SKILLS DATABASE SET TO LINK PEOPLE TO JOBS

This is the post that should have been done on Wednesday.

How fabulous! The only question I have now is why has this not also been done in Gauteng, KZN and in fact as a national project!

Come on people, what a brilliant opportunity this is for someone with the correct skills and I am sure that there is a whole host of you out there!

Skills database set to link people to jobs
13 June 2007 at 12h00
By Sipokazi Maposa

A database listing Western Cape unemployed people and their skills is expected to improve job seekers' chances. The computer listing service has been developed by the provincial Department of Transport and Public Works. Delivering his budget speech in the provincial legislature this afternoon, MEC Marius Fransman said the move was aimed at addressing the province's dire shortage of skills, especially in the public works sector.

Between 300 000 and 600 000 people were unemployed in the province. The database would use existing internet-enabled public access infrastructure to allow people to make job applications, update their CVs, register and obtain information on programmes offered by the department. Potential employers will also be able to register on the system and find people who meet their requirements for specific skills. Fransman said at least 114 access points, including those in the poorest parts of the province, such as Khayelitsha, Mitchell's Plain, Delft and Bitterfontein, have been identified. The first portal is to be launched before the end of the month and beneficiaries of the Expanded Public Works programme are set to be the first to benefit from the initiative.

"In capturing the first round of data of unemployed persons and projects, we are making use of a service provider offering employment to people with physical disabilities," he said. Another new electronic system, called Rational Portfolio Management, would allow the department to keep accurate records of its projects. It will track the progress of programmes, job opportunities in municipalities and how much money has been spent on projects. "It will save us time - and money - and serve as an early warning system when things look as if they may be going off the rails," Fransman said.

Public transport, which has been allocated a budget of R202.47 million for the current financial year, would be prioritised to service new housing developments, Fransman told the legislature. Big road projects, such as work on the N2, Klipfontein Corridor, Koeberg interchange and Potsdam interchange, will also receive attention this financial year, with R1,23-billion set aside to finish projects, resurface tourist routes and maintain and gravel roads. Fransman said his department was looking at technology to achieve low vehicle fuel emissions. The 500 buses being bought for 2010 will be low-emission vehicles

On taxi violence, Fransman said the work of the intergovernmental Dispute Resolution Unit and recommendations of the Ntsebeza Commission were to be intensified."It is critically important for the industry to accept that the days of resolving an argument with a gun are long past."