Handbook for Irrigation of Wine Grapes in South Africa

VILLA AND MONASH: Bridging the agricultural skills gap in SA

South Africa, a world class educational institution dedicated to supporting South Africa and the continent to meet its diverse economic and educational needs by providing internationally recognised qualifications. THE ROLE OF AGRICULTURE IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN ECONOMY The South African economy is heavily reliant on the agricultural sector. Agriculture delivers more jobs per Rand invested than any other productive sector, and remains critical in the face of rural poverty and food insecurity (DAFF, 2016). The primary production component of the agricultural sector contributes about 3% to the country’s GDP, but if the entire value chain of agriculture is taken into account, its contribution to GDP increases to about 12%. Agriculture is often neither a study direction, nor a career, of first choice. Partly to blame for this reality is limited awareness and understanding of the vast number of agri-business and entrepreneurship career opportunities that exist along the entire length of the food and nutrition value chain. Much can be, and should be, done to change perceptions, which are currently evident at both school and higher education levels.

The 2017 World Economic Forum Report states that Africa’s skills gap at secondary school level is high. In most African countries, local business executives are of the opinion that secondary school graduates do not possess, on average, the skills employers demand from a productive workforce. Add to this the fact that leading South African farming entities share the common sentiment that agricultural colleges are no longer delivering the well-rounded, technically skilled professionals that is critical in the role of not only production managers, but also lesser skilled workers. It’s clear that young Africans deserve urgent and tangible actions to be taken to adequately equip them for future roles in the agri-industry. They need an enabling environment that will prepare them for competing in the ‘global village’ where interconnectivity and technology-dense work environments define labour markets. State intervention and support on the African continent is generally slow and fraught with bureaucratic impediment. The logical solution is to involve private industry, i.e. the required skills, experience and funding – effective public-private collaboration can contribute to reduce skill-gaps at national and regional levels. VILLA IS TAKING ACTION It’s against this backdrop that Villa is introducing the new Monash / Villa partnership in training – a private enterprise partnership aimed at addressing some of the key issues highlighted above. The Villa Academy is joining forces with Monash

APPROPRIATELY TRAINED GRADUATES: SOUTH AFRICA

The NQF (National Qualification Framework) of South Africa abounds with registered qualifications in the field of agriculture, but they predominantly focus on primary production and research.