President Jacob Zuma will meet with the principals of 50 Further Education and Training (FET) colleges on Wednesday to examine the role FETs play in the country's skills development strategy.

The meeting in Pretoria, which would also look at the current level of skills in South Africa, aimed to examine options for how the country could produce scarce skills.

Specific skills, such as civil engineering, mining technology and engineering, information technology and computer science, finance, economics, electrical infrastructure and construction and accounting, were necessary to make South Africa’s comprehensive national infrastructure development programme a success.

The National Plan Vision 2030 recommended that FET colleges be strengthened to deliver on the required programmes, increase throughput rate and expand their infrastructure to produce at least 30 000 artisans a year.

The Department of Higher Education and Training’s Green Paper for Post-School Education and Training further deals with FET colleges as players of a more strategic role in the country's development.

Zuma also expected to gain a holistic understanding of the role of these institutions and their achievements, as well as their role in human resource development in the country, the challenges faced and the way forward.