Pretoria - Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel has urged student leaders to become economic development activists.
“You represent a very important layer in society; you represent young people who are in increasing numbers entering the economy. You have the right, responsibility, the duty to help shape the economy,” said Patel on Wednesday.
He was addressing over 200 student leaders at a student leadership summit held at the University of Johannesburg. The minister urged students to embrace government’s New Growth Path (NGP) that is aimed at building a transformed, industrialised and jobs rich economy.
He said the success of government’s efforts to transform the economy and change society was largely dependent on, among others, the ability of higher educational institutions to produce graduates with the critical skills required to boost industrialisation and manufacturing in South Africa.
Patel said although South Africa had created over 640 000 jobs since the adoption of the NGP in 2010, a lot more needed to be done to increase the rate of job creation and for the economy to absorb thousands of young people that leave schools and universities looking for jobs each year. – SAnews.gov.za
