One of the topics raised at the BHP Billiton Skills Development Summit was the New Growth Path. Cabinet proposed this path as a means to address key challenges faced within the skills arena as well as creating possible solutions for them. The new path sets bold targets that may seem unapproachable to some.

The core aim is to ensure inclusive growth through large-scale employment creation, setting targets for specific skills but recognising the central need for improved education and broader skills training.

One of the main challenges faced by the cabinet is economic growth. Between 1994 and present, South Africa's economic growth has equalled the average for middle-income countries. Employment and private investment dropped sharply in the downturn and have not recovered well. South Africa also remains one of the most inequitable countries in the world. Our unemployment rate far exceeds those of other countries and many suggest that it is directly linked to inequalities in asset ownership and access to basic education, a legacy of the apartheid era.

The current target rates set are primarily linked to the employment rate. The objective here is to create five million new jobs over the next ten years and to address macro and micro policies in order to support more equitable and employment intensive growth through:

· Creating a competitive economy, including the value of the currency, infrastructure, skills and wage goods.
· Systematically encouraging more labour-intensive and green activities with a
· greater focus on domestic and regional markets.
· Creating social dialogue and solidarity as a central element to change, which is particularly important for skills development.

Employment intensity and growth

· The jobs target requires growth AND greater employment intensity of growth (employment increase relative to GDP growth);
· Employment intensity of 0,2% would require a growth rate of over 15%;
· Employment intensity of 0,8 would require a growth rate of 4%.

Innovation around "job drivers" includes:

· Sustained high public investment in infrastructure with stronger local procurement
· Targets for smallholders in agriculture linked to restructured land reform
· Mining to incentivise output growth plus beneficiation at stage 4, not smelting and refining
· Increased emphasis on high-level services (tourism, culture, business, education, healthcare, software)
· Green economy as a major potential area for employment creation
· African regional development centred on driving improved infrastructure and economic value-chains

HRD and the New Growth Path

· Education and skills are necessary but not sufficient to increase employment levels
· 33% of adults with less than matric are employed
· 48% of adults with matric
· 79% of adults with post-matric
· Inequalities in skills mean inequitable economic outcomes – shortages at top lead to higher incomes while lack of jobs for lower skilled depress pay for ordinary workers

Education

South Africans have more or less the same number of years of schooling as workers in other middle-income countries. But it lags behind due to:
· Deep inequalities which lead to unacceptable quality in most black communities, especially around maths and science and especially in the rural areas and informal settlements.
· The share of the labour force with tertiary education is still highly unrepresentative.
· Weak vocational training systems that lead to a shortage of artisans in particular.

Due to the above mentioned challenges, our skills system has encountered a so called "bottle neck" of note. Artisans, tertiary institutes, project management and design programs have all been scrutinised.

Further targets set to include these elements are as follow:
· Train 30 000 engineers and 50 000 artisans by 2014/5.
· Increase the intake of FET to a million by 2014 once issues with throughput has been addressed.
· Implement basic computer skills in all secondary schools, ABET and for public servants.

Although initial targets agreed with DHET, findings on throughput problems in FET mean they need to be reviewed carefully.

Overcoming inequalities

Researchers claim that the inequitable education system based on race and location was central to the inequality of opportunity. Since the beginning of 1990, many governmental systems that were put in place focused on ensuring that skills development supported social mobility but were not implemented stringently. (SETA's, SAQA)

These gave rise to the following targets:
· 1,2 million workers to receive certified workplace skills development a year from 2013.
· Target 10% of workers in each sector every year.
· Improve SETA governance, accountability and administrative systems with focus on identifying sector skill needs.
· Review FET, HET and apprenticeships to ensure greater access for learners from disadvantaged schools.

South Africa's opportunities in the knowledge economy include business and personal services (finance, legal, software; health, education) which are crucial for African development as well as strengthening skills to achieve world-class levels. South Africa is regarded by some as the higher education hub for the African continent.

Be that as it may, there is no guarantee that insuring support for these sectors will not reinforce inequalities.
A vital question posed is: Can we increase “exports” of health and education without reducing services, especially for poor South Africans?

Skills accord

· SETA's have been called upon to support the employment vision set within the New Growth Plan.
· At the same time, the onus is on employers to train more than what their company currently requires and thus increasing their training spend to between 4% and 6% of their payroll.
· The appeal was made for Labour to recognise the special status of trainees.
· Business and government to make internship places available to students from FET colleges, universities of technology and lecturers
· Government to set training targets in every SOE