Employers urged to give college graduates opportunities
Minister of Higher Education Blade Nzimande has called on employers to open their workplaces for TVET college students.
Nzimande made comments during a briefing on Friday on the outcomes of his engagements with the Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs).
"As the Department of Higher Education and Training, we have therefore increased our targets for workplace-based learning for the financial year commencing on 1 April 2022, with our annual target above 107 000.
"In addition to the 107 000 workplace-based learning opportunities, which include learnerships, internships and work-integrated learning for the financial year 2022/23 - we are also targeting 20 500 opportunities for apprentices, 22 500 for artisanal trades, 31 300 for those completing learnerships and 148 000 for learners entering into various other skills development programmes, such as digital skills, crop production and plant production."
READ: Govt to provide clarity on mandatory Covid-19 vaccine policy, says Phaahla
Nzimande says their target is specifically TVET college graduates, to help bring down the country’s youth unemployment rate.
"TVET college graduates are the single largest in numbers. Yes, university graduates are unemployed, but the unemployment percentage of university graduates often is not more than six percent.
"At the moment, it's about 12 percent because of the impact of Covid-19. But unemployment of TVET college graduates is much higher than that - in fact higher than even 50 percent."
MORE FROM ECR
