ACCELERATING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT THROUGH SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER: A PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN THE UNIVERSITIES, GOVERNMENT AND THE PRODUCTIVE SECTOR IN SOUTH AFRICA

This paper focus on an Internship Programme initiated and funded by the South African government to address social imperatives such as skills development as informed by the country’s Human Resources Development (www.labour.gov.za/ hr strategy) and the National Research and Development Strategies (www.info.gov.za/rd strategy). As outlined in the revised HRD strategy document (2008), “economic competiveness is measured not only by the aggregate skill of the country’s workforce, but by the flexibility and capacity of the workforce to adjust speedily to rapid changes in Technology, production, trade and work organisation”. South Africa as a country has made commitments to ensure the acceleration of training output in the priority areas of industrial design, tooling, engineering and technology to ensure a reliable supply of skilled labour to meet the country’s current and emerging social development priorities as outlined in the above policy driven strategies.

The Department of Science and Technology launched the internship programme in 2005 with the aim of ensuring university graduates in the Science and Technology sector have access and exposure to practical work experiences to accelerate their absorption into the economy. Specifically, the internship programme was designed to provide much needed skills and capacity to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME’s) in key sectors of the economy.
The objectives of the internship programme are:
• Empowering the Science, engineering and Technology graduates with relevant work experiences to ensure employability
• Encourage candidates from designated population groups to partake in critical field of engineering and science, including postgraduate level
• Encouraging postgraduate research outputs towards innovative ideas within the Science and Technology sector to enhance economic growth.

The internship programme is funded through and managed by Tshumisano Trust, which is the implementing agency of the department of science and technology. The mandate of the Agency is to strengthen the network of university based technology transfer centers (called technology stations) servicing technology based SME’s for participating in industrial value chains and promoting high growth sectors.

The two methods of graduate placements adopted by the Agency are: placement within the technology stations, which are hosted by the Universities of Technologies, where the students are exposed to applied research & development and also in training projects which they would not have had a chance to participate in if they were not part of the internship programme. The second placement is with industry (specifically, SME’s), where the graduates are exposed to the business acumen to influence the development of their entrepreneurial skills and aspirations to eventually contribute to adding value to the country’s economic development.

The paper is a progress report on the unique structure of the internship programme, all the stakeholders involved at different levels and the tangible impact of the programme on competitiveness of the assisted SME’s.