Although comprehensive plans and concrete commitments for the implementation of the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition (Jipsa) will only be ready by June for commencement in July, the initiative has already started to roll out a number of projects.

Later this year, 100 South African women will start a one-year placement programme in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to develop skills in infrastructure project management, project financing and tourism.

Speaking at the launch of Jipsa on March 27, in Tshwane, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said that the process of matching available placements and candidates is under way.

There will be similar placement programmes in South African companies.

Another 120 women are soon to be placed in the Bombela Consortium, which is to be part of the Gautrain rapid-rail project.

“We are very pleased about the number of women with qualifications in the built environ-ment who have responded to our recruitment drives for the UAE and Gautrain projects,” Mlambo-Ngcuka said.

In another project, 150 experienced pro-fessionals and managers are being deployed in local government to improve the project-devel-opment, implementation and maintenance capacity of local-government personnel.

The project is being managed by the Devel-opment Bank of Southern Africa, and the first 30 experienced professionals and managers will be deployed later this month.

The project is part of Jipsa’s aim to bring in volunteers, retirees and other people with the skills required by the initiative to build capacity in the delivery of projects, at local government level, in particular.

Concerning retired skilled people, the focus is on those with previous exposure to water-reticulation and sanitation projects, as well as chartered accountants. In May, a joint programme of Old Mutual Business School and the South African Man-agement Development Institute will start to train 100 black women – mainly from the public sector – in project management.

Jipsa has also begun to assist unemployed graduates to find work.

Mlambo-Ngcuka said that the compilation of a register of unemployed graduates has progressed well and that a number of govern-ment departments and public and private companies have committed to taking these graduates on board.

Jipsa will also maintain a living database of skills required in the economy, including providing an understanding of patterns, trends and key indicators of priority-skills demand and supply.

The database will seek to include all existing databases and research work on skills done by government departments, such as the departments of Labour, Education, and Public Service and Administration; industry organisations; research organisations, such as the Council for Industrial and Scientific Research; and university research bodies. A team led by Prof Haroon Bhorat, of the University of Cape Town, is completing this work. Further, through the support of Standard Bank, Bhorat’s team is improving the database of unemployed graduates. Jipsa is of one of the key programmes in the government’s Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa.