GARDEN ROUTE NEWS - On Thursday 13 July, the 2023 Garden Route Skills Summit was hosted by the Garden Route Skills Mecca (GRSM) at Knysna High School.
The event saw members across the district come together with a common goal for the youth: the investment in skills development to create a stronger economy.
The Garden Route Skills Summit was an open forum for panellists to present practical solutions, outline provision to invest in skills development, focus on industry-specific skills development, drive the Skills Mecca through all municipalities and integrate these areas in the development of skills for both the private and public sectors.
A few of the speakers that featured on the programme were Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM) Municipal Manager Monde Stratu; CEO of the Experttech Group Jan van der Westhuizen; and GRDM Mayor Memory Booysen.
Advancement for all at Skills Mecca was a key theme of the day's programme. From 09:20, the programme was rolled out, and the school's hall was filled with groups ready to be informed and enlightened, starting with a panel discussion.
Stratu was joined on stage by a panel of local municipal officials from the seven municipalities within the GRDM, where important questions were posed and ideas shared.
The opening panel of the Garden Route Skills Mecca summit.
Rebuilding following a disaster
The group discussed the addition of objectives to the organisation's already established nine objectives, which they refer to as resolutions. When a Knysna Municipality official was asked if the establishment of a skills centre in Knysna should be one of the resolutions, she didn't skip a beat before enthusiastically saying yes.
The panel discussion touched on the truth of a devastating event such as the Knysna fires - noting that it is, truly, the rural areas that were irreversibly impacted, and these are thus the communities that need aid more than ever before.
The most essential and effective way to rebuild an economy is by looking at the investment in skills development for young people of the community as these skills will ensure a larger work force and thus a stronger and more independent economy.
Following a brief tea and networking break, the seats in the hall were once again filled at about 11:00 for a presentation on pragmatic socio-economic skills development proposals, presented by stakeholders facilitated by the GRDM Planning and Economic Development Team and the Skills Mecca team.
Garden Route District Mayor Memory Booysen encouraged the district's municipalities to outline the needs in their communities and offer specific skills-based solutions to them.
Aligning with growth and development
This presentation outlined ways in which our communities can implement projects to create employment and develop skills, and how these projects are linked to the Garden Route Growth and Development Strategy.
The audience was reassured that the Skills Mecca is 100% aligned with the Growth Development Strategy. Officials spoke about their desire to train and employ 20 trainers at six Western Cape community colleges, as well as the possible establishment of the Ithuba Centre, a multi-resource training and business hub, in the Garden Route.
An important topic that was thoroughly discussed was that of artisanal skill sets, which generally refers to manual skills.
Acquiring manual skill sets such as becoming an electrician, a plumber and so forth, are important as they are continuously in high demand, and they do not necessarily rely on the expenses of tertiary education.
Before the lunch break, Booysen spoke to the audience about working together and how to take GRSM to the next level. Thereafter more panel discussions followed, along with a "workathon" involving all seven local municipalities within the GRDM. This was aimed at the alignment of local economic opportunities and skills development initiatives.
Anne Timbs, one of the key speakers
What is Garden Route Skills Mecca?
Skills Mecca was established in the district following the devastation of the Knysna fires in 2017. The main goal of the organisation is to bring communities together in times of great turmoil and rebuild a community that had experienced massive devastation.
The aim of Skills Mecca is to equip youth with skills for future career development and do the work to bring resources to rural areas to stimulate career growth. The Skills Summit programme was followed by a Career Festival Walkabout at the Knysna High School sports fields.
Jocelyn Holton is a third-year BA Humanities student at Stellenbosch University. She spent last week job shadowing at Knysna-Plett Herald.
‘We bring you the latest Garden Route, Hessequa, Karoo news’
