SKILLS AUDIT DONE

Skills audit done in Mdantsane

By Tabisa Mntengwana
22 July 2009

MORE than 10 000 young and old skilled and unskilled residents of Mdantsane have been registered on the municipality's employment database.

The Skills Audit and Database Development project was prompted by the absence of a reliable data regarding the level of skills - formal and informal - and education in Mdantsane.

The initiative to register the available skills in Mdantsane, conducted by the City's local economic development, tourism and rural development department, is expected to help a great deal in addressing unemployment.

A credible and up to date database is the aim of gathering and capturing information on skills, experience, expertise and education.

This two-pronged approach for data collection kicked off with an open registration over four days from 16 to 19 July at various venues in Mdantsane.

Information gathered at this registration will be fed into the database and the first draft report will be written and presented to the local economic development, tourism and rural development unit. It will be used towards door to door field visits, during which data will be collected from households by field workers using a short and user-friendly questionnaire.

"Depending on the availability of the budget, we want to develop a skills strategy for Mdantsane," said the programme manager for small, medium and micro enterprises, Mzwanele Dlova. "Given the information gathered through the study, the strategy will talk to the plans the municipality has in terms of responding to the employment needs of the residents of Mdantsane.

"The ultimate goal is to assist Mdantsane residents to have access to job opportunities and to increase the economy of Mdantsane through the establishment of sustainable businesses."

Commenting on how people responded to the call, Dlova said the turn out on the first two days was good. "We got more or less the kind of response we were expecting. Things were a bit slow on Saturday and Sunday, understanding that people have commitments on weekends."

On completion of the project, the first draft overall report will be developed for approval by the council. The door to door visits will be conducted in mid-August.