Skills key to changing lives
‘I am so excited that today I witness the realisation of Madiba’s dream of seeing South Africans climbing the ladder of success because of education - especially farm workers'
MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development, Themba Mthembu strongly believes that education and skills development is the great engine of personal development and key to changing lives.
Mthembu was speaking during the launch of Recognition of Prior Learnership programme held at Owen Sithole College of Education on Thursday.
‘I am so excited that today I witness the realisation of Madiba’s dream of seeing South Africans climbing the ladder of success because of education – especially farm workers.
‘It is a great pleasure to me to officially launch this training programme which goes hand in hand with Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL), which aims to train experienced farm workers to enable them to acquire more knowledge in farming, and be awarded with certificates after completion,’ he said.
Mthembu explained that agriculture is one of the sectors which were identified by President Cyril Ramaphosa to stimulate growth and create employment in the country.
‘It is important for us as government to invest in skills development. According to StatsSA, the number of unemployed people in South Africa has risen, and those mostly affected are the young people and women.
‘The objective of these programmes is to bridge the unemployment gap that exists in our country; we aim to contribute by training farmers and farm workers to get recognition for the skills they have acquired in the field of agriculture,’ he said.
He further explained that the programme is fully supported by various sponsors and his department will support the first 400 beneficiaries, who include farmers, learners around the district, students from various TVET colleges and 100 farm workers.
‘The Recognition of Prior Learning which is in partnership with Yikhonolakho Cooperative and AgriSeta will serve as a tool that will assist to address skills shortages within the agricultural sector, and also respond to the departmental skills development,’ he said.
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