The inefficient channelling of young people from basic education to higher education and into the labour market is a major difficulty facing the Human Resource Development Council (HRDC), Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe said on Tuesday.

"Unblocking and removing these bottlenecks represents one of the major tasks of this Council. Gathered here, we need to find solutions and look beyond ourselves as individuals and our constituencies," he said at the inaugural meeting of the HRDC in Pretoria.

Although the country had come a long way in the liberation struggle, the majority of people still faced "unbelievable obstacles" that prevented them from leading economically productive lives, he said.

"Recent economic turmoil has impacted our nation dramatically.

"Over half a million people lost their jobs in the past year only. And many of our young people, with academic qualifications, remain unemployed because our skills supply does not match our labour market demands.

"An increasing portion of young people drop out of school and cannot find work," said Motlanthe.

"It is our responsibility to bring about articulation between the various sub-systems to allow for optimal achievement of systemic outcomes.

"We need to ensure that our human resources policies harmonise with economic development needs and opportunities, and that they are broad based and opportunity-specific."

Motlanthe said that, with the support of Minister of Higher Education and Training Blade Nzimande, he would lead the strategy from government's side.

Appropriate supporting structures would be set up to support the HRDC's work.

The HRDC was set up to contribute towards reaching national goals which include reducing poverty and unemployment, promoting justice and social cohesion, and improving national economic growth.

"We would lead the implementation of a joint initiative of government, organised business, organised labour, civil society, research and academic community, higher education institutions and to accelerate the provision of human resources of the country," said the Deputy President.

"We have a huge amount of work to do. Each one of us represents a sub-system of human resource development.

"These sub-systems have a critical role to play in improving our human resource development," he said.