South Africa needs a strong technical skills base to grow the economy, argues Melanie Mulholland

We need to set straight the inference that vocational and technical jobs are inferior. This notion has led many youngsters unwilling or unsuited for academic study to frustration, feelings of failure, hopelessness and depression. We must change the mindset of parents and educators who wrongly perceive vocational training as education for less-talented students with limited career prospects. In fact, the mindset that vocational training is inferior has led to a decline in vocational education and training enrolment figures over the last couple of years.

To shift the paradigm and to deliver 21^st century artisans, South Africa’s technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges are undergoing a rapid transformation and grooming a generation of professional artisans acquainted not only with trade skills, but also soft skills that will be required when the fourth industrial revolution kicks in. TVET colleges, therefore, produce critical thinkers, problem solvers and design thinkers.

South Africa needs a strong technical skills base to grow the economy, but we also need to combine the technical skills base with entrepreneurial development since existing businesses can’t continually absorb skills without reaching breaking point. A successful vocational and professional education and training system can facilitate growth, entrepreneurship and prosperity for individuals and the country.

On 9 February 2012, former President Jacob Zuma announced the Government’s plan to initiate a massive infrastructure investment programme. The programme consists of 18 Strategic Integrated Projects (SIPs). Each one of these projects addresses a particular socio-economic opportunity or challenge within the country, like artisan skills such as electricians, boilermakers, plumbers, welders and pipe fitters, to name a few, which are in short supply. Unfortunately, we don’t have a skills force of qualified artisans to complete or maintain these projects.

On 9 March 2018, Higher Education and Training Minister Naledi Pandor met with leaders representing businesses in South Africa to secure partnerships with the department in order to implement the Centres of Specialisation (COS) programmes through TVET colleges and produce artisans and entrepreneurs across a range of economic sectors. The COS programme aims to secure partnerships between industry and 26 TVET colleges across the country, enabling the training of 21^st-century artisans in 13 priority trade areas that will support the SIPs. These areas include bricklayers, electricians, boilermakers, plumbers, automotive and diesel mechanics, carpenters and joiners, welders, fitters and turners and riggers.

Therefore, the COS programme should contribute towards reducing unemployment among the current 7.2 million youths between the ages of 15 and 34 who are not in employment, education or training.

Businesses in the metals and engineering sector are already committed to skills development, particularly artisan and apprenticeship development. The focus on trades during the aptly named Decade of the Artisan (2014-2024) allows companies to enable and support artisan development by offering workplace opportunities. In turn, business contributes to a continuous supply of suitably qualified artisans to sustain industries and support economic growth within South Africa.

The focus on artisans’ skills which are in high demand aims to ensure that the Government’s strategic projects will be constructed and maintained using high-quality, South African skilled artisans and that the economy will triumph.  This will simultaneously contribute to job creation and poverty alleviation goals as set out in the National Development Plan 2030.

I believe that our public TVET college system is ideally placed to respond to the call from industry and the state for more skilled artisans. TVET colleges are now able to train skilled artisans and work with industry partners with the opportunity to develop sites of good practice which others can eventually follow.

However, society’s confidence in the TVET sector must change. Evidence of that change will be TVETs becoming both institutions of choice for students and partners of choice in training for industry employers. The provision of fully subsided, free further education and training was extended this year to all current and future poor and working-class South African students at all public TVET colleges. These students will be funded by grants, and not loans.

All stakeholders need to come together to rebrand and reposition TVET colleges into world-class and state-of-the art facilities that can produce the much-needed skills that our country needs.

It is important to change the mindsets of the youth, parents and educators who see vocational training as blue-collar education. Artisans play a vital role in South Africa’s future development, and more must be done to increase the academic opportunities for students who choose this path.

Melanie Mulholland is the Human Capital & Skills Development Executive at the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa.