Source: Daily News
Moulding qualified artisans is vital in the fight against poverty and unemployment, Higher Education and Training minister Blade Nzimande said yesterday. “We cannot be more patriotic than the common commitment to produce artisans for our country. Nzimande told the national artisans development conference in Midrand.
Nzimande said many strategic infrastructure projects in the country required a significant number of qualified artisans. These projects and the economic activities they stimulate would require a qualified and capable work force in the various sectors, including manufacturing construction, operations and maintenance, he said.
“Unless we accelerate the training of artisans, their numbers will fall short of the demands of the industry, and therefore adversely affect both production and job creation”, Nzimande said.
“The impact will be felt in the inadequate and continued skewed economic growth in our country and the government’s reduced ability to provide basic and other services to people.”
Nzimande said the idea that trades and other vocational programmes were those un able to get into a university was “ingrained” in society. This had a detrimental effect on the ability to develop the skills required by the labour market.
I’m told that in Johannesburg some plumbers earn more than doctors. All of us have to be ambassadors for he vocational training in our country and to make that fashionable, so that vocational education and training is not the second choice for people who have not been admitted to university.
"These are vital and necessary skills in our society." -SAPA
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