The private sector is not doing nearly enough to help unemployed graduates acquire critically needed skills for South Africa’s economic growth, says Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

Presenting the first progress report for the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition, Mlambo-Ngcuka called upon local companies to do their bit to ensure that the Jipsa targets were met.

Jipsa is an initiative led by government, organized labour and business to identify the country’s solutions to skills shortages in the critical areas of the economy in order to meet the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa’s (AsgiSA) goals.

AsgiSA seeks to increase the annual Gross Domestic Product growth rate to 6 percent by 2010 in order to reduce South Africa’s unemployment from 30 percent to 15 percent and to halve the country’s poverty levels by 2014.

Mlambo-Ngcuka said since the launch of the initiative, about 4 700 unemployed graduates had been placed in local and foreign companies to acquire much needed skills, adding that about 4 000 of the group had been placed within local companies.

About fifty of the graduates were sent to India to gain skills in the fields of Information and Communication Technology, infrastructure and finance and another 300 were sent to China, she said, adding that the local petroleum company Sasol had taken some to Germany and Qatar.

“But, what South African companies are doing is not enough. We feel that the private sector can do more,” Mlambo-Ngcuka said.

The business community said Monday that it had “seriously noted” the problem as stated by the Deputy President.

Speaking to BuaNews Chief Executive of the Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) Jerry Vilakazi said there was “goodwill within the private sector” to come to the party and make a meaningful contribution.

“Already there is a process of collecting data in terms of what companies have been doing regarding skills development.

“There are companies out there that are doing very well in response to the challenge but we believe the information will give us a clearer view of what the private sector has contributed,” Vilakazi said.

He added that BUSA had started a process to mobilize companies to recruit young unemployed graduates.

BuaNews