By Libuseng Nyaka
QWAQWA-The executive mayor of Thabo Mofutsanana district municipality, Conny Msibi, says new innovative methods and equipping youth with skills and qualifications relevant to the labour market are key in addressing unemployment.
Msibi said this in an interview with The Guard after her inauguration as executive mayor of Thabo Mofutsanyana district municipality.
She said this can be achieved through the involvement of other institutions such as private sector and institutions of education in order to identify relevant skills needed in the labour market and for job creation.
“Through skills development we can unlock job opportunities. It is time to change mindset and use our hands to generate income and put bread on the table. Skills development is very crucial. Many of our children have studied and acquired qualifications in different fields of studies but remain unemployed due to qualification that do not match labour and job markets.”
Msibi ‘s plan could soon be realized through a plan to introduce Central University Technology (CUT) QwaQwa campus in Maluti-A-phofung with talks at advanced stage.
Both management of Maluti-A-Phofung local municipality and CUT have already held meeting where they discussed on the way forward, during a meeting held at municipality on November 10, 2020.
The CUT delegation was led by the deputy vice-chancellor for Research, Innovation, and Engagements, Professor Alfred Ngowi in response to the request made by Maluti-a-Phofung municipal manager Futhudi Mothamaha.
Mothamaha, described the establishment of a CUT campus in Maluti-A-Phofung as an opportunity that will offer skills in the areas of Engineering, Sciences, Technology, and Health Sciences.
Meanwhile during an interview with the public broadcast weighing on how South Africa can reinvent and move forward from the current situation, world council for graduates Thamsanqa Maqubela has this say,
“With 1.2 million unemployed graduates’ mindset must be changed . We cannot have graduates who say we do not know what to do, while we have so many people with less than a matric looking up to them for solutions.”
Strategy director at Yellowwood Ntombizamasala Hlophe has this to say:
“Change strategies and primarily focus on encouraging entrepreneurship. The young people focus on different forms of income generation rather just formal employment and I can appreciate that for South Africa we do have increased especially because we want security that comes with formal jobs employment. Almost 60 percent of young people is already in entrepreneurial jobs.”
