(1888PressRelease)
April 04, 2009 - Academic studies (particularly Grant Thornton's Employment Growth Index) for 2009 reflect low employment growth figures in privately held business, which have declined in previous years.
"As expected, the retail and manufacturing sectors fared the worst ... the construction and services sectors are the sectors in which job growth has taken place in South Africa in the past year," national chairperson, Leonard Brehm, said in a statement. Unsurprisingly, private enterprise is reluctant to offer a portion of its revenue to training in times of recession - although unemployment rates call for urgency.
The South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAIC) has announced that South Africa has a scarcity of more than 22 000 accountants, while almost one and a half percent of those living and working in the country immigrate annually. The SAIC reports that it is vital that finance and accounting training be made available by providers to the country’s talent, in order to bridge the divide and revive the damages done by global recession.
The government has responded with a number of initiatives, including the National e-Skills Dialogue Initiative, after quantifying an official 37 565-person shortage in the ICT sector last year. Another programme, which hopes to see 3700 artisans accredited this year, include a number of learnerships, programmes and incentives registered by the Mining Qualifications Authority (MQA). However, detractors cry “too little, too late”.
As a result of the challenging economic stasis, training providers need to step up their efforts in nurturing South Africa’s talent. The Skills Portal is a skills knowledge base built to act as an intermediary for professionals, companies and training providers. Dedicated to training South Africa’s business through skills development, the Skills Portal is a BEE-accredited initiative.
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