Chairperson, first please allow me to apologise to the Speaker. Earlier I was merely trying to offer assistance to the Leader of the Opposition, saying that we have a Sector Education and Training Authority, Seta, which can teach him how to send e- mails to the correct addresses. [Laughter.]
The department is confident that over 10 000 well-qualified artisans will enter the economy every year onwards. This is already the case for the financial year ending 31 March 2011, when we had a total of 11 778 qualified artisans.
This trend is set to continue, with an estimate of over 80 000 qualified artisans entering the job market over the next five years. These artisans will be well qualified to enter the job market because almost all of them will be artisans qualified in scarce skills trades needed by the economy. The competence of every artisan learner is tested through a trade test that is set by the industry itself, as well as through ensuring quality assurance.
At present the average Seta grant per artisan learner is R32 000 per annum. The provisional target is to register over 26 000 new artisan learners in this year and to keep training the over 50 000 that entered over the last two years. It takes an average of three years to produce an artisan. That amounts to a total of R2,4 billion that will be allocated to the training of artisans in 2011-12.