By Staff Reporter
29/09/2015
The Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training, Mr Mduduzi Manana, led a selected group of female learners from local schools, to the South African Airways (SAA) Technical in Kempton Park to promote the Women in Scarce Skills programme, under the theme take a girl child to work.
The Women in Scarce Skills programme aims to attract young female learners from townships and rural communities to fields that were previously reserved for male and white counterparts. The Women in Scarce Skills Programme is an advocacy campaign championed by the Deputy Minister to respond to the imperatives of transformation as outlined in the White Paper on Post School Education and Training. It is aimed at encouraging female learners to take up careers in fields previously dominated by males. This campaign exposes female learners to career choices in Aviation, Petrochemicals, Mining, Maritime, as well as Engineering, through visits to industries and workplaces.
The Deputy Minister, accompanied by Ms Maphefo Anno-Frempong (CEO of the Transport Education and Training Authority (TETA), and South African Airways Technical, Mr Zuko Mguzulwa (Head of Technical Training) toured SAA operations together with female learners from schools who were afforded an opportunity to observe SAA’s technicians demonstrating and sharing their experiences on their chosen careers.
The Deputy Minister emphasized that campaigns like this one will target townships and rural high schools to assist in equipping young female learners with relevant information that will allow them to confront the male dominated workplace. He further encouraged the female learners to apply to various Post-School Education and Training (PSET) institutions on time to ensure that they are guaranteed entry in to their intended career choices. He urged them to disregard the socio-economic conditions and be the change that society needs. He informed them about available funding methods for deserving students from previously disadvantaged backgrounds through the National Student Financial Aid Scheme and learnerships through the Sector Education and Training Authorities, like TETA who coordinated the visit.
Mrs Anno-Frempong said ‘a total of 186 female learners have benefited from TETA’s sponsored interventions that are aimed at encouraging young females to pursue careers in the aviation sector, particularly, African females whom are under-represented.
‘Stakeholders, including employers just like SAA should join hands and play their role to support and implement transformational imperatives. On the other hand, the youth must claim their position to make better use of opportunities presented to them. Young ladies, your future is in your hands, nurture it’, said Manana.
SAA technicians shared valuable and informative knowledge about their day to day work and motivated the prospective learners to excel in their studies and challenge their male counterparts.
‘It will be remembered that before the hard earned democratic dispensation in 1994, although it was wrong, but it was universally acceptable in this country that certain groups of people were viewed as inferior and could not pursue certain careers in occupations which were attributed to belong to other superior population groups. Such careers included, among other things, study fields in the aviation, petrochemical, mining, maritime, and engineering careers. A woman was erroneously perceived as incapable of occupying these career fields for self-proclaimed special people’, said the Deputy Minister.
