The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) has set aside almost R2-billion in bursaries for students at further education and training (FET) institutions.

“We have increased funding for bursaries from R310-million in 2009 to R2-billion this year,” Higher Education and Training Minister Dr Blade Nzimande said in Tembisa, on the East Rand, earlier this month.

Nzimande and his deputy, Mduduzi Manana, have declared 2013 the year of the artisan.

It is estimated that 5 600 new artisans qualify every year and government has set a target of 50 000 artisans by 2014. It has asked big business to support this by providing workplace training and experience.

The DHET aims to focus intensively on artisan training as part of the national strategy to deal with the shortage of critical skills in South Africa.

The department’s goal is to develop FET colleges into institutions of choice to eliminate the importing of skills and deliver on the Strategic Infrastructure Projects (SIPs), which makes the training of new artisans essential.

During the President’s State of the Nation Address last year, it was announced that about R1-trillion had been allocated for infrastructure projects, making the avail- ability of qualified and competent artisans critical.

The SIPs include the building of roads, schools, universities, harbours, power sta- tions and other social and economic infrastructure. These projects require a significant number of qualified artisans and government regards this and other midlevel skills as a priority.

One intervention is the National Artisan Development Conference held in July last year, during which a platform was established to review the state of artisan development each year and allow for discussions on how to continuously improve the National Programme for Artisan Development.

Further, an initiative to improve the process and increase the volume of artisans trained, the 7 Steps to Becoming a Qualified Artisan, advocates the programme and allows for a common, national cross-sector education and training authority and a cross-sector understanding of the processes involved in becoming an artisan.

According to Nzimande, institutional knowledge and general public knowledge of the artisan training process are confusing and have caused blockages in the artisan development system.

Manana will lead provincial roadshows to highlight the basic steps in becoming an artisan, and promote artisanry as a career of choice, raise awareness of the professionalisation of artisanry by upskilling existing artisans through the recognition of prior learning processes and highlighting skills development opportunities and informing the youth about the industries that need artisans.