By IANS
Pretoria : A group of South African youth will train over the next three months in India in a programme for infrastructure development skill under the auspices of the trade representative body Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), South African news agency BuaNews reported Wednesday.
The selected people, numbering some 100, will be at the National Academy of Construction in Hyderabad, which, apart from classroom instructions, facilitates the development of construction resources, technologies and methodologies and help in laying down construction policies.
The CII Artisan Training programme was floated after South Africa and India agreed to cooperate on the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) and Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (ASGISA) projects, both spearheaded by South African Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
“Learners will be armed with technical skills in construction which in turn will open up job opportunities for them by the end of the programme and will prepare them to take over from the country’s ageing development project leaders,” Mlambo-Ngcuka said.
Chief executive of the government sponsored youth fund, Malose Kekana said there have been constraints in the economic growth of South Africa due to lack of infrastructure. He said South Africans would gain much through such partnerships.
“This gesture will bring with it more joint ventures (with India)in terms of road construction, bridges, railways and the building of low-cost housing for our growing population,” said Kekana.
He said the engineering sector was struggling to attract, recruit and retain younger staff and that a larger number of engineers and artisans were either in their late 40s or older.
“On the other hand, the skills that these young people will bring back, will aid South Africa as we go towards the 2010 FIFA World Cup and beyond,” said Kekana.