Understanding the skills development needs of black industrialists in the context of supporting structural transformation in the 4th industrial revolution
Abstract
This proposal is prepared by the Education and Skills Development Research Programme (ESD) of the Human Science Research Council (HSRC) in response to a request for a research proposal by the Manufacturing, Engineering and Relates Services SETA (merSETA). In requesting a proposal, merSETA's objective is to procure research services to design and implement a national research project aimed at understanding the skills development needs of Black industrialists. Although related to the Sector Skills Plan (SSP) of the merSETA which considers a broad range of variables e.g. economic trends and change drivers, employer and employee composition, skills demand and skills mismatch, local and global economic conditions, etc. The development of globally competitive Black industrialists is primarily part of the post-apartheid transformation agenda and secondarily a skills development issue. Understood in these terms, merSETA's initiative to develop Black industrialists is in alignment with the Nation Development Plan (NDP) and specifically two aims of the NDP: (a) growing an inclusive economy (p. 24) and (b) to build a more equitable society where opportunity is not defined by race, gender, class or religion. This would mean building people's capabilities through access to quality education; as well as enabling access to employment, and transforming ownership patterns of the economy (p. 457).
