Premier's Council on Skills: 30 September 2014 | Western Cape Government

Premier's Council on Skills: 30 September 2014

Premier’s Council on Skills: 30 September 2014 

Premier Helen Zille hosted the Premier’s Council on Skills on 30 September 2014 in Saldanha Bay. The purpose of this Skills Council was to raise awareness of the developments taking place on the West Coast and to address skills requirements to ensure that the region has the skills supply it requires, with a particular focus on Artisan Development, Oil and Gas and Marine Repairs Sectors.

Infrastructure investment into the West Coast as a result of the Saldanha Industrial Development Zone, the Strategic Integrated Projects (SIP 5 and SIP 8), which relate to the renewable energy hub on the West Coast and the Sishen/Saldanha Bay rail corridor is projected to contribute approximately R113 billion to the Western Cape economy. It is expected that these developments could create up to 18 963 job opportunities.

The challenge with this, however, is that there is an insufficient supply of the required skills, in particular technically skilled artisans across the Western Cape to meet the planned demands of the West Coast. This is despite high levels of unemployment, especially among youth; high levels of social ills; contributed to by low education attainment levels, especially in maths and science. Moreover, those learners when employed are not considered by industry as being ready for the workplace.

Addressing these challenges would require better planning of skills development initiatives to meet the demand for skills.

For this reason the West Coast Education and Skills Plan was conceptualised by the Department of Economic Development and Tourism and key partners, such as the West Coast Economic Development Partnership (EDP), Industry, Saldanha Bay IDZ, dti, IDC, SAOGA, FET Colleges and the District and Local Municipalities. This plan, which was presented at the Premier’s Council on Skills, is an attempt to address skills requirements of the infrastructure developments in the region, and to expose youth to basic skills that will assist them to access trade and occupationally directed programmes to meet the demand from infrastructure projects. This plan includes the following:

  • Training Duration: 12 weeks
  • Subjects: Science, Maths, Communication (incorporating Work readiness & Life Skills);
  • Other opportunities being pursued for ‘unsuccessful’ beneficiaries through placement opportunities

Download the presentations made at the Skills Council here:

The content on this page was last updated on 12 October 2014