Western Cape Youth Empowerment Day Date: 11 May 2011 Time: 09h - 13h00 Venue: Stellenbosch Municipality Town Hall Click on any thumbnail for a 640x480 pixel size and Slide Show ADDRESS BY DEPUTY MINISTER TOKOZILE XASA National Department of Tourism Hon Deputy Minister (of DIRCO) Marius Fransman Hon MEC Department of Economic Development and Tourism              Western Cape: Mr Allan Winde Partners in Youth Development Youth of the Western Cape Community leaders Senior Government Officials Members of the Media Ladies and Gentlemen I would like to thank every one of you for making time to join us, on this very important milestone in government’s effort to create the enabling environment for our youth to be productive citizens of our country. In his State of the Nation Address, President Jacob Zuma said “Our job creation drive should also enhance youth development” He continued and declared this year “the year of action”. Furthermore, Cabinet adopted the New Growth Path (NGP) which a specific emphasis on decent work and creation of job opportunities for young South Africans. Unemployment remains one of the biggest challenges for our economy, especially among young people. The unemployment rate among all 15- to 24-year-olds is 51 percent, more than twice the national unemployment rate of 25 percent. Tourism has been identified one of the six main economic sectors that should drive economic growth and job creation. The vision of the National Tourism Sector Strategy (NTSS) is to position South Africa as one of the top 20 tourism destinations globally by 2020. We aim to increase the number of foreign tourist arrivals to South Africa from 7 million in 2009 to 15 million by 2020, tourism’s total contribution to the economy from R89 billion in 2009 to R499 billion by 2020, the number of domestic tourists from 14.6 million in 2009 to 18 million by 2020 and to create 225 000 new jobs by 2020. Therefore tourism remains and will continue to be a sector relied upon to create more job opportunities particularly for the youth. The National Department of Tourism (NDT) takes its role to contribute to the economy very seriously not only through its growth with high numbers of visitors to our country. For every sixteen (16) visitors who come to our country, one job is created. As far as tourism’s total (direct and indirect) contribution to GDP is concerned, the aim will be to push up this contribution from the 2009 baseline of R189,4 billion to R499 billion in 2020. An increase of some 5 000 000 foreign tourist arrivals and 3 400 000 domestic tourists will be pursued. The target for direct and indirect employment by the sector will be to provide approximately 177 000 more job opportunities by 2020 within the sector and another 48000 directly linked to government programmes, making it a total of 225000 jobs by the year 2020. Also by 2020, the Department and stakeholders will aim to attract R35 billion more in public sector/government investment in tourism infrastructure and R1 billion more in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the sector, as well as to increase private-sector capital formation for tourism-related products. Therefore, by 2020, the NTSS aims to increase the domestic tourism GDP to 60% of tourism’s overall contribution to GDP, compared to the 2009 baseline of 52%. As part of growing and expanding tourism, the NDT in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) have developed a national niche tourism framework that will assist us with effective management and development of niche tourism markets. This will in partcontribute to youth development in enabling the youth to access the labour market by creating placement for experiential and job opportunities. The Department intends to support and train 530 rural enterprises on Tourism Awareness, Customer Service and toolkits during the current year. The department has in place the National Tourism Human Resource Development Strategy, which also guides the department on how to address the skills gaps identified in the Tourism Skills Audit 2007. This has led to a number of education and training interventions put in place to address existing skills gaps in line with the demands of the industry as against training for the sake of doing so. This therefore means that the sector may not train and employ everybody but will continue to provide opportunities for those deserving young South Africans and let them grab the existing opportunities. This therefore stands to reason why the department started the National Tourism Careers Expo in 2008, which is an annual event serving as a platform where young people at high school, FET Colleges and universities are exposed to existing professional and career opportunities that exist in the tourism industry. It also exposes the industry to existing pool of skills from young people that suits the demands of the industry whilst at the same time presenting an opportunity for the industry to show case itself as an employer of choice. The department continues to train the unemployed and out of school youth in various programmes that includes the Tourism Ambassador Programme which prepares the unemployed youth to help visitors with tourism information during provincial and national events. The 2010 Confederation and Soccer World Cup Volunteers is successful example where in excess of 4000 and 15 000 respectively were trained. This programme continues to exist with provincial tourism departments implementing it. Earlier this year we launched the National Unemployed Youth Hospitality Placement Programme. This programme is implemented by the Hospitality Youth Initiative (HYI) and it prepares and places young people in industry establishment for experiential learning for a period of six months where chances of full time employment are more than 50%. The first phase started with 300 young people from all over the country placed in various tourism establishments and currently it is preparing to place another group of 500 for 2011/12 financial year with a budget of R7 Million initially and an additional R15 Million for this financial year. Young people are hereby urged to grab this as an opportunity for employment by watching the press for advertisements and apply for appointment. Some of the programmes that focus on young people include the National Youth Chefs Training Programme (NYCTP), which is implemented in partnership with the South African Chefs Association (SACA). 800 Young people are currently trained as professional cooks which ultimately after three years lead to them qualifying as professional chefs with a budget of R25 Million and more young people will be recruited into the programme for the next three years, The NDT has also been involved in partnerships with Ubuntu Institute supported by the PRASA and the Services SETA in placing unemployed graduates in 5 star hotel groups abroad. The partnership started in 2008 and continues to place hundreds of unemployed who comes back with sought after skills by the industry. The department is applying for more funding from the National Skills Fund to finance this initiative aiming at placing more than 450 during 2011 / 12 financial year. In conclusion, we call upon and urge industry players to come to the party and partner with the NDT by opening their doors and host these young people as we together march towards building a skilled and united cadre for the tourism industry. If we do not inform the youth about this dynamic industry, how do we expect them to know about it? If we do not train them well to excel in this industry, how will we retain them? We are also pleased to announce that more initiatives are being considered that would better prepare our young people to enter the labour market in a more meaningful and significant way to continue its contribution to reduce unemployment and poverty. Let all of us move forward united and commit ourselves to join hands in “Working together in positioning tourism as a national growth driver in the economy”. Enkosi!! Print Top