Premier’s Council on Skills to double down on Dual Occupational Training

On Tuesday, 1 October 2024, Premier Alan Winde chaired the Premier’s Council on Skills (PCS) at the College of Cape Town in Cape Town.

The PCS is a consultative forum responsible for coordinating skills development in the Western Cape. “If we are to drive economic growth which creates more jobs, we must ensure our residents are equipped with the skills they need to develop and thrive in a rapidly evolving job market. By enhancing skills, especially among the youth, we can develop a future-fit economy that helps to boost our province’s economic growth and uplift communities. Skills development is the bedrock of job creation,” said Premier Winde.

This iteration of the PCS focused on dual occupational training and fostering partnerships between the public and private sectors. Dual occupational training is an internationally recognised system that combines students' time in the classroom with work experience at partnering companies and businesses. This model of delivering technical and vocational education will enable the Western Cape to produce quality artisans, who are in demand in key sectors of the economy.

As hard as the Western Cape Government (WCG) is working to push down unemployment, we also recognise the need to address skills shortages. The Premier noted, “We all stand to benefit from our joint efforts to develop skills upliftment programmes such as dual occupational training.”

Skills training is a vital component of the WCG’s economic growth masterplan,  Growth For Jobs (G4J), particularly the strategy’s Priority Focus Area  7 which speaks to increasing access to economic opportunities and employability. This involves supporting school learners and those not in education, training or employment to be informed about the career pathways available to them to ensure they can make more informed career choices, and access pathways to skills coupled with workplace experience.

Addressing the PCS, the Premier said, “We are investing in the right qualifications, the right skills, and the right experience for jobs available now and in the future, so we can create more opportunities for young people.”

Dr Ivan Meyer, Western Cape Minister of Agriculture, Economic Development and Tourism, stated, “Given the significant number of unemployed youth, the PCS focused on practical steps to give young people access to skills for critical growth sectors in the province’s economy. A huge need was identified for more technical skills. The PCS is also encouraged by the private sector and industry participation to tackle the problem of youth unemployment. Just one example of our efforts to enable job creation, the Department of Mobility’s job seeker voucher plays a pivotal role in enhancing job opportunities. It achieves this by providing job seekers who have secured an interview with our partner employers with a travel voucher to enable them to get to job interviews to transition into the workforce. The ultimate goal of the WCG is to bring economic pathways and job opportunities closer to our citizens.”