While South Africa’s unemployment rate of 27.1% in the fourth quarter of 2018 reflected a figure of 6.14 million jobless people – with youth unemployment above 50% – lack of skilled artisans has been singled out by experts as a major barrier to job creation and economic growth.
Deepening the dilemma of government and business in finding required qualified artisans is the fact that few young people take up training in the 13 key critical areas of the artisan economy, compared to many who prefer going to university after high school. One of the country’s biggest priorities is developing qualified artisans to deliver on strategic infrastructure projects , which include the construction of roads, schools, universities, harbours and power stations.
We had skilled artisans and engineers. BEE, AA and other discriminations forced them to take their skills overseas. Government has lowered the standard of education in SA so the skills they desire can not be developed either.