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1 June 2006

Programme Director

Ms Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, Minister of Public Service and Administration
Mr Sydney Mufamadi, Minister of Provincial and Local Government
Mr John Gomomo, Chairperson: Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration
Directors-General present
Senior Government officials present
Mr Gwede Mantashe, Chairman of the Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) Technical Committee
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen

It is a pleasure for me to address this special occasion this afternoon. Certainly what we are gathered about here is a matter very close to my heart and a priority for our country, this is the maintenance and acquisition of scarce skills for our country’s development. We are very grateful to responsible corporate citizens such as Old Mutual for coming to the party in this regard.

The Government and Old Mutual Business School aim to provide foundational project management training to 100 employees within local government, in support of the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) and particularly the Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA). We all know about the challenges of skills capacity faced by our municipalities.

Ladies and Gentlemen, AsgiSA has identified six factors that constrain growth in South Africa. One of these factors is the shortage of skilled labour. Hence JIPSA is a high-level task team, which is led by me, which will identify solutions to these priority skills shortages. JIPSA will thus support AsgiSA’s objectives of promoting economic growth and halving poverty and unemployment by 2014.

How will JIPSA work?

Ladies and gentlemen, JIPSA is a multi-stakeholder working group through which government, business and labour will join forces to fast-track the provision of priority skills required to support AsgiSA.

So what we are launching here today is already putting the principles of JIPSA to work - Business and Government have clubbed together in this project to deliver the skills we so dearly need. In JIPSA we, however, recognise that there is room for direct involvement by the private sector.

JIPSA Terms of Reference

As we may now know that skills development has been identified as a short-term blockage to the achievements of AsgiSA goals of higher growth and effective service delivery. Consequently, JIPSA has as one of its objectives to:

* "Mobilise senior leadership in business, government, organised labour and the education and training and science and technology institutions to address national priorities in a more co-ordinated and targeted way.

I have just returned from an overseas trip where I had an opportunity to speak on the issue of skills with private sector leaders of global companies on what seems to be a global crisis of skills in a world economy that is growing. Almost all of the skills we have identified as scarce in South Africa, are scarce globally. So, not unless we train our people, we have no way of solving our problems of skills. The issue of skills cannot and will not be solved by Government alone because Human Resource Development is an issue of survival and profitability of industries, which companies must see as a strategic investment not a social responsibility, so must government in relation to skilling the public service.

The challenge has to be seen as not only affecting the needs of those we employ but starting from schooling level so that we have a bigger pool of trainable young people.

In the longer term, we will ensure that maths and science are taken up in greater numbers by learners in schools. Ensuring that there are teachers for these and other crucial subjects in schools will be our objective. We would like to see more students taking up engineering at tertiary level so as to enable us to maintain our national system of innovation and to deal with our developmental challenges.

What are the critical skills for JIPSA

The immediate focus of JIPSA will be on the skills identified by AsgiSA. These include skills needed for infrastructure development in government, private sector and state-owned enterprises, the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) and public service and social services delivery e.g. health and education.

Then there are the skills required in the sectors that we have prioritised such as Tourism and Business Process Outsourcing (BPOs). Both are in our short-term plans and both need languages and ICT skills. Other sectors are agriculture, creative industries, mineral beneficiation, chemicals, forestry, and cross-cutting skills such as finance. Our skills development must also benefit Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) within the sectors we have identified beyond the urgent scarce skills. JIPSA will be sensitive to long-term fundamentals for the supply of skills needed for sustained shared economic growth which benefit all our people.

Established educational institutions such as universities, Further Education and Training Institutions (FETs) and schools, will always be the backbone for the training that JIPSA will need. Obviously JIPSA cannot succeed without standing on the shoulders of these core institutions.

In summary and based on the AsgiSA priorities, the following working areas for JIPSA have been identified:

* 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 needs for infrastructure development
* management and planning skills in education, health and in municipalities
* teacher training for mathematics, science, ICT and language competence in public education
* 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.

Objective of the training

For us to gain the skills we need to make medium and long-term plans starting from schools. But in the short term, we need a faster process to consolidate middle managers technicians and to absorb unemployed graduates.

Ladies and gentlemen, the objective of the training in the OM-JIPSA Project is to 'fast track' the development of project management skills for individuals currently employed in public service who already have work experience, and who have a direct responsibility in managing projects related to AsgiSA . In AsgiSA we identified project managers as another much-needed skill for our elected public representatives including myself.

Old Mutual Business School has based the JIPSA development programme on the design of its current Project Management Curriculum, which includes international best practice project management methodologies, as well as a focus on change management and action-reflection learning. A community of practice in project management will be set up to enable sharing of learning and continuous professional development. Government's Management Development Institute (SAMDI) is partnering with the Old Mutual Business School to ensure that the learning is contextualised within local government practices, policies, and challenges. The
alignment with SAMDI is highly appreciated as SAMDI is our main trainer of our civil service poised to rise in importance in this area of skill hunger and to be a premier trainer of choice.

This approach is likely to ensure that participants are able to quickly acquire the skills necessary to improve their ability to deliver on AsgiSA projects, as well as to enable them to quickly apply their learning in the workplace, thus leading to improved impact of training on service delivery. The training will be delivered via the Old Mutual Business School and its established partnerships with accredited project management training providers. The civil service needs to grasp the universal and tested business skills as they work in local economic development, service delivery indeed requires those competencies.

The programme will consist of four modules of five contact days each over a total period of about five months. Training will take place in Cape Town and Johannesburg and Old Mutual will carry all the costs associated with the training components of the programme. That we fully appreciate.

Congratulations

I wish to congratulate and encourage the trainees in the Old Mutual Programme. I will be accompanying you in this journey. I will also take pride to read as one of the students. This is a great step in your national service that all of us 'each one teach one' as a learning nation. As a country we need the skills for our economy to thrive and for us to can collectively pick each other up to ensure a guaranteed better life for all. Your efforts will bear fruit that will feed the whole country.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am very thankful to Old Mutual, SAMDI, and the Department OF Local Government for choosing to walk this road with us, the JIPSA Task Team, instead of watching by the sidelines waiting for things to happen.

I thank you.

Issued by: The Presidency
1 June 2006
Source: SAPA