DIGEST 2006 - Sabita

environment and red tape on
small and medium–sized
businesses; and deficiencies in
State organisation, capacity and
leadership” (Le Roux, 2006).
The Joint Initiative on Priority
Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) has
subsequently been launched to
counter the skills
dearth of engineers,
artisans and other
technically skilled
people who will be
essential in making
ASGISA work.
JIPSA was launched
on March 27 2006
by Deputy President
Phumzile
Mlambo-Ngcuka as
a multi-stakeholder
group in which
government,
business and labour
have joined forces
to fast-track the provision of
priority skills for accelerated and
shared growth.
These include high-level,
world-class engineering and
planning skills for core network
industries, such as transport,
communications and energy.
Other critical skills on the list are:
• city, urban and regional
planning and engineering
skills;
• artisan and technical skills,
particularly, those needed for
infrastructure development;
• management and planning in
education, health and
municipalities;
JIPSA targets call
for engineering
graduates to
increase by 1000
per year;
technologists by
300 per year; and
artisans by 15 000
to 20 000
per year
• teacher training for
mathematics, science,
information and
communication technology
(ICT); and
• language competence in
public education. (Le Roux,
2006).
JIPSA has
subsequently set
“rough” targets for
South Africa’s
universities and
universities of
technology. They
must increase the
number of
engineering
graduates by a total
of 1000 graduates
per year. Secondly,
the country’s
universities of
technology must
increase the
number of
technologists they produce by 300
a year. Thirdly the number of
qualifying artisans must be
increased to between 15 000 and
20 000 a year. (Le Roux, 2006).
An amount of R48 million has
immediately been made available
to give support to engineering
faculties to achieve these targets.
Unfortunately “correcting
formulas” used in the past
prevailed in the current funding
allocation to universities, resulting
in institutions like the University of
Stellenbosch receiving nothing
because their student demographics
are not satisfactory. This
tendency to persist with political
adjustment motives ignores the
reality of the limited capacities at
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