Chairperson, I think this is the conversation we must have nationally as a country. First deal with the myth that for our young people to be employable they must go to university; because there is that myth that we must pump all our young people to university, which is not the case.
The key to skills development is going to be the Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Tvet, system with proper quality vocational education. The issue of the skills, and I think that's what we need to emphasise in terms of career guidance and that
career guidance should not just be career guidance for the sake of, it must help the young people to be able to choose, to look into their potential, to look into their interest and so on and so on.
But it must not only talk about the technical world, there's a lot which the social world can offer. Take for instance the issue of sport. I don't think we have done enough in terms of sport in this country and I'm talking in my background as a teacher. If we were to have sports coaches, sports clubs and so on, other people were able to make a living out of sport. There are thousands of people who could be employed into that. Some of our sports heroes and heroines today, unfortunately, when they emerge and they are identified they are taken into former Model C schools, and that's where they blossom because there are coaches there employed and so on.
So, I'm trying to say when we deal with this particular issue of the careers, some of the kids are not interested in the technical side of education, they are interested in the social side of education, they are interested in art, you can mention all of them. We need to invest even on that particular side of it.
But also what we have done as the department is to put what we call the Labour Centres. And 126 Labour Centres have been put in the
country where we are giving the information, we are also guiding them in terms of the qualifications they have, where they have to improve their skills, including the issues of what higher education is doing, where should they apply if they want to further their studies and so on. But also link them with potential employers. And I think it must be again a co- ordinated effort and we must not undermine this. I've learnt it even with some of my own kids. Some pass with distinctions in maths and science but they come and tell you that "no, no, I'm not interested in that" because we tend to force them into what they do not want, what they do not enjoy, it's very, very important that career guidance is able to do that, and the parents are also on board.
Question 178: