Yershen Pillay, CEO of the Chemical Industries Education and Training Authority (CHIETA), says every community should have a Smart Skills Centre to bridge the digital divide between rural and urban groups.
Pillay told Inside Education that since the first centre opened in Saldanha Bay in October 2022, more than 10,000 youth in rural parts of the country have visited these centres to access free data services or print their CVs to apply for jobs.
“We want 20,000 youth to access the Smart Skills Centres that we have opened throughout the country by the end of the year,” Pillay adds.
As an “innovating” CHIETA, Pillay says the goal is to take the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) to rural communities to ensure no one is left behind.
Smart Skills Centres have opened in the Western Cape, Kwazulu-Natal, and the Eastern Cape. The latest is the R5 million Brits Smart Skills Centre in North West, which promises to catalyse innovation and opportunity.
Spearheaded by CHIETA in collaboration with Orbit TVET College, this groundbreaking initiative aims to accelerate the development of basic digital skills for a future-fit workplace.
Next up is the launch of the Emalahleni Smart Skills Centre at the Highveld Industrial Park, Elandsfontein in Emalahleni,
Mpumalanga, which has three virtual reality pods, 12 workstations, and a smart boardroom and meeting rooms.
On 19 July, CHIETA will launch the Modjadjiskloof Smart Skills Centre at the Letaba TVET College’s Modjadji Campus in Ga-Kgapane, Modjadjiskloof. The centre will focus on enterprises, individuals, and schools, and specifically on rural youth.
The opening of the centres is part of their plan to ensure that rural communities throughout South Africa can engage with the latest on the 4IR and robotics, mainly to ensure their inclusion in the digital age.
Since October 2022, CHIETA has established a chain of Smart Skills Centres (SSCs) in four South African provinces,
including the one in the North West. The other SSCs are in Saldanha Bay in the Western Cape, at the Mthashana Skills Centre in Babanango, a small rural town in Melmoth, KwaZulu-Natal, and at the Iqhayiya Campus of Port TVET College in Gqeberha, Eastern Cape.
Thousands of learners have already engaged with the technology at Melmoth and Saldanha Bay centres as part of CHIETA’s plans to build an “intelligent centre” in every province in the country.
This will ensure that people in rural areas can access free services, training courses, and data access for job seekers, small and medium enterprises, and business start-ups.
The SSCs are fully automated and have equipment that meets the requirements of 4IR training – AI and robotics. With a particular focus on rural learners, the centres aim to bridge the digital divide by offering access to data and a wide range of training courses.
“Whether you’re a job seeker, a budding entrepreneur, or a small business owner looking to expand, our services are designed to empower you on your journey to success,” says Pillay.
“The Smart Skills Centres usher in a new era of skills development and training that would be located within rural communities and able to offer digitised training programmes for rural masses.”
Innovating for Impact
Calling the idea of starting Smart Skills Centres “Innovating for Impact,” Pillay said every community should have an SSC in every corner of the country working with big business, where the “focus is on execution”, while lobbying the government and big business to join in.
CHIETA Chairperson Wezi Khoza highlights the importance of reaching all age groups.
She says CHIETA’s Smart Skills Centres provide training and support services to the youth and older people, who must learn digital language to keep up with technological advancements.
“We have many grandmothers on TikTok. So they, too, can learn digital skills like holding Skype meetings online,” says Khoza.
Zukile Nomvalo, the Deputy Director-General of Higher Education and Training, hailed the opening of the SSC as a significant milestone in ushering in a new era of skills development and training aimed explicitly at rural communities.
“It paves the way for digitised training programmes for rural masses, ensuring they are not left behind and are equipped for the future,” says Nomvalo.
“CHIETA’s groundbreaking initiative to develop digital skills in Brits and its surrounding regions has been spearheaded by CHIETA in collaboration with Orbit TVET College; this centre promises to catalyse innovation and opportunity in the community.
Nomvalo says the opening of Smart Skills Centres countrywide follows a call from the former Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Blade Nzimande, who wanted them established in all parts of the country.
“Indeed, this is a critical step in the context of the demand and opportunities presented by the 4IR. Launching the CHIETA Brits Smart Skills Centre in the North West is particularly important in our quest to ensure nobody gets left behind in this revolution,” he adds.
“In the future, when we talk about digital transformation, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and workers of the future, thanks to this initiative, Brits is a part of the exciting journey ahead.
“Brits is the type of place at risk of falling further behind the digital skills divide, with its youth at risk of being excluded from meaningfully participating in the new digital era that is upon us. In this context, I cannot overstate the importance of this Smart Skills Centre being located there.
“As a Department, I must say that this is part of our ongoing efforts to bridge the digital skills divide and accelerate the
development of basic digital skills among rural communities across the country.”
Nomvalo says the department noted that CHIETA has recognised the need to prepare youth and small business sectors by developing digital readiness through tech-enabled learning programmes, such as virtual and augmented reality, robotics, and the Internet of Things.
He stresses that the Smart Skills Centres do not exclude those over 35, although the emphasis is on the 15 to 24 cohorts, more than three million of whom are unemployed, and whose unemployment rate is close to 60%.
“There is an unemployment crisis in our country. We are multiplying skills centres so young people can venture into these terrains to learn about mobile repairs, data capture and data analysis skills.
“We talk about all gadgets, and millions of people use them. If we train our young, we can exploit these areas,” Nomvalo says.
INSIDE EDUCATION
