The number of CVs recently received by the public works department "belies the myth of [a] total skills shortage", Public Works Minister Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde said on Wednesday.

Speaking in the National Assembly during debate on her Budget vote, she said, in partnership with the Northern Cape education department, about 100 young men and women had been placed in the artisan training programme at the Pelindaba Technical Training Centre outside Tshwane.

There they would undergo training in various trades, including welding, mechanical, electrical, fitting and turning and draughting.

After 18 months of joint theoretical and practical training, the government had undertaken to give them all jobs.

This was is in line with the decision to not only re-open the department's erstwhile technical workshops, but to increase their capacity.

They would then become the centres of further skills generation, while at the same time helping reduce the costs associated with unnecessary outsourcing of menial jobs, many of which could be performed in-house.

"It is for this reason that I have issued a national call to all professionals in the built environment and property management sectors to forward their curriculum vitae (CV) to the department. The results were overwhelming, again another indication that belies the myth of [a] total skills shortage."

This process would enable the department to run its workshops efficiently and contribute immensely to the government's national human resource strategy, especially the artisans' programme.

More than 9 000 CVs were received. These numbers were significant to sustain the intake of technical prowess in the department in support of its mandate, not least realising the government's job creation targets.

"Skills development is a central building block of a developmental state. We must at all costs turn the tide of history that has seen our people like Ntate Robert Maphutha, retiring after 36 years of service to the department of public works, having served in no more a capacity than being a parking attendant.

"To remain competitive and grow the business of public works, I have commanded the department to single-mindedly focus on expediting the filling of all funded posts," Mahlangu-Nkabinde said.