Issued by Department of Labour
23 April 2001
The Premier of Gauteng, Premier Shilowa, other colleagues, the Directors General of the Departments of Labour and Education, members of the media, members of the National Skills Authority, the South African Qualifications Authority, Council of Higher Education, National Board for Further Education and Training, friends from the Sector Education and Training Authorities, from Further Education and Training, and from general schooling, trade unionists and employers, ladies and gentlemen, comrades.
It is with enormous pleasure that I join with my colleague, the honourable Minister of Education, Prof. Kader Asmal, in formally launching this, South Africa's first ever-integrated Human Resources Development Strategy. Those of you who are familiar with VHUTSiLA and Tirisano will be forgiven for assuming that the HRD strategy we are launching today is an aggregation of the two programmes. For the record this strategy is more than simply a combination of VHUTSiLA and Tirisano - it is more than the sum of its parts, however great those parts may be - it holds the promise of being a quantum leap forward for our country.
In some ways it holds of the promise of being like a great work of art - not one which is the product of an individual person's labour, but one which requires the commitment and dedication of a vast number of people. Like a play for example, or a music concert which is built on the vision of artistic genius, the gift and sweat of actors and musicians, composers and directors, light engineers, set designers and choreographers - and people who sell the tickets and hire the halls and market the production to gather the people, and those who set up the sound equipment and who clear up afterwards.
Of course it is important that the parts are good in themselves - if the play itself is uninspired, or the actors ill-prepared or the musicians heavy handed or the arrangements chaotic - then there is little hope. But even if the parts are good, if they don't work together, then the result can be as disastrous - if for example, the wrong actors get cast into great roles, or the lighting spoils the atmosphere or the music undermines the message.
But when the things come together 'on the night' as it were - then magic can happen. The audience can be entertained and educated and even elevated beyond the here and now into a world of new possibilities.
Our Human Resource Development Strategy is like this in a way - but on a grander scale. It is a play about plays - where each part is itself a drama, a system - but each part must complement others. This sounds so complicated and confusing, but it isn't really because parts MUST make a whole - like a TV series - where each episode should lead to the next and build on the past one but nevertheless also be a stand alone experience too. Every one of us has participated in some or other way in the various parts of the HRD system. As children, most of us in this room were lucky enough to start and finish school. The fortunate amongst us then went on to some form of training (I for example trained as a teacher and preacher) and, thereafter we looked for work. And here, some were lucky and some were not. Imagine a TV series that stops without an end - episode seven isn't followed by episode eight, but the bad guys are still out there and the plot is not solved - it leaves you hanging! That's what happens when education and training ends and there is no work! At this point the systems break down?
If we are to overcome the disaster of millions of our people being 'left hanging' and subsequently being trapped into poverty - then our Human Resource Development Strategy must ask - where are the jobs to come from and what kind of preparation is needed for them? And what kind of society do we want these jobs embedded into? Surely it is decent jobs that bring dignity and a rising quality of life to all - not just to the few - in a context of ever deepening democracy and respect for human values that go with it. If we don't say this upfront then frankly, millions will ask, "what's the point?"
As others before me have noted, the best way of knowing what the future holds, is to design it. That is why research and development plays so important a role in our Strategy. We don't only need answers - we need more and more people who study the physical and social environment, see the problems, construct possible scenarios and ask new questions - "what if…?". And from these new vantage points see new answers and grow new strategies. "Ah-ah!" Such break-throughs cannot be legislated and cannot be instructed - but as Gary Player once said about his golfing success "it's funny but the more I practice the luckier I get" - more research is a pre-requisite for more breakthroughs! Our colleagues in the Ministry of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology have agreed to take on the mantle of ensuring that this happens and not just more, but also better focused and supported research and development. This is one of our first priorities for this year!
Fortunately for us, we are not starting from scratch. Various government departments have already done a great deal of work, and in particular our colleagues in the Investment and Employment Cluster and the Social Cluster of Ministries have worked tirelessly with others to develop a framework for economic and social development action for this year. This helps a lot - because these frameworks throw light on the question of where the jobs are likely to come from? When they say things like - we are more likely to succeed in generating jobs in tourism, cultural industries, agriculture and communication technology than we are in some sectors of the economy then we can start planning. And if they say, as they do, that we must focus on exports as a way of creating jobs, then we had better look to those areas where we are in a position to out-compete others, such as in agro-processing, automobile components, mining technology and minerals beneficiation as well as clothing and textiles. And as for poverty relief - the Integrated Rural Strategy and the Urban Renewal Programme must lay the basis for sustainable growth in the future - water, houses, roads and health and schooling - are all pre-conditions for future growth be it in self-employment or investment by others.
For our Human Resource Development Strategy these are signals, spotlights, into the dimly lit future, but through these shadows we must design the roles that various actors must play to bring these into the light. And associated with these roles are the knowledge and skills needed for their execution. This is certainly not what was once called 'manpower planning' - it is about envisioning a future we want to see and then going all out to make it come true.
In our priorities for this year, 2001, we are saying that we must identify those roles and functions that most urgently need to be filled if we are to move ahead with our plans. Some are so urgent that we don't even have time to train our own folk - and we will, like other countries the world over, have to try and attract those who already have the skills to do the work (not to take it from others, but to make work for others possible). We are saying that all the legal impediments to this happening must be resolved by August at the latest.
But of course the key focus is to train our own people for these roles and functions. And both the public as well as the private sector should actively work to identify the roles and functions that are most urgently needed and then help us to ensure that people are quickly identified and put onto programmes so that they can soon play their part in bringing our desired future into the present. In our Strategy we talk about these as "Scarce Skills". For our part we are committed to providing support to this process through back-up bursaries and learnership schemes. We trust that our further and higher education and training providers will respond quickly and effectively to these needs. This is a key linkage that the HRD strategy will seek to strengthen.
Who must actually identify the scarce skills? Well, its those who are best placed to understand and interpret the dynamics and opportunities in the world 'out-there'. And who are these people? Those who are already working in the field - employers and workers as well as industry and technology policy analysts - who are studying the environment for their own purposes anyway. Going to individuals will be much too hard so we will be looking to the Sector Education and Training Authorities for this intelligence, as well as turning to our colleagues in DTI and DACST. And this is not a long-term 'pie in the sky' thing - we want you, in the next month to tell us what you already know from your Sector Skills Plans and work already done - so that we can start allocating bursaries and designing learnerships to meet these needs. 1000 bursaries awarded by March next year and at least 3000 youngsters in learnerships are the targets we are setting ourselves. We mean business. My department will be co-ordinating work in the learnership area (and we'll be seeing another launch, this time of learnerships in June) and the Department of Education will be doing the same for the bursary area. But of course this does not mean we will do all the work!
The Department of Trade and Industry has, in addition, a special role to play in bringing together all of us who are engaged in doing work in support of small business development - where jobs must certainly be created. By August this year we anticipate that an integrated action plan will be launched. As this is linked to and is complementary to other industry policy work it will be double-edged: both helping us all to see the opportunities as well as helping us to pool our efforts for best possible impact.
Let me add a special word on the public sector. Service delivery is fundamental to all this. I will assume that you agree with me on this (because of course we need the police to enhance safety and security for all, we need nurses and doctors to provide a healthcare net, we need teachers and others to play their part). To achieve this all government departments need to be involved: not only in signalling those skills that are needed to deliver front line and specialist services, but also those that are needed to support and manage the people on the frontline. Our Human Resource Development priorities signal that all government departments must take responsibility for doing this - this year, and doing it in ways that conform to emerging good practice and guidelines (which includes working in partnership with the private sector under the umbrella of SETAs where appropriate). If you look at our priorities you will see that the Department of Public Service and Administration is to play a key leadership role here, and is to be supported in its efforts by the Public Service Education and Training Authority as well as SAMDI and other public service education and training providers.
For the very young, there will a special focus on Early Childhood Development. Prof Asmal's Department will take the lead in this area to ensure that commitments to finalise policy by May this year are delivered and that implementation progress is achieved against set targets thereafter. He will also be taking the lead in the area of literacy and adult basic education and training - although we have an agreement to strongly co-operate in this area.
So we have seven priority areas for this year and for each we have identified a co-ordinating department whose responsibility it is to promote co-operation across government and to facilitate the input of our social partners. The seven are summarised in the HRD Strategy document you have in front of you.
The co-ordinating departments have already been asked to nominate a responsible official to do the work, and these people together will form a Co-ordinating Committee - the HRD Co-ordinating Committee - that will report to and advise the Directors General of Education and Labour, who in turn will advise myself and the Minister of Education so that we are in a position to report to the President, our Cabinet Colleagues and the country as whole on how well we are doing in the achievement of our targets. The services of the Human Sciences Research Council have been secured to support us in this task, and they will be our partners in monitoring and evaluation as well.
This is how we are planning to orchestrate our concert - or, if you will, direct our play. The resources of government are to be shepherded (excuse the pun on my name) into serving these objectives. I know that there are some here, and out there, who may believe we should have spent time discussing these targets and this approach more broadly. Our view is that there has been enough discussion. Each one of the component parts of our Strategy is the product of social dialogue - all we have done is put the pieces together in a way we believe will achieve maximum impact. To that end we have identified seven key areas in which we believe high energy should be allocated this year. This does not mean that other areas will fade from focus. Rather we have identified as priorities those areas where we believe the most benefit is to be achieved from co-ordination rather than individual department action.
In conclusion let me say that this 'creation' of ours, will only achieve greatness, will only find its magic, if, each and every one of us moves from the audience into the cast - and becomes an actor in the process of constructing the future we all want: where our Nation is at Work for a Better Life for All. We stand ready to play our part - please join us - leave today asking yourself the question: what is my role? Here is plan - let's all role up our sleeves. I thank you.
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