The idea looks great,i'm also concerned about delivery and the very basics on learning areas like Maths-what is the plan to improve the quality of FET students on this regard?

The main challenge lies around the issue of funding. To train an artisan to the best level in which he or she can be economically active requires a significant investment. Artisanship training is a specialised field that needs engineers to be the actual trainers or instructors, not just ordinarily trained training practitioners that you find in most FET's and training centres. And the environment has to be fully conducive with a lot of machinery that are current (not outdated). I think this lack is what makes FET's produce less quality artisans, compared to comprehensive-engineering-artisanship training organisations such as Denel Technical Academy.

In my view it can only be improved with thorough partnerships with the industry, in terms of what specific companies in the industry need, and courses and practitioners to be developed according to those specific needs.

If the PPP can be fast tracked public FET's can benefit. Government should support and encourage PPP in capacitating public FET's.

My concern is that same FETs should produce 50 000 artisans by 2014. We all know that capacity is a challenge for public FETs, now is increase of learners to 1million. I'm not sure how this will work.

Let us refrain to quick implement good concepts or strategies. We need to engage and plan first

We concur with many of the statements made on this forum. This forum was initiated with the aim of creating a platform for open dialogue, whereby comments could be made, questions asked and possible solutions could be identified. We plan to gather all the feedback generated to create a report, which then will be forwarded to all relevant government departments. The aim of this forum is thus to act as a portal whereby industry specialists and industry leaders can effectively engage with the relevant departments.