High salaries may stop brain drain: Mlambo-Ncguka

Mlambo-Ncguka says high salaries may stop brain drain

Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ncguka says higher salaries may stop the brain drain in the engineering, health and education sectors.

She has released the second progress report on government's Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Programme (Jipsa) in Pretoria today. The initiative identifies solutions to the skills shortages in the critical areas of the economy.

Mlambo-Ncguka has suggested that better working conditions and remuneration packages are critical to retain highly skilled professionals. She also revealed that government and the private sector are actively engaged in initiatives to attract skilled South Africans abroad.

Skills development
Anglo Gold Ashanti's Bobby Godsell says South Africa has a wealth of opportunities and will not have a problem in attracting much needed skills.

Mlambo-Ngcuka says despite progress in skills development, it still remains a huge problem in the country.

It's been two years since Jipsa’s inception and progress has been made with regard to the training of engineers, artisans, technicians and educators in training. According to the Jipsa report, the 2007/08 service levels agreements - signed between the various sector education and training authorities and the labour department - reflected a total of 18 879 artisans to be registered.

An additional 20 000 will be registered for 2008/2009.