BusinessLIve reports that the sentiment expressed by Gauteng infrastructure MEC Jacob Mamabolo‚ speaking alongside Deputy Minister of Higher Education Buti Manamela on Thursday, was that SA needed more artisans.  

The two said society needed to do away with the mindset that artisan jobs were less important‚ as their skills were in demand in SA at the moment.  They also urged people to enrol in colleges‚ irrespective of their ages.  They were speaking at the Moses Kotane Institute skills centre programme‚ launched at George Tabor Campus Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) College‚ Soweto.  Manamela argued that artisan jobs were regarded as having less prestige because one got one’s hands dirty, but he said this idea needed to be done away with as there were many benefits of this kind of work — including good salaries.  "Artisans are better paid than some of us in suits and ties," he pointed out.  Artisans include carpenters‚ electricians‚ mechanics and technicians.

• Read this report by Nonkululeko Njilo in full at BusinessLive

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