WRENCHED AWAKE
By Nicky Smith
Company learnership programmes, meant to be the font of skills for SA, have been a disappointment. Blame sits somewhere between business and government, but there is no doubt that companies are not doing what they could to train new em...

IT TAKES MORE THAN BILTONG
By Shannon Sherry
Remember the brain drain - the exodus of skilled South Africans who left in droves to work abroad? Lots of them want to come back. Yet no-one is making it easy. "If you go onto the department of health website, for example, you will...

GREYS MATTER
By Prakash Naidoo
The pressures of transformation and restructuring over the past 15 years have created an unusual phenomenon for any economy: a pool of experienced and skilled, relatively young retirees. Many were given golden handshakes to exit the ci...

WE HAVE WAYS AND MEANS
By Peter Honey
Ask most companies about hiring skilled foreigners and you'll hear the familiar refrain that government has made doing so all but impossible. But it is easier than you think. While the home affairs department's incompetence plays it...