Expand skills base to help economy - Ramaphosa

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa at the 2nd HRDC 2016 Summit held at the Gallagher Estate in Midrand. 290316. Picture: Chris Collingridge 215

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa at the 2nd HRDC 2016 Summit held at the Gallagher Estate in Midrand. 290316. Picture: Chris Collingridge 215

Published Mar 30, 2016

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Johannesburg - Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has called for a massive expansion of South Africa’s skills base to ensure people benefit from the country’s natural resources, create more jobs and boost the ailing economy.

With a skilled citizenry, the country could expand its industrial sector and process more raw materials because skills grow the economy, create jobs and “tend to raise the standard of living and reduce inequality”, he said.

Read: 'Apprenticeships vital for economic growth'

Ramaphosa was speaking at the Human Resource Development Council (HRDC) summit at Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand on Tuesday.

“The HRDC is one of the most important instruments that we have to effectively tackle poverty and underdevelopment through education and training.

“No country can achieve economic growth without paying attention to the skills development of its people,” said Ramaphosa, who is the chairman of the HRDC.

He dubbed it a brains trust of skills development for all South Africans, and the government was not content with merely extracting minerals and growing food as means to grow the economy, which grew by a paltry 1.3 percent in 2015 - down from 1.5 percent in 2014.

Read: Skills planning for tomorrow must begin today

“We want to manufacture and build, and we also want to process things. We want to extract more value, create more jobs and realise more development from our abundant natural wealth. At the centre of this, effort must necessarily be a massive expansion of our country’s skills base,” the deputy president said.

The government was making progress in transforming the economy and establishing the basis for faster job creation.

Yet, despite the progress, the country found itself in “very difficult and trying economic circumstances”.

Speaking before the deputy president, Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande said the economy was not in great shape currently, and that skills development should promote black industrialists and pay attention to black agriculturalists and agro-processors.

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@luyolomkentane

THE STAR

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