Comments on: There’s more to the skills crisis than emigration

By: chacma

chacma — Sat, 30 Sep 2023 05:32:17 +0000

To continue, My late father a precision engineer could take a boy with std 8 now grade 10 and put him to work in the workshop and he new how to cut gears, use a lathe, a milling machine and read engineering plans. A kid from a conventional school with matric could not do that and had to start from scratch. The technical high schools supplied staff for the railways, defense force and industry in general. Your matric training at high school had the same level of training as the 3rd year of most apprenticeships

By: chacma

chacma — Sat, 30 Sep 2023 05:26:36 +0000

The skills crisis started with the cancellation of apprenticeships and introduction of learnerships.
Also the closure of schools such as the old version of Oude Molen Technical High School , sadly functions as a normal high school today with civil engineering being its only subject. The workshops still exist for woodwork, fitting and turning, electrical, welding and motor mechanics. All the equipment lies sleeping under dust covers in the workshops behind the school. Every city in south Africa has these wonderful schools. Sadly the equipment lies rotting with age in the workshop.

By: Lubabalo Lokwe

Lubabalo Lokwe — Sat, 30 Sep 2023 03:28:21 +0000

Richard, you have hit the nail on the head in your first paragraph. Companies in general have an affinity to not employe previously disadvantaged skilled workers. More so their reasons are often sighted as inexperience in the Financial Services industry. My laymen’s assessment is that other previously advantaged individuals are gatekeepers as there is a need for self-preservation.