Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande has saluted women artisans and apprentices for venturing beyond social stereotypes and debunking the myth that certain skills and occupations were the preserves of men.  

He paid tribute to them during a ceremony on Tuesday at the Ekurhuleni West Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) College held to honour women in artisanship.  In his address, Nzimande said women artisans and apprentices must be empowered economically so that they can win the war against poverty and he went on to say that income inequality based on gender bias needed to be confronted and reversed.  The Minister acknowledged that the numbers of females registered for artisanal trades were still low at below 25% for the 2015/16 financial year.  He said his department would continue with the Decade of the Artisan Programme, which aimed to showcase to young women that it was “cool” to be a woman artisan.

• Read this report in full at SA Govt News Agency
• See too, Nzimande encourages women to become artisans, at SABC News

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