Education Minister praises HR profession
14-OCT-04
Mr Surty was addressing the Randse Afrikaanse Universiteit (RAU) conference celebrating its 25th anniversary of human resource management in Johannesburg.
The conference was themed organisational sustainability: balancing wealth and community wellness and aimed to make those in the human resource sector aware that the stability and well-being of the working class and communities as a whole had an impact on the economic sector.
"The economic challenges we are faced with necessitate hard work from business and government to achieve sustainable economic growth, to create jobs and improve the livelihood of our country within the global environment," he said.
Mr Surty urged those in the human resource sector to establish programmes that enhanced the communities and simultaneously sustained the country's economy.
He said that they should work with government to invest in quality education, provide skills to the community and to improve access to basic social services.
"We should continue to improve investments in 21st century education skills such as information technology, science and economics. We should gear this towards schools, tertiary institutions and on-the-job training," he said.
The deputy minister added that the well-being of communities also meant addressing the HIV and AIDS pandemic therefore human resources departments should introduce programmes and workshops in their workplaces.
"Let us work together to ensure that HIV/AIDS awareness translates to a change in behaviour so we could prevent new infections because the pandemic is robbing us of the talent of our youth," he said.
Source: BuaNews
