Brian Moores-Pitt

Hi Joanna,

Not everyone will agree with this but I suggest the following if you really want to get your money:

DRAFT (NOT FOR IMPLEMENTATION) an open letter to the local press complaining about the unnecessary and sometimes fatal pressure this non-payment puts on the survival and sustainability of small business. In it you refer to the…[Read more]

It gets worse than that. Some years ago we developed a comprehensive end-user computing package, exactly to unit standards and with many user-friendly features, for use by the Services Seta in a schools programme they were piloting. Being completely generic and very learner-centered, we subsequently offered it free-of-charge and with no strings…[Read more]

I know it always sounds so negative and pessimistic when one reflects on the SETA movement. Your hopes are something that has been echoed on a massive scale countrywide for the past 10 years. But for a few pockets of excellence, the movement as a whole has failed. Its the usual combination of incompetence and divergent agendas. I fear we will look…[Read more]

Hi Selwyn, thanks and the same to you.
I am certainly not an authority on this but if my memory serves me, there were apprenticeships of different duration in the Construction Industry but the basic structure was the same. Typically block tech for three months each year (usually doing 4 subjects) and the rest on-the-job training and experience. At…[Read more]

My experience with 5-year apprenticeships in the Engineering and Electronics fields in the late 1960’s was that they were generally held in high regard by both employers and employees because of their well integrated structure, substance, and assessment processes. I believe the same applied in most other industries. One has the impression that…[Read more]

I am sure you see the contradictions.

GIft said:

What could help ease off the skepticism including the”I know, I told you so, it won’t work” mentality for it to become a reality, or is it an embedded mentality in us that keeps us from moving forward even with the best of intentions?

Only joking. No chance that the head of the communist party and his associate would have much good to say about the virtues of the capitalist economic system and business enterprise. Truth is though that unless and until the leadership gets behind it on a massive scale – not much is going to change. We have to shift a lot of attitudes and perhaps…[Read more]

We already have these kind of courses at schools as part of Business Studies. Much greater emphasis should be given to the advantages and achievements of market economies and private enterprise so that these can be appreciated by all for what they do. That is something all schools – including rural schools could do. Entrepreneurial skills…[Read more]

Its only a dream Jan

Jan Beeton said:

The first sentence of the second parapgraph gave it away……. !!!

So would I
Johan van der Merwe said:

This I got to see!!!!!! This from the SAKP & ANCYL that wants to nationilize mines? I would be extremely surprized but happy if this would happen.

Other than as a marketing opportunity for “like thinking folk” what would be the business model?

Hi Selwyn,
I have your email concerning “…your being prescriptive…” Should you not be talking to SEDA (and the DTI) about your proposal? Not that they are God’s gift to SMME’s but they do represent a platform for this kind of thing. They probably have a pretty good idea of the questions you should be providing answers to in your proposed…[Read more]

This is so. In an effort to satisfy our own perspectives on what we believe leadership and management to be about, we tend to look for a clear, precise, and uncomplicated definition that we can apply to all contexts. We then become trapped by its limitations. We also become trapped in the context of workplaces.

Consider this: Looking back over…[Read more]

Hi Rob. Firstly congrats on completing your PhD. As for the question I guess it takes one to know one. As you have said, there are both similarities and significant differences. For those wishing to get a feel for entrepreneurship, I recommend: The Little Black Book of Entrepreneurship (A Contrarian’s Guide to Succeeding Where Others Have Failed)…[Read more]