The department of Higher Education and Training has revealed more than 2.8 million young people are not in school, enrolled in training programmes or employed.

Minister Blade Nzimande revealed the statistics at the launch of the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations, adding that the intake of young people into learnerships and other skills programmes must improve.

Nzimande says South Africans must work to build a culture of ongoing learning in the workplace to boost the economy and the QCTO will ensure training and skills development in the workplace is of the highest quality.

Meanwhile, there are growing concerns that some of SA’s law graduates have been so badly educated that they can barely count, operate a computer, or read and write English.

The Times reports that an investigation by the Council on Higher Education on effectiveness of the Bachelor of Law degree has revealed that the qualification does not prepare students for the profession’s demands.

This revelation has brought concern to the Law Society which stresses the importance of learning to read and write. The society’s Nic Swart says “There are certainly graduates who come out prepared for practice, but the greatest concern is that many have extreme difficulty in writing properly. He emphsises that one of their tasks is to teach students to draft legal documents, but they are finding that they struggle to do that in English. Reaserch by the Univeristy of Capetown found that 70% of the students couldn’t calculate the simplest of tasks.

Just a week after Finance minister Pravin Gordhan announced that government would spend R12 billion over the next three years to aid Further Education and Training Colleges to boost skills development in the country, who’s to blame? What’s going on? Will government deliver?