The Limpopo provincial government has partnered with technical, vocational education and training (Tvet) colleges in the province to improve skills that feed into mining and industrialisation in an endeavor to create more jobs and improve the local economy after Covid.
One example is the recent partnership with Vhembe Tvet college, outside Thohoyandou.
Some of the other colleges involved are Capricorn, Mopani, Vhembe, Lephalale, Letaba, Mopani and Waterberg.
The Limpopo Human Resources Development Council recently visited some of the colleges to assess whether skills offered in such institutions are in line with available job opportunities.
Skills
Some of the skills offered in the Tvet colleges are boiler making, fitting and turning, upholstery, diesel mechanic courses, professional cookery, electrical engineering, robotics and building and construction.
The council said yesterday some of the skills were meant to enable graduates to establish their own companies and eventually create employment for others.
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Figures
According to the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey by Statistcs South Africa, Limpopo’s unemployment rate had declined by 2.1 percentage points from 33.9% in 2021 to 31.8% in the fourth quarter of 2022.
The country has recorded economic growth of 1.6% and Limpopo created at least 133 000 jobs.
Yesterday, spokesperson for the Limpopo provincial government Ndavhe Ramakuela said the province’s GDP growth had been slow, growing on an average below 2% from 2010 to 2019.
“The provincial economy contracted by 7.2% in 2020 and there was a rebound of 7% in 2021. “The province’s positive economic growth in 2021 can be credited to booming mining commodity prices,” he said.
“In 2021, the Limpopo mining industry had the biggest share in terms of contribution to the provincial economy at 31.2%.
“Mining was followed by commodity services at 24.4%, finance at 16.8%, and trade at 13.3%. Transport was at 3.6%, electricity 3.4%, agriculture 3.1%, manufacturing 2.4%, while construction had a share of 1.8%,” said Ramakuela.
He added that Limpopo was among the top five provinces that recorded the largest increases in employment in the fourth quarter of the last financial year.
Gauteng went up by 381 000, Western Cape by 333 000, Mpumalanga by 134 000, Limpopo by 133 000 and Eastern Cape by 132 000.
Ramakuela revealed that the number of employed persons in Limpopo today is 1 337 000, compared to 1 184 000 in the last quarter of 2021.
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