Although Africa has up to 80% of certain minerals, such as platinum, Africa comprised only 1% of the world’s manufactured output and, out of the top three export commodities from 54 African countries, not one is a manufactured product. International Labour Organisation South Africa (ILO) president Vic van Vuuren argues that this development trajectory is unlikely to change materially until the continent’s skills base is aligned with the aspiration for higher levels of industrialisation and beneficiation.

“In reality, nothing has changed. If we look at all the statistics and policies in place, we have not been able to move forward. If we want to develop new skills, we must change our school curriculum,” he said at the inaugural Manufacturing Indaba, held in Ekurhuleni.

The ILO managed a project, called Entrepreneurship Development, in the Free State, which entailed introducing the subject Entrepreneurship: Practical Learning on how to do Business for grade 10 learners at 60 schools throughout the province.

“It is mind boggling what the learners can do once they have been exposed to the concept of entrepreneurship, the world of manufacturing and the options they have when it comes to making a living and creating a business,” he said.

Van Vuuren explained that the project focused on two components – the entre-preneurial side of development and the importance of manufacturing in the African context.

“Unless we are able to introduce those components to 12 000 schools, the product that you are going to get out of colleges and universities will not change in terms of producing employable skills,” he said.

Van Vuuren noted that, in the long term, government had to come to terms with the fact that South Africa was not producing a skills base that would bring about the changes needed.

“In the short term, we have to import the skills that we don’t have, and where better to go than into the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, where Botswana, Lesotho and Zimbabwe are producing the skills that South Africa needs, much better than what we are doing.”

He pointed out that South Africa should consider the free movement of people in the SADC region, which would enable the country to attract the kind of skills it needed in the short term to provide the impetus for growth.

“When it comes to existing skills in com-panies, we need to consider processes where we reskill workers and deploy them into an environment where they are needed,” he said, adding

that, amid the current unrest in South Africa’s platinum mine sector, there had been disengagement from the worker and management.

“We have to start getting back the confid- ence of the worker by going beyond collec- tive bargaining, wages and service conditions and start social dialogue mechanisms, where we engage with the worker on skills devel- opment and the future of the workforce,” he said.