It shows that there are severe problems in three key spheres of South Africa's human resources development, including the youth labour market, the workplace and the national system of science and innovation.
The conclusions emerged following extensive research by the The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), entitled 'Human Resources Development (HRD) Review 2003: Education, Employment and Skills'.
This study, which spanned three years, was commissioned by the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
In a statement released yesterday, the HSRC explained that problems that arise in all three spheres rarely trace back to one institution, or to the policies of one government department, but relate instead to a cross-section of government policies.
“Solutions for the development of human resource development (HRD) in South Africa need to be forged cross-sectorally and across various government departments,” said executive director of the HRD research programme at the HSRC, Dr Andre Kraak.
Dr Mark Orkin, CEO of the HSRC, said HRD was a springboard for South Africa's growth and its participation in the global economy, as it can provide the job skills and opportunities needed for the country's growing youth labour market; open up trade opportunities with other countries; and offer solutions to the country's brain drain in the sectors of science and innovation. According to Kraak the research led to the conclusion that dynamic growth in HRD demands investments in infrastructure on a scale far beyond the means of any single employer and what is required is large-scale investment in education and training institutions, research and development (R&D) facilities, networking activity among employers through formal associations, innovation partnerships between higher education institutions and industry, and industrial stability.
“For an HRD policy to succeed, such investments should involve the state, employers and civil society working in co-operation – what the international literature refers to as a joining up of social institutions, interacting and working together to reach their common goals.
The HRD Review will appear every three years and is aimed at stimulating this process of co-ordination,” he said.
The severe problems in key spheres are putting the brakes on HRD in South Africa, as key institutions in each sphere are reportedly out of sync with the dynamics and needs of other institutions, in some cases even working against each other.
In each sphere there is the need for a more aggressive joining-up of economic, industrial, firm-based, and education and training policies, to create one overarching and coherent economic and human resources development strategy for the medium to long term.
Such complex social problems require multi-faceted policy solutions across government departments and private sectors, along with a sophisticated and up-to-date management information system.
Only in this joined-up way will the country's broad HRD problems be effectively eliminated, Kraak says.
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