By Charmaine Ndlela
Higher Education and Training Minister Buti Manamela has called on employers in the hospitality and related industries to open their workplaces and to invest in learnerships, saying partnerships with businesses are critical to closing South Africa’s skills and unemployment gap.
Manamela made the call during the 2nd Cohort Learnership Programme Launch of the joint McDonald’s South Africa and Culture, Arts, Tourism, Hospitality and Sport Sector Education and Training Authority (CATHSSETA) Hospitality Learnership Programme on Friday, which has enrolled 2,370 young people in a 12-month programme leading to a National Certificate: Fast Food Services at NQF Level 3.
The programme, which was launched with 1,300 learners in 2024, aims to equip young people with practical skills and workplace experience in the hospitality sector.
Manamela said the success of programmes such as the McDonald’s learnership depended on employers being willing to provide young people with opportunities to gain practical experience.
He said young people should be trained according to the industries in which they are placed, whether hospitality, tourism, engineering or other sectors.
The minister said the model being implemented through the programme was important because it combines classroom learning with workplace exposure.
Under the programme, 30% of the training will take place in the classroom, while 70% will be spent in the workplace, allowing learners to gain hands-on experience and become familiar with real working environments.
Manamela said this approach was essential to addressing the mismatch between the skills young people acquire through education and the skills required by employers.
“The reason why we’re doing this, why we’re driving this, is because of the mismatch that exists between the skills that we have been trained for and the new level of opportunities, but also job preparedness,” he said.
He said that the value of a learnership should not be measured only by whether a learner receives a certificate, but also by whether they leave the programme with practical competence that can be used in the workplace.
“The skills programme is not good enough only based on the certificate. It’s not what CATHSSETA is investing. To pull it through, we will need the learners and the learnership to ensure that they go up to completion,” Manamela said.
He urged companies in the hospitality, tourism and retail sectors to come together with government and training authorities to expand such initiatives.
“The money which we gave to the CEO of CATHSSETA, and the CEO of McDonald’s, to the Chief People Officer, means: how do we get the rest of the people who are in retail, hospitality and so on and so forth around the table to look at how we can expand this at scale?”
The call comes as government seeks to strengthen the role of workplaces in technical and vocational education and training and the broader skills development system.
Manamela said government could not achieve the country’s skills revolution on its own and needed the private sector, trade unions, NGOs and communities to work together.
“We cannot do that alone as government. We cannot do that alone as NGOs, as NPOs,” he said.
“We can only do that if the trade unions are on board and support opening of workplaces and the placement of learners and do not see this level as a threat. We can only do that if workplaces are on board and will continue to open.”
He also highlighted the potential of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges, saying government has invested significant resources into developing institutions equipped with workshops and simulated work environments.
According to Manamela, there are now 52 centres of specialisation, with government aiming to expand these facilities and align them with specific skills requirements.
He said this investment needed to be matched by greater involvement from industry.
“The TVET sector is at the heart of our skills revolution. That investment has to be complemented by collective investment which will be done by everyone,” Manamela said.
The McDonald’s-CATHSSETA programme is also intended to provide learners with financial support while they undergo training.
The monthly stipend has increased from R2,500 to R3,500, with McDonald’s providing an additional R500 top-up, while transport support is also being provided to learners.
Manamela urged all 2,370 learners who began the 12-month programme to remain committed until completion.
He acknowledged that learnership programmes can experience dropouts, but said learners should take advantage of the opportunity presented to them.
“I know we have experienced some of these good programmes, where we start with a specific number of students, and then some of them drop out,” he said.
Manamela said completing the programme could place learners in a stronger position when seeking employment, particularly as McDonald’s itself could potentially draw future employees from the programme.
He pointed to other initiatives, including a programme through the Cellphone Repair Skills Programme, where about 326 young people were trained in cellphone and electronic repairs.
Of those, 25 young people were provided with containers to establish businesses in townships, offering repairs for cellphones, laptops and other electronic devices.
Manamela said the programme demonstrated the potential of skills training to move beyond certificates and into entrepreneurship and job creation.
He also highlighted the 20,000-internship initiative launched by Services SETA, describing it as another example of partnerships between government and business to expand opportunities for young people.
He said the scale of these programmes showed that SETA investment was increasingly being directed towards stipends, learnerships, internships and other interventions aligned with government’s skills revolution.
Manamela said the next step was to ensure that the initiatives were expanded across industries.
“This is not just an isolated programme. This is a programme which wants to expand,” he said.
“This is a programme which is resonating with the President’s skills revolution. And this is a programme which requires partnership, which requires employers to open their doors.”
He said the ultimate goal was to build a system where young people could trust that qualifications and training programmes would provide meaningful value and lead to opportunities.
“Little by little, with all of the small partnerships that we have, I believe that we’ll be able to grow this into a system where students believe that the certificates that we get from our TVET college, our university, or from our SETAs, or from any training programme, are worth the effort that is put in. And that’s what we are determined to do,” Manamela said.
Out of 1,400 learners trained on the first cohort, over 400 were permanently absorbed into McDonald’s South Africa, with another 75% now employed full-time elsewhere in the hospitality sector.
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