Top EU official urges SA education system to focus on skills
Sustainable growth may remain a fanciful hope unless the gap is targeted, international co-operation and development boss tells SA-Italy summit
A top EU official is very concerned about the mismatch between SA’s education system and the skills required for the job market. Stefano Manservisi, director-general of the European Commission’s directorate for international co-operation and development, says the country must take steps to bridge the skills gap — the difference between the skills required and those employees have attained. He was in SA for the fifth SA-Italy summit aimed at expanding the business and investment relationships between the countries. Quality education will set SA and other African countries on a sustainable growth trajectory, Manservisi says. Such growth, however, may remain a fanciful hope if the quality of education is poor. The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global information technology report 2016, that examines the increasing proliferation of technology and its effects on advancing global prosperity, ranked SA 137th out of 139 countries for the overall quality of its education system. It placed the...
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