Chairperson, the ANC welcomes the new bilateral international partnership between the South African government, the Department of Higher Education and Training and the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, which was launched on Tuesday, 20 October 2009.
The newly formed partnership is aimed at strengthening academic programmes, skills development training and student support services at 12 selected further education and training colleges in South Africa. The US$6,7 million programme will operate over a three-year period at FET colleges in Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape, and will be implemented by the American Council on Education and the American Association of Community Colleges.
This initiative is part and parcel of the ANC government's mandate to place further education and training colleges at the centre of a popular drive to transfer skills to our people, including providing institutions with more resources and scaling up dedicated bursary schemes to popularise and subsidise attendance at FET institutions. Thank you. [Applause.]