The National Skills Fund (NSF), together with the presidency, has allocated R100 million towards the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative, which will benefit over 5 000 learners in the digital learning space.
Higher education, science and innovation minister Dr Blade Nzimande announced the initiative on Friday, saying a request for proposals has since been advertised, inviting skills development providers to participate in the e-learning projects.
The NSF investment in digital learning comes as there is an upsurge in the adoption of education technologies in Southern Africa, which has seen demand for personal computing devices reaching record levels.
Nzimande said the NSF project will benefit more than 5 000 unemployed youth.
According to the minister, the NSF, which provides funding for skills development, has committed R200 million in total to the employment creation initiative.
“The total value of this project is in excess of R200 million and will assist more than 2 000 beneficiaries.”
Nzimande will this week host a national summit on Community Education and Training Colleges (CET).
He said the summit, which is the first of its kind, is aimed at “engaging with strategic partners in order for them to use community education learning centres to rollout skills programmes on a mass basis”.
Nzimande said he wants the summit to identify priorities for dedicated CET infrastructure, accreditation of programmes, lecturer capacity, partnerships and information management systems for proper monitoring and reporting.
“I am highlighting this because all our SETAs will be playing a central role in supporting our CET sector in the massification of skills development in our country, especially aligned with the skills strategy.
“In our recent meeting with SETAs, we concretised their support for CET colleges in the short-, medium- and long-term community projects.”
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