The country’s unemployment crisis could be due to government’s ill-advised approach to skills development, labour specialist Andre Kraak argues.
Kraak is not surprised that, despite billions that have been poured into reforming national skills development and training over the last decade, the business sector is still struggling to find adequate skills. Instead, in an article published in the latest edition of the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation’s (IJR) Transformation Audit, titled “Breaking the mould: Prospects for radical socio-economic transformation”, he believes that government should be concentrating on developing critical skills that the country needs.
Moreover, Kraak says government’s belief that it can produce skills singlehandedly has only worsened the situation. For this reason, he calls for government to have “a deeper engagement with business, to better balance its skills development and training approach”.
Feeling sidelined by government, the private sector has not fully embraced skills reforms that the government has introduced, he notes.
To tackle the skills shortage, Government should focus on creating intermediary skills that Further Education and Training (FET) colleges produce. He draws attention to other parts of the world where this approach has succeeded. Programmes are identified and run to meet the needs of local and regional businesses, and that feature partnerships between policymakers, businesses, training agencies, non-governmental organisations, and learning institutions
