South Africa does not have enough artisans to cope with the planned infrastructure development workload‚ and now Japan is stepping in to help solve this problem‚ the presidency announced on Friday.

The average age of artisans in South Africa is 56 and the number of the next generation being trained is not enough to meet the country’s needs‚ according to news reports and research by the University of Johannesburg.

Experts in the sector said the cause of this shortage and generation gap was a decision taken to phase out national technical education courses and replacing them with the three-year National Certificate (Vocational)‚ according to a Business Day report.

Last year Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande reversed this to streamline the way in which artisans are trained and to bring back apprenticeships. The department also declared 2014-2024 as the Decade of the Artisan. The idea in the National Development Plan is that‚ by 2030‚ South Africa produces 33‚000 artisans each year‚ but has been producing about 12 000 a year.

Ambassador of Japan Shigeyuki Hiroki outlined Japan’s plan to provide training to Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday.amaphosa‚ who also chairs the Human Resource Development Council‚ said he welcomed the Japanese government’s commitment. The training will take place in Japan.

He added that the labour-absorbing nature of infrastructure development projects would make a critical contribution to the fight against unemployment.

The deputy president recently led a delegation of government and business people to Japan.