Date : 17/05/2004
Source: Ministry of Labour
Title: M Mdladlana: ISSET & Vodacom learnership programme


KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY THE HONOURABLE MINISTER OF LABOUR, MP, MEMBATHISI MDLADLANA, AT THE VODACOM LEARNERSHIP LAUNCH IN THE ISETT SETA, 17 May 2004


The Programme Director
The Deputy CEO of Vodacom
The CEO of ISETT SETA, Mr Oupa Mopaki
Distinguished guests
Colleagues and Comrades

Thank you for your overwhelming support in the recent election to provide us with the mandate to work together to find common solutions to our country's challenges, especially unemployment and poverty. Expectations are very high therefore we cannot afford to fail.

It is hard to believe that it is only three and a half short years ago that I launched the country's first National Skills Development Strategy - a strategy that established our SETAs and levy/grant system, introduced a year earlier, to work on achieving a clearly articulated set of national priorities.

Today we have evidence that the Strategy is working, and by implication, so too are the institutions and incentives that we set in place to make all this possible. Without the grants, that the levy makes possible, and without the work of the ISETT SETA and SERVICES SETA Board and staff - none of this would be happening.

Today is evidence that our combined efforts have not been in vain - well done to the ISSET SETA and SERVICES SETA team who have worked hard to make this possible.

The ISETT SETA and the SERVICES SETA's progress have been especially striking in the implementation of learnerships.

The ISETT SETA has more than 2 600 learners already signed up for ICT learnerships - putting it almost 1 100 learners ahead of its March 2004 target, agreed with my Department a year ago.

The SERVICES SETA has more than 6 000 learners - putting it almost 1 800 learners ahead of its March 2004 target.

Well done to the teams. Now, through learnerships such as the ones being launched today, the ISETT SETA and SERVICES SETA is within easy reach of their total five-year target - thus contributing to our national target of 80 000 young unemployed people in learnerships next year.

These two SETAs have shown that when we work together nothing is impossible. As a collective we must deliver on the scarce skills in the country. We must find a way to unlock the financial resources within the SETAs so as to train people to have the high level skills needed by the economy.

This occasion stands testimony to the commitments we made last year at the President's Growth and Development Summit, where we - labour, business, government and the community sector - signed an agreement to strengthen our partnership by accelerating the intake of new entrants into learnership programmes as a form of building skills and creating employment opportunities for our youth, and thereby contributing to the growth of our economy and the alleviation of poverty in our communities.

We undertook, together with our social partners, not to sit on our laurels while our youth - matriculants and graduates alike - languish on the streets - and we undertook to provide our young people with opportunities to learn skills that would help to make them more employable or more able to build employment for themselves.

I am delighted to be with you today on this important occasion - to stand witness to the achievement of this key milestone - the beginning of a promising future for a group of previously unemployed young people whose careers are being catapulted forward by this exciting new opportunity.

I wish to commend VODACOM for taking on the challenge - you are making a great start here today and I trust that as one of our biggest South African corporations, that this experience will be extremely positive for you in this important area of people development. This is an example of a true "people's contract" between government, business, community and labour and it will hopefully lay the basis for further collaborative work in future for the development and betterment of this wonderful country of ours.

Today we are celebrating the start of learnerships for 128 learners in VODACOM. These learners will be inducted into five different learnership programmes including:

* The VODACOM Contact Centre Support Learnership: By participating in this type of programme, Vodacom is committed to ensuring ongoing development occurs and the entire Call Centre Industry benefits
* The VODACOM Systems Development Learnership: The aim of this learnership is to meet the skills shortages in the ICT Sector. This programme is in collaboration with the Department of Trade and Industry
* The VODACOM New Venture Creation Learnership: This is a programme for 52 Community Service Telephone Operators, commonly known as "Phone Shop Operators"
* The VODACOM Project Management Learnership: Aimed at unemployed youth willing to work with IT projects
* The VODACOM Telecommunications Technician Learnership: The aim of this programme is to ensure there are skilled and competent telecommunications network technicians in the industry.

It is clear that once these young people have acquired these skills they are not going to be the only one's to benefit. VODACOM need these skills for it to do business. Learnerships are a classic "win - win" situation - as both business and learners will benefit.

To the learners this is clearly a stepping-stone to a brighter future, and an opportunity that has sparked the smiles that we see in this room today. And I believe that at this rate we will easily have sparked the 80 000 smiles by March 2005.

As South Africa is celebrating 10 years of democracy, we can look back with pride on what has been achieved with regards to the implementation of the National Skills Development Strategy. This democracy might still be in its infant stages, yet we have set the benchmark in the world. Our country is looked upon as a leader amongst its peers. We are the envy of many nations.

But a long road still lies ahead. The Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector in our country reflects the skewed landscape of ownership, control and access to resources between those who were advantaged and disadvantaged by the previous regime. A huge digital divide still exists between the rich and poor, black and white, rural and urban population in our country.

As we look at the Skills Strategy through the lens of this particular sector, it is clear that its ultimate goal must be to narrow and eventually to close this divide - on two fronts - both within the country and as well as between this country, and the continent, and the more developed world generally.

And of course these two paths are linked - it is through working internally, that gradually our standing internationally will improve. We are not na