TRAIN & DEVELOP FOR SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC GROWTH.

It is sad that with all the investment towards training & development, we are hardly touching the surface in getting competent people to grow, share and develop our supposedly growing economy.

It is apparent that we are not very focused on how we address the acute shortage of competent people to serve a growing & developing economy. What appears to be lacking is the knowledge and the practical aspects of entrepreneurship and how to become today's business executive.

We keep on harping on small and micro entrepreneur and business development but government, business and labour appear to be giving deaf ears when the small & micro entrepreneur sector (sme) is crying out for assistance and support. It is not as if they do not want to help but rather helpless in finding a solution in getting people upskilled. The banking sector hardly want to give direction on how sme's can access funding neither does the government become proactive in supporting initiatives that give support and subsidies towards the creation of a strong sme sector. The kind of statistics at what are required in order to stimulate the sme or the 2nd economy hardly take into account the sentiments expressed by the sme sector. The academics are also guilty in not addressing the micro economics properly and tend to regard the issue as secondary to their own mission and purpose. South African Economy is driven by sme's and the necessity to grow and develop this important sector remain the reason and purpose of creating jobs and opportunities for the unemployed and the large percentage of young entrepreneurs. It is in the sme sector that our economics can effective grow and develop an entrepreneurial business sector and it is hoped that some good business executives and government (politicians & senior officials) will realise the potential in the nation.

The necessity to increase our own training & development of entrepreneurs in the sme sector becomes increasingly important and we need to ensure that business savvy and entrepreneurship development become paramount to the training & development needs of this country. Training & development providers and competent trainers in the entrepreneurial and business sectors need to become more visible and active in addressing this critical impediment in our sustainable economic growth and development.

Let us not fail the people and our country, let us focus on training and developing entrepreneurs and start selling the right products at this moment and become known for our input in developing the nation and all the people of this RAINBOW NATION. By developing a sme sector can address many of the social ills that are really causing havoc in our communities and we as training providers have a duty to add to this economy by providing realistic training & development for significant sustainable economic growth & development.