Draft Presentation
Maritime Skills Summit
21 September 2011
Deputy Minister of Higher Education
and Training, Prof Hlengiwe Mkhize
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Background
 South African broad growth and development
strategy aims to promote and accelerate
economic growth along a path that generates
decent and sustainable jobs to:
 Reduce poverty and extreme inequalities that
characterise the SA society and economy
 There is a need to identify and prioritise high
impact sector strategies that are crucial to place
the economy on a higher growth and
developmental path
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Background
 The New Growth Path acknowledges that
lack of adequate education and deficit in the
supply of skills are impediments to job
creation and reduced poverty levels
 Growth Path calls for the education system that
will equip SA citizens to participate in the
economy
 Careful planning is needed to support the human
resources development needs necessary to fuel
the country’s growth path aspirations
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Background
 SAMSA presentation to HRDCSA meeting of
5 August 2011 highlighted the following:
 Maritime sector presents SA with opportunity to
attain development goals
 Sector has a potential to become a major
industry as it can generate large scale
employment both on-board ships and in related
non seafaring labour intensive industries ashore
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However
 The pool of qualified and experienced maritime skills
has been declining for some time, due to lack of locally
registered vessels
 There are skills shortages in almost every facet of the
maritime industry, including marine engineers, port
managers, tug masters, maritime lawyers and financiers
 This poses significant challenges for the sector to
advance maritime interest including SA development
agenda
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Furthermore
 SA has basic infrastructure to develop skills in
the maritime sector
 However there are challenges related to:
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Inadequate secondary and tertiary institutions
Inadequate maritime courses
High cost of training
Lack of suitably qualified teaching staff
Unavailability of training berths
Maritime education and training not well structured
Insufficient coordination amongst various clusters of public and private
sector
 SETAs, FET colleges and universities less responsive to the needs of
the maritime sector
 No long term vision for supporting the sector
 Limited awareness of maritime sector careers and job opportunities
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Revelation…
 Revelation is a cause for concern from the
Council, whose role is to address
bottlenecks that will hinder delivery of targets
as spelled out on the Human Resources
Development Strategy, hence the Council
recommended the following:
 Maritime sector to be part of the NGP
 Explore possibilities of dedicated skills support for the maritime
industry
 Support SAMSA in hosting the Maritime Skills Summit
 Engage with maritime sector employers, Navy, SAMSA,
Transnet in resolving challenges
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Revelation…
 Revelation cause for concern for my
Department responsible for:
 Universities
 Colleges
 Adult Education Centres
 Levy Grant Institutions (SETAs and
NSF)
 Regulatory and Advisory Institutions on
skills
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Whose vision
• Expanded, effective,
coherent, integrated,
differentiated, but
highly articulated post
school system that is
responsive to the
needs of our economy
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I am here today to
 Wearing two caps:
 HRDCSA Member
 Minister of DHET
 Listen to challenges facing the sector from
the skills point of view and reach
consensus on the role my Department
and Council will play in supporting the
sector
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Hope the summit will
 Recommend initiatives intended to:
 Guide work needed to support the sector from
the skills and human resources point of view
 Action plan and roles and responsibilities of
various departments in the human resources
development value chain
 Set out a country’s vision for maritime skills
development trajectory
 Secure planning and delivery alignment across
the entire human resources development value
chain
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Most specifically
 The summit will recommend initiatives to
address the following dilemmas
 insufficient infrastructure and capacity for
skills development
 Lack of industry transformation and shortage
of training berths for cadets
 Better understanding of international regime
governing shipping space
 Need for local ownership of the industry to
ensure job creation for S Africans
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Most specifically
 How to address the global shortage of
seafarers which presents an opportunity
for becoming a labour supply nation to the
global shipping transport industry, thereby
creating jobs particularly for the youth in
the underdeveloped parts of the country,
including rural and township areas
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So that
 We can claim a share of 30 000 to 45 000
seafaring jobs in international shipping,
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Conclusion
 DHET and HRDCSA Committed to Work
with SAMSA and key stakeholders to:
 Work together to develop skills in the maritime
sector
 Review the status and chart the course of Maritime
Education and Training in South Africa
 Develop education and training blue print for the
sector
 Support research, development and innovation
 Maritime career profiling
 Promote lifelong learning
 Develop maritime education pathways
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Thank you!!
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