By Akani Nkuna
Amidst South Africa’s evolving economic landscape, the Insurance Sector Education and Training Authority (INSETA) has issued a clarion call for a collaborative skills development approach.
By joining forces, stakeholders can address pressing skills gap, drive workforce transformation and ultimately fuel sustainable economic growth.
“We pride ourselves in collaborations, and also with working with multiple stakeholders. You will see the 40 exhibiters that are in the exhibition area are not just stakeholders that we have picked in the streets and decided to be part of the programme,” INSETA CEO Gugu Mkhize told the inaugural Insurance Skills Indaba conference.
“These are stakeholders that we work with almost on a daily basis because we believe in the in the power of collaboration.”
The conference at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand brought together industry leaders, policymakers, government officials and professionals. Its purpose was to provide a platform for collaboration, networking and sharing best practices, centred on the theme “A Responsive Disruption Through Skills Innovation”.
Mkhize emphasised that the primary goal of uniting all stakeholders was to facilitate discussions on sales skills because upskilling did not occur in isolation. Instead, it required partnerships and engagement among all parties to ensure meaningful and relevant conversations on advancing skills development.
Over the past five years, INSETA, in partnership with the Higher Education and Skills Development Department, has taken pride in successfully meeting its set targets, particularly around skills development.
“Five years on, we have been able to invest about R1.8 billion in skills development. We have also trained or facilitated the training of more than 72,000 people in our industry, both unemployed youth as well as the workers in the sector and small businesses,” said Mkhize.
She emphasised that while INSETA’s main role was to facilitate skills development, it also ensured that those who were given opportunities were well prepared to make a meaningful impact in the workplace.
“Our key role is to facilitate skills development, but also to ensure that the people who are being trained are ready for the world of work. And we cannot do this on our own. We do it with the collaboration of the industry… training providers… universities who help us with the research and look at what are the relevant and critical skills,” Mkhize said.
Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi told the indaba that government intended to collaborate with INSETA to develop skills that would boost the economy while ensuring that all young people have opportunities to grow.
“We register 650,000 [unemployed youth] that needed to be re-skilled last year, and we are proud with the partners that we have now that we are ready to take those to be re-skilled so that they can be relevant to the economy,” said Lesufi.
“So all the SETAs that are here, come and choose the skills that we can train these young people for, so that we do not have a Monday to Friday in our townships that looks like a weekend because there are so many people that are roaming free.”
Lesufi acknowledged the evolving economy and emphasised the need for INSETA, as part of the industry, to remain relevant and profitable while playing a role in safeguarding the province’s economy from decline.
Meanwhile, one of the panellists at the conference and CEO of QP Drone Tech, Queen Ndlovu, told Inside Education that the company provided training for unemployed youth in communities vulnerable to disasters, equipping them with skills in drone operation and artificial intelligence technology to enhance disaster risk management and response efforts.
“We train the unemployed youth within those communities on how to use drones and AI for disaster risk management, either as drone pilots and advocacy teaching their community that let us avoid being careless, [for example the] floods are here with us,” she said.
Furthermore, Ndlovu acknowledged that while both private and public sectors have shown scepticism toward this ground-breaking technology, significant efforts have been made to develop these skills, recognising that technology was the future.
“We run master classes with municipalities where we share the benefits and value of using drones in disaster risk management. So those stakeholders could [be] politicians, government executives or community members… those master classes have to educate,” Ndlovu said.
The two-day indaba ends on Thursday.
INSIDE EDUCATION
