ADDRESS BY HON. PREMIER T S P MAKWETLA AT THE OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF NKANGALA FET COLLEGE
14 March 2007, Witbank
MEC for Education, Hon S Masango
Executive Mayors of Emalahleni Local Municipality and Nkangala District Municipality respectively, Hon L Malatjie and S Mashilo ,
Chairperson of the College Council Mr L Ntlapho and Members of the College Council,
Head of Department Mr MR Tywakadi and Senior Managers in the Department of Education,
The CEO of the Nkangala FET College , Dr Qwabe, and the College Management and Staff,
Circuit Managers and School Principals here present,
Our Social Partners,
SETA representatives,
Student Representative Council Members (SRC), and the Students body at large,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen
It is a great pleasure for me to address you on this occasion of the official launch of Nkangala Further Education and Training (FET) College. This launch marks a critical milestone in the government's programme of developing a coordinated FET system that provides high quality programme-based vocational and occupational training. The programme for the transformation of the FET system was intended to create a Further Education and Training (FET) system that provides the critical intermediate and higher level skills and competencies that our country needs, to attain a high level global competitiveness, and enhance service delivery and implementation capabilities of the State.
At the centre of this endeavour is the goal to attain growth for our country that is symbiotically connected with the growth of its people, their fulfillment and material comfort.
South Africa 's Medium Term Strategic Framework highlights the need to develop critical skills required by the economy in order to define the growth trajectory that will enable us to half unemployment and reduce poverty by 2014. It contends that the main and central intervention required is to grow the economy. In identifying factors that constrain growth in South Africa , the government's Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (AsgiSA) identifies the shortage of skilled labour as one of the key constraints. It is for this reason that the acquisition of priority and scarce skills has been prioritized by government through the JIPSA programme. Some of the key skills required for AsgiSA are:
• high-level, world-class engineering and planning skills for the 'network industries' transport, communications and energy all at the core of our infrastructure programme
• city, urban and regional planning and engineering skills which are desperately needed by our municipalities
• artisan and technical skills, with priority attention to those needed for infrastructure development
• specific skills needed by the priority AsgiSA sectors starting with tourism and BPO and cross-cutting skills needed by all sectors especially finance; project managers and managers in general
• Skills relevant to local economic development needs of municipalities, especially developmental economists.
In defining the role of FET institutions in the Province, it is essential that these institutions design curricula and programmes that directly contribute to the skills development agenda of the country as outlined in the National Skills Development Strategy (2005 – 2010). FET Colleges need to contribute to the realization of a vision for creating ‘skills for sustainable growth, development and equity', and promoting employability, and sustainable livelihoods through skills development. Programmes should be designed to offer opportunities for the unemployed, especially youth, women and the disabled to undergo training that provides entry into a particular vocation, occupation or trade. This intervention will facilitate absorption into the labour market, and afford opportunities for self-employment, and job placement.
As part of the FET transformation programme, the Province saw the merger of four technical colleges, namely CN Mahlangu, Middleburg, Mpondozankomo, and Witbank, to form Nkangala FET College that we are formally launching today. This was an important task that had to be undertaken to streamline and focus the provision of necessary knowledge, practical skills as well as applied vocational and occupational competencies for students in the Nkangala region. It was also meant to allow for the process of identifying niche areas of programme delivery, transform the curriculum to respond to labour market needs, share resources, and avoid duplication in the delivery of FET education.
Programme Director, let me take this moment to thank the members of the College Council, senior leadership of the College and the Department of Education, key partners and stakeholders for having played a critical leadership role in the merger of four institutions to create Nkangala FET College .
We must acknowledge that a lot of progress has been made in consolidating the foundation of the new institution, integrating systems and cultures of different institutions, and setting up effective governance structures within the context of the FET legislative and policy framework. It is commendable that within three years, the College has managed to turn around the staff profile to reflect 30% women representation in management. We must sustain the transformation programme to create a Centre of Excellence that is well poised to respond to labour market needs as identified by the public and private sector employers.
As we formally launch this College, we are opening a new chapter for the implementation of the new curriculum for the National Certificate (Vocational), levels 2 to 4. In a phased approach, it replaces the previous qualifications that were applicable to the FET colleges. It addresses the critical importance of integrating theory and practice in its approach to learning. We are confident that it will enable students to acquire the necessary knowledge, practical skills, applied competence and understanding required for employment. We should build all the necessary capacity to implement and sustain the impact of this new curriculum.
As we address the problem of scarce skills in critical areas of the economy and public service delivery in the Province, we see the role of FET Colleges as critical to the targeted supply of requisite skills needed to unlock delivery blockages. To address the skills crisis constraining delivery in the construction industry, including but not limited to infrastructure development such as schools, hospitals, roads and housing delivery, we need ‘targeted massification' of skills required by the Province to grow. To achieve this, the Government has allocated financial resources for the recapitalization of 3 FET Colleges to support initiatives towards strengthening the human resource base, improving systems and infrastructure, provision of equipment, and transformation of the curriculum to address the skills development needs of the economy.
As a Province, we are conscious of the fact that the success of our bold plans and targets for the implementation of ‘Big Five' provincial flagship projects will depend on the availability of requisite skills required to deliver on these projects.
• The implementation of the ‘ Water for All' flagship will require capacity in project management, engineering and plumbing technical skills to ensure that the infrastructure for the delivery of water services is rolled out to all by 2010.
• As the Province ratchets up the implementation of economic development infrastructure projects along the Moloto and Maputo Development Corridors , the constraining factor of skills shortages in engineering design, road construction, quantity surveying, project management etc, will need to be addressed to prevent project failures and negative impacts on economic growth prospects.
• Our focus on the implementation of the Tourism, Heritage and Greening Mpumalanga flagship project calls for curriculum design innovations that are able to integrate provincial heritage and environmental education and conservation so that the Province has a depth of skills required to develop our tourism product to benefit the Province.
• The challenge of creating a “ Green Province ” will need to enhance capacity in communities and municipalities to design and implement environmental management programmes.
The challenge will be to design and offer basic entry level skills to enable unemployed people to take advantage of possibilities offered by the implementation of flagship projects in job creation. The acquisition of basic accredited qualifications and skills through FET Colleges will ease entry into the labour market economy.
The question we need to ask ourselves as leaders and practitioners in FET education is “How do we position our curriculum offering and programmes to progressively provide a sustainable pool of skills and competencies to support the implementation of Big Five developmental flagship projects?” What are key levers in the domain of FET institutions to contribute to the ‘ Accelerated Capacity Building ' flagship project that the Province is implementing?
Our view is that skills development intended to create delivery and implementation capacities remains a critical success factor. And we need to position FET institutions to play a central role to address the skills needs of the Province.
Programme Director, international benchmarks show that the success in matching the skills supply side with the labour market demand side lies in the ability of FET institutions to forge close partnerships with industry, and open up space for ongoing and systematic industry input into the design of the curricula and programmes offered by these institutions. Similarly, Nkangala FET College needs to work towards enhancing partnerships with business and the public sectors in order to build links between training and job placement. The College should also establish sustainable partnerships with Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) to position itself to offer and manage learnerships offered by the SETAs.
It is encouraging to learn about the partnerships and programmes that the College has implemented in partnership with various SETAs. The College has, amongst others, achieved successes in the implementation of the Public Administration Learnership in partnership with Public Sector Education and Training Authority (PSETA), Project Rave (Retrenchees and Victory to Entrepreneurs) in partnership with the Wholesale and Retail SETA, and LED Learnerships for Local Government and Water SETA.
Strong emphasis on private sector contribution to FET creates possibilities for own revenue generation that enables the college to improve access through financial support to needy students. We must thank the College Council, senior management and staff for the leadership insight and commitment to supporting these noble initiatives for skills development. In the same vein, our appreciation is extended to the private sector partners and key stakeholders for supporting the College in its endeavors.
Ladies and Gentleman, the official launch of Nkangala FET College marks the beginning of an exciting but enormous task ahead, to open up endless possibilities for Mpumalanga to grow and prosper.
Thank You