Local economic development assessment on the construction sector’s transformation approach through skills development in South Africa

Abstract

According to the Development Bank of South Africa (2007:4), local economic development (LED) cuts across municipal or provincial boundaries which places an inevitable role on capitalisation of non-local relationships. Skills development plays a vital role in ensuring the success of LED. The combinations of the various legislation and institutional coordination adopted in South Africa have created clear prospects to transform the construction sector through skills development. The study seeks to investigate whether a relationship exists between the construction sector’s skills development programme and the construction sector’s transformation. A quantitative research study was conducted within the construction sector in South Africa. A questionnaire survey was used as a research tool. The research results reveal that 50% of the study’s responses indicated that employees who attended skills training updated their existing knowledge and increased their productivity levels while 20% were able to advance their careers within their workplace. At least 10% of the respondents who attended the training indicated that their skills had not been recognised for career advancement within the company. Twenty per cent indicated that the process is a mere box ticking exercise, which lacks quantifiable results. These research results reveal that companies make different commitments to the training of employees and furthermore indicate why employees are keen to participate in skills training and development. The research study concludes that training and skills development initiatives within the construction sector need to adopt a new paradigm which represents and addresses the current dynamics of low, semi-skilled and skilled workers within the construction sector. The recommendations emanating from the study suggest that training and skills development must be parallel to the development of the sector even though the sluggish economic growth of the sector is dependent on private and public infrastructure investment. Therefore, the construction building sector’s stakeholders such as industry players and labour and regulating bodies must ensure that best practices exist to accelerate construction sector training and skills development and that these practices align with South Africa’s transformation agenda in order to adequately contribute to local economic development.