'Skills dearth still a crisis'
Nov 15 2007 02:48 PM
Melissa Britz

Cape Town - The Inkatha Freedom Party has hit out at the Deputy-President for her comments that the skills crisis was as a result of economic growth.

This comes after the Deputy-President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, during a parliamentary question and answer session on Wednesday, said that the robust economic growth SA has been experiencing was increasing the demand for skilled labour.

The SABC's website reports that the International Investment Council, which advises the President on economic policy, recently revealed that SA's skills shortage forms part of a global trend.

There is a shortfall of particularly technical skills throughout the world, the council told the president at a three day meeting in George.

"The danger lies in the presumption that this makes it less of a crisis" says IFP spokesperson, Dr Usha Roopnarain.

The education system is not producing suffient graduates to adress the shortage with only 9.1% of people over 20 completing degrees or diplomas this year, according to Statistics SA. This compares negatively with an international graduate output rate of around 30%.

Government's expidited entry for priority skills has gone largely unnoticed with only 2 342 skilled foreigners taking up the offer between 2003 and 2005. This after 740 000 permits were made available. The number of permits were reduced to 47 600 permits in 2006.

"Yet SA is competing for skills with the rest of the world. We seriously need to up our game in attracting skills, and up the number of skilled people we produce. The sparkle of robust economic growth and keeping in step with global trends just cannot disguise the crisis we are facing, says the IFP."

Information supplied by www.fin24.co.za