The impact of municipal skills development programmes on the informal trading sector: Johannesburg (2001-2006)

This research report investigates the impact of skills development programmes on theinformal traders in the City of Johannesburg (COJ). The research would like to determine ifskills development provided by municipality has benefited individual traders, in terms offinancial performance and increased employment. The researcher will ascertain the progressbetween informal traders who receive training and those who did not participate in thetraining programme. The report would further establish if there were any impacts at all. Wasthe impact directly influenced by municipal training or was because of some externalitiessuch as trader’s innovation or trader’s organisations? To what extent has training been able toreduce the skills gap in the informal business?This research is responding to the lack of previous work on the impact of training offered toinformal traders. There is a strong commitment on the part of COJ to dialogue with informaltraders. Informal trading is regarded as integral part of broader economy (The Star: 2006: 21).The research was conducted through in-depth interviews with informal traders operating atMetro Mall in the City Business District (CBD). The researcher conducted interviews withservice providers and municipality.The hypothesis suggests that informal traders who receive training are more productive thanthose who did not participate. The lack of skills in the informal business prompted the COJ todeliver skills training in an attempt to improve the condition of the informal traders. (SimonMcGrath 1994), referred to this scenario as “planning for what was traditionally unplanned”.The argument is that training does not make successful informal traders. The report will arguethat while training is important to informal traders who arrive in Johannesburg lacking skills,training should be monitored and be accompanied by incentives for example to help thosewho may not have a start-up capital. The selection criteria will have to be reviewed such thatmost informal traders are given equal opportunity to acquire skills necessary for thedevelopment of their business.As long as these factors, remain un-addressed there are limited potential growth in theinformal business. Training should be an integral process linked to various structures suchthat survivalist activities are replaced by sustainable entrepreneurial business. The duty of theplanners as the practitioners in the built environment is to ensure that informal trading coexistwith formal business without one affecting negatively on the other. They also have aduty of influencing municipal decision-makers in ensuring that informal traders trainingprogrammes reinforce the enabling environment that would allow them to benefit andimprove their business undertakings. This may be accomplished by restricting competitionfrom illegal informal traders operating outside the mall, providing incentives to informaltraders after the training and organise special events that would attract more customers at themall. This is because “planning is a profession concerned with the management anddevelopment of human beings and their settlements within urban and rural settings. It is aboutthe organisation of human activity in a way that will help to realise their hopes and dreamsfor future” (www.wits.ac.za/depts/wcs/archschool.html).