David Masango
28 June 2007
South African Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka has heaped praise on 20 women who graduated from professional services company KPMG's Growth Acceleration Programme, urging them to act as role models for others.
Speaking at a ceremony for the graduates in Johannesburg this week, Mlambo-Ngcuka also congratulated KPMG for providing the crucial 12-months' training, which aims to contribute to the government's Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition.
"You have acquired scarce skills within the financial sector in areas such as corporate finance, forensic finance, internal audit services, information risk management, investment management and funds and project management and quality assurance," she told the graduates.
She made a special appeal to the graduates to act as role models for young people, stressing the importance of mentoring and supporting youngsters in communities.
Mlambo-Ngcuka said that too many young South Africans did not complete high school, and of the relatively few who made it to university, too many dropped out.
She was also appreciative of South African corporations taking up the challenge of training locals in scarce skills instead of relying on importing those skills, declaring: "The skills revolution has started in South Africa".
Taking heart from KPMG's plans to double the next intake of Bachelor of Commerce graduates into their mentoring programme, she urged other companies to implement similar programmes.
Mlambo-Ngcuka also expressed the hope that some of the graduates would become chief financial officers in the country's public sector.
"Some of the challenges of service delivery in government can be traced to a lack of much-needed financial skills, which leads to a lack of appropriate spending," she said.
Source: BuaNews
