The country needs artisans. Gerhardt Pretorius, operations manager at the Artisan Training Institute, said tradesmen were almost guaranteed a job once they qualified. Boilermakers and mechanics, for example, appear on South Africa's critical skills list. The number of people registered for artisan programmes had increased, he said, but many were lured abroad where their skills attracted greater rewards.Western Cape premier Helen Zille highlighted the need for more artisans yesterday, as her province pushes for economic growth in sectors such as oil and gas, agro-processing and ICT.She was speaking at the launch of her "apprenticeship game changer", which aims to add 32500 qualified apprentices to the labour market by 2019."If we want to break the cycle of poverty that so many of our communities are trapped in, we need to create ladders of opportunities for our youth so that they become productive and employable adults with brighter futures," she said.Zille aims to give students financial support and develop collaborations between employers and education institutions."We aim to achieve our goals by focusing on a 'push and pull' approach," she said. More students would be encouraged to enter artisan institutions and employers could increase their intake.The Department of Higher Education and Training said the Western Cape had only 1185 students in artisan programmes this year.Florus Prinsloo, adviser on technical vocational education and training in Zille's office, said the aim was to be produce 15000 qualified artisans a year by 2019.He said in the past financial year there were about 8000 people in work-based learning programmes, including internships, learnerships, skills programmes and apprenticeships. More than R800-million was available from government to fund the programmes...