September 2009

Thulani Gcabashe, chairman of the Imperial Holdings Group, says enhancing their performance through skills development and training is the only way South African companies will compete effectively in international markets.

A 2008 study by Stanford University in the USA stating that the readiness of a nation’s young entrants to the job market has a profound effect on its economic growth rate, has some important lessons for South African business.

This was revealed by chairman of the Imperial Group, Thulani Gcabashe, who was speaking at the recent opening of the R24- illion Imperial Technical Training Academy in Germiston, Gauteng.

Gcabashe adds that the complementary relationship between both minimal and high levels skills and economic growth shows that there is a much larger skills deficit in developing countries than there is in industrialised nations.

“This shortage does not only derive from inadequate school enrolment and attainment but also from a lack of effective post-school technical and on-the-job training,” he says. “The magnitude of change needed makes it clear that closing the economic gap with industrial countries will require major structural changing in training institutions.”

From a South African perspective, Gcabashe adds that a study by the SA Human sciences research Council found that there was a significant misalignment between the needs of the growing South African economy and the supply of education and training in the period 2000 – 2005.

“Underpinning this misalignment,” Gcabashe says, "has been a dramatic shift in South Africa’s overall economic well-being, from a previous era characterised by economic stagnation in the 1990s to more recently when the rate of economic growth outstripped the ability of the supply-side institutions to provide the necessary quality of skills.

“With this in mind our skills training initiatives are indicative of our response and determination to develop the skills we need to retain a competitive and strategic advantage into the future.

“The need for continuous improvement and working better and smarter are no longer an option but a necessity,” Gcabashe emphasizes. “It is my belief that through this investment in education and training the Imperial Group will not only make a strategic investment for the sake of improving the organisation but also to improve the lives of others and leaving our country with a lasting legacy."