The Majuba TVET College has rallied behind the Government’s Decade of the Artisan advocacy programme.
The Decade of the Artisan was launched in 2014 by the Department of Higher Education and Training, and was aimed to encourage more young people, especially high school pupils and unemployed youth, to see artisanship as a career of choice and hopefully produce a more skilled workforce in the future.
The slogan of the Decade of the Artisan is it’s cool to be a 21st century artisan.
With this in mind, the month of August was dedicated to artisan development and would now officially be known as TVET College Month, where Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Colleges are expected to invite high schools, Sector Education and Training Authority’s (SETAs) and Industry, in order to promote programme offerings for Artisan training and development.
This would expose high school pupils and youth not in education or training to some of the interesting activities that take place in engineering workshops at TVET Colleges.
Majuba TVET College Rector, Sanele Mlotshwa, emphasised the college would ensure to deliver on the Government’s mandate to assist in producing 30 000 artisans per annum in South Africa by 2030. “More young people need to be apprenticed into trades to ease the skills crisis in South Africa. This campaign intends to also form mutually beneficial partnerships between TVET Colleges, Industry and SETAs.”
Doing its part for the campaign, Majuba TVET College hosted a programme on Tuesday, where high school pupils from Newcastle had the opportunity to visit the Newcastle Training Centre in HJ van Eck Drive.
At the training centre, the youth were exposed to the opportunities available as artisans.
Londiwe Mabaso, a boilermaker, further encouraged pupils, particularly female pupils, to consider becoming an artisan.
She shared the various opportunities in artisanship, such as that in health and safety, welding and boilermaking.
“You can work anywhere. For example you could work in the mines as a safety officer and earn up to R40 000 a month. Join us in this industry of artisan. It’s a beautiful industry, it is cool and full of opportunities,” she said.
“Without artisans, we cannot develop our industries and economy,” expressed Mduduzi Manana, Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training.
As the keynote speaker, Mr Manana addressed high school pupils at the training centre on Tuesday morning and explained it was imperative they gave serious thought to their futures.
“Everyone dreams of white collar jobs and working in offices,” he said.
However, Mr Manana emphasised there was a greater chance of being employed with a trade than without one, and both men and women could become artisans.
He said the youth were losing out by not taking up a blue collar career.
“There have been times where the government had to employ people from outside South Africa, such as with the 2010 Soccer World Cup, because of a lack of technical skills. While there is nothing wrong with importing skills, it is wrong when one is importing skills at the expense of our youth who are loitering on the streets,” he claimed.
Mr Manana appealed to the youth to step up and enrol at colleges such as Majuba TVET College to strengthen their future.
“We appeal to the youth to help the country; if you do, you will be helping the nation.”
