Technical skills should be promoted

school (web AX & AN)

leseho Manala

lesehom@caxton.co.za

Society should change the mentality that academia is the only gateway to success and not exclude the option of technical skills training.

This was raised at an education stakeholders’ meeting at Sankopano Community Centre where education officials, including former education and now finance MEC Barbara Creecy, discussed on the education sector and its challenges following the 2015 matric results.

Creecy said the obsession with academia should change, as life and work opportunities didn’t only revolve around degrees but also technical skills acquired from colleges.

“There needs to be a paradigm shift to help society understand the importance of technical skills to national development,” she said, adding that there were many people with degrees in the unemployed ranks.

“The nation needs technical skills to drive the economy, and children need to be encouraged to consider this as an important and rewarding option when making their career choices,” she said.

Attendees concurred with this, saying it would help the youth compete for work opportunities with their foreign national counterparts who got jobs easily as they had both technical and academic skills.

Creecy added that Gauteng premier David Makhura had, through a partnership with the Sector Education and Training Authorities and the private sector, established a programme, Tshepo 500 000 to help unemployed youths through learnerships and internships which offered technical and other skills.

“The programme registered 300 000 youths last year and 15 000 of them are already gainfully engaged in work opportunities,” said Creecy.

Details: She encouraged unemployed youths interested in this opportunity to find out more about the programme by SMSing 45490; calling 011 355 5008; tweeting @tshepo500000