifying and 6% become self-employed as entrepreneurs”, said Deputy Minister Buti Manamela.
Students were further exposed to a host of exhibitors from industry, SETAs, post-school learning institutions, NSFAS and many others who have opportunities readily available to the learners. This is aimed at motivating the learners to consider artisanship as a career of choice, as well as share information on critical scarce skills that will advance the economy of the country.
This is also in order to reach the National Development Plan target of training 30 000 artisans annually by year 2030 if the country is to advance on the economic development agenda.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Republic of South Africa: Department of Government Communication and Information.
