Inside Education Correspondence
Breaking the trend of negative publicity around institutions like them, the innovative Chemical Industries Education and Training Authority (CHIETA) has gone beyond the narrow confines of the industry to launch Smart Skills Centres in Saldanha Bay, Gqeberha and Babanango.
More than 6,000 youth from the communities have used the centres.
While the centres come in different sizes depending on the communities they serve, they all feature several pods in which virtual reality and augmented reality technologies can be used, with other pods providing laptops for surfing the internet, doing training or even job interviews. Connectivity and data are also provided.
Getting people, especially women and girls, familiar with and confident in using technology is part of making them work-ready. At these centres, rural youth are taught digital skills, and they can keep up to date with artificial intelligence developments and get the latest in robotics and artificial intelligence.
The following smart centre will be launched in the Highveld Industrial Park in Mpumalanga, on the former Highveld Steel and Vanadium factory site. The CHIETA wants to establish similar centres in all nine provinces.
Although their research shows that data analysis is the number one skill petroleum companies seek, CHIETA remains duty-bound to do what it can to deepen the pool of data analytics talent for the benefit of its stakeholders. But it is also broadening how it interprets its remit, ensuring that it can positively impact the country’s high youth unemployment challenge.
One of their groundbreaking initiatives is What About the Boys, a Gender Violence initiative in partnership with Primestars and several corporations, teaching 20,000 young boys about dealing with masculinity and learning about entrepreneurship.
“We’ve got a good story to tell,” remarked Yershen Pillay, the chief executive officer of CHIETA, which received a clean audit, met 100% of its targets and grew levy income year-on-year from R592 million to R621 million.
With a mission of “innovating for impact”, Pillay presented the CHIETA 2022/2023 Integrated Annual Report at its Annual General Meeting on 1 December in Sandton, saying that CHIETA was determined to continue making a difference and continue working on the hydrogen economy for which it has gained a growing reputation as a leader in the green economy.
During International Day of Women and Girls in Science at the weekend, CHIETA could take comfort from the fact that they’re putting resources behind dozens of young girls – at least 217 last year – with positive results to boot.
The Eastern Cape Department of Education recognised hard-working matriculant Liyabona Ncanywa as one of the province’s top achievers in the National Senior Certificate Examinations.
CHIETA assisted her with tuition and school fees through its Science, technology, engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fund, which supports 1,000 learners nationwide.
Through its various programmes, including the upcoming Discretionary Grant Funding Windows and working with corporations. CHIETA provides potential opportunities for 615 internships, 1085 leadership, 1 395 skills programmes, and 1285 TVET students for Work Integrated Learning.
Such investment in skills development is vindicated when learners like Liyabona show evidence that investment in our youth bears fruit. It certainly encourages others to do more to ensure that the goals of the United Nations become a reality for women and girls worldwide.
In 2016, the UN declared the 11th of February International Day of Women and Girls in Science to encourage more girls and women to take jobs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM subjects). But can they take their place without support?
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