From Engineering News.

Raymond Patel challenged the South African government’s vision of shifting South Africa’s economy to be more knowledge-based by suggesting it should push instead for a more manufacturing-based economy, which he views as the best way to achieve growth in the country.

“We need to start looking at the manufacturing sector and getting (young) people (interested in following a career) in that sector,” he said at the annual conference of the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa, according to a report in Engineering News.

Patel is CEO of Merseta, a South African company that provides education and training in manufacturing and engineering.

South Africa will have to invest more in education if it hopes to achieve the 5 percent economic growth target called for by the plan by 2030, he said.

South Africa’s math and science education is the second worst in the world, ahead of only Yemen, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Information Technology Report 2013, Patel said in Engineering News.

“The South African education system needs to collaborate with internationally accredited institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to increase innovation,” he said.

Read more at Engineering News.