Business Day
*Jobs plan for accounting graduates to boost small business* *Amanda Visser, Business Day, Johannesburg, 21 July 2012*THE government has made available R6m for the training of unemployed accounting graduates in an initiative launched with the help of the accounting industry to provide back-office support to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel said at the launch of the initiative this week that the country needed to work together to create 5-million new jobs in the next eight years.
He said 61% of people employed in the formal sector were employed in SMEs by entrepreneurs, who played a vital role in creating jobs. The government realised that to transform the economy, it was necessary to adopt a "pro-employment" approach.
"That is the reasoning that informed the government when we adopted the New Growth Path --- one that seeks to shift the economy towards a more employment-friendly trajectory," Mr Patel said.
The initiative, called the Business Hub and Skills Training Programme, will provide training to 100 students with BCom Accounting or equivalent university qualifications in the next six months. At least 70% of the students will be placed at SMEs.
The South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica) will also set up a business hub where 15 qualifying students will offer back-office accounting support to entrepreneurs with a turnover of up to R10m.
After undergoing training, students should be able to submit value-added tax and other tax returns, and compile basic financial statements.
Mr Patel said it was not only the size of the economy that mattered, but how it provided inclusion.
Saica CEO Matsobane Matlwa said South Africa needed a more dynamic economy in which "the fruits of growth were shared more equitably".
"It is sad to see unemployed graduates who have dedicated three or more years towards acquiring a skill, only to be unemployed," Mr Matlwa said at the launch of the training programme.
Chantyl Mulder, transformation director at Saica, said the business hub would become "self-funding" and had to be sustainable. Services offered by students through the hub would be paid for by SMEs at an "affordable rate".
The project will be run in Gauteng for the first year and two further centres will be identified for future training. The R6m provided by Mr Patel's department is for the first year only.
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