Fri, 8 Nov 2024
22.7 C
Durban

Partnerships bring SMART skills to rural areas – CHIETA CEO

Home Manufacturing & Processing Chemicals Partnerships bring SMART skills to rural areas - CHIETA CEO

ACCESS to digital technology in rural South Africa has been a topic of concern and effort in recent years. Whilst some gains have been made to bridge the digital divide, there is still a great deal of work to be done as research has revealed that access to the internet in rural communities is a very low 1%, says Chemical Industries Education and Training Authority (CHIETA) CEO, Yershen Pillay.

This statistic affirms the extent to which young people living in rural reaches of the country are at a disadvantage in terms of gaining skills and knowledge that are critical to future careers across a broad range of sectors and the chemical industries sector is no exception.

With rural communities unable to function in a 4IR world, the impact will be felt with job losses and increased unemployment due to a deficiency of the necessary and potential technical skills.

In 2020, the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Dr Blade Nzimande articulated his vision for SMART Skills Centres to be established in all parts of the country.  Just two years after this call made by the Minister, CHIETA successfully opened its first SMART Skills Centre in Saldanha Bay, in the Western Cape and the second centre at the Port Elizabeth TVET College Iqhayiya campus, in Gqeberha, in the Eastern Cape.

Babanango, a small rural town near Melmoth in Northern KwaZulu-Natal will host the third SMART skills centre that is scheduled to open in September 2023. More recently, CHIETA signed a memorandum of understanding with the South African Forest Company Limited (SAFCOL) that will result in the construction of the first-ever Eco-Friendly SMART Skills Centre made entirely from timber. The centre will be situated in the Sabie area of Mpumalanga.

And we are only just getting going.

Our plan is to establish a SMART Skills Centre in all nine provinces and the CHIETA team is working steadily on this flagship project to usher in a new era of skills development and training. The strategic location of the SMART Skills Centres makes them accessible to remote communities that will ultimately benefit from the digitised training programmes for rural masses and also eases the cost burden of transport and data for poor learners.

The SMART Skills Centres’ services are free and include access to data and training courses aimed at job seekers, business start-ups and small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) that wish to grow their operations. The centres are fully automated and feature equipment that is in line with 4IR training requirements.

Each centre is an exemplar of excellence in technology education and research, enabling the development of high calibre solutions and the generation of business opportunities that drive innovation as part of these rural areas’ socioeconomic development.

CHIETA envisages that the rollout of the SMART Skills Centres will ultimately contribute towards advancing rural communities’ employability within various economic sectors, as it will enable skills development in line with the demands of emerging technologies and the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).

Whilst CHIETA’s determined and steadfast approach to making the SMART Skills Centres a reality has been a key success factor, we must recognise the important role played by the numerous partners that have worked closely with us in the successful establishment of the centres to date.

This serves to highlight the important role of partnerships in addressing the skills development challenges in the country.

Whilst we are SETA mandated to drive skills development in South Africa’s chemical industries sector, we cannot possibly do it alone. We rely extensively on forming partnerships with various sector stakeholders to ensure that the sector has the right skills in place now and in the future. It is for this reason that CHIETA has adopted a robust and ambitious partnership strategy that seeks to involve a wide cross-section of sector stakeholders in achieving our skills development mandate.

Innovative and ‘out-the-box’ thinking’ is critical and we will consistently seek innovative opportunities that allow for cross-sector collaboration and the implementation of meaningful projects and programmes that will yield the greatest impact.

About CHIETA

The Chemical Industries Education and Training Authority (CHIETA) is a statutory body that was established by the Skills Development Act in 1998. CHIETA’s role in the sector is to facilitate skills development as well as to ensure that skills needs are identified and addressed through various training initiatives in the chemical and manufacturing industries.

 

Most Popular

Sponsored News: Scope for private steam turbines to feed the grid – Weg Africa

STEAM turbines represent mission critical equipment for a range of industries from sugar and paper to steel and petrochemicals, and there is now greater...

Investment in EC cold storage facility boosts regional export capacity

COMMERCIAL Cold Holdings (CCH) has made a significant move to expand South Africa’s cold chain infrastructure by investing in CCH Greenbushes, a state-of-the-art commercial...

Regional development agency sells, leases and invests in diverse R1,4bn property portfolio

THE Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC) is rolling out a R546 million refurbishment programme of its R1,370 billion property portfolio which it says is...

Supporting crop productivity for SA’s large- and small-scale farmers

OPINION | AGRICULTURE is synonymous with food production and, in South Africa especially, employment creation. But the sector’s importance extends into the socio-economic realm...