Makana officials have announced a plan to address the shortage of technical skills in the municipality, while giving unemployed people in Grahamstown another option for improving their lives.
Makana officials have announced a plan to address the shortage of technical skills in the municipality, while giving unemployed people in Grahamstown another option for improving their lives.
Corporate Services director, Thabiso Klaas, announced at a recent mayoral imbizo that the municipality was exploring a partnership with the Midlands FET College to provide technical training in critical areas of its operations.
Municipal Manager Ntombi Baart said they were exploring ways of getting such training subsidised. "We have identified that as a municipality we need skilled artisans – electricians, plumbers and water operators." They would be employed in, for example, the municipality's Water Demand and Conservation Management Project, she said.
The municipality believed provincial and national government departments would help fund the courses. Education, Public Works, Labour, the Office of the Premier, the Development Bank of South Africa and relevant Setas [Sector Education and Training Authorities] would be approached. She said they would also suggest that the Development Bank of South Africa and others funding the Artisan Programme utilise the Midlands College as a training base and would suggest that Public Works build the appropriate training rooms.
Baart described how the municipality's strategic partnerships with the Rhodes University Business School and the National Arts Festival worked. During the Arts Festival last year, the municipality introduced a programme to support small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs).
Those selected were given seed money of R5 000 each and an opportunity to provide their goods and services to Festival visitors. The business school gave workshops on how to run a sustainable business.
“This year [during the Festival]new people will be taken and taught how to run their businesses,” Baart said. Baart then spoke to the residents at the Ward 7 imbizo about job-creation initiatives already under way. She said a trust had been formed to help run kaolin mining.
The municipality had approved the lease of the old divisional council building near Currie Street to the Kaolin Mining Trust for five years. Baart said recycling was another area in which people could make money and encouraged people to establish co-operatives.
Then, instead of the municipality hiring causals to do clean-ups, contracts could be offered to the co-operatives. The municipality’s Local Economic Development office could provide information on forming co-operatives.
Klaas said that the municipality had a database to which unemployed people could submit their CVs. “The database accommodates different categories, such as unemployed graduates, or skilled people such as artisans," Klaas said. "We also have a database for the unskilled and categorise them by the different wards they live in, so that they can be absorbed in projects in their areas.”
