The City of Cape Town on Friday, July 31, 2026 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Local Government Sector Education and Training Authority (LGSETA) to establish a multi-year strategic partnership to expand skills development across the metro and the broader municipal sector.
This agreement is anchored in skills development for Local Economic Growth funding and will span all 13 City directorates and 35 education, training and development programme types. It also positions the Training Academy of the City of Cape Town as an inter-municipal development hub. It is a facility that will build skills capacity only for Cape Town, and for municipalities across the region.
Considering this, Member of the Mayoral Committee for Corporate Services – Alderman Theresa Uys stated that this partnership is all about opportunity. It clearly reflects the deep commitment of the City of Cape Town to develop their people with a deliberate focus on those who need it the most such as the people with disabilities, EPWP and community workers, adult learners and entrepreneurs in the township economy.
There are special key programme streams that the City of Cape Town has included under the partnership; which is:
- Learnerships for persons with disabilities: It includes call centre and revenue collection qualifications with specialised assistive equipment.
- Skills development for the EPWP worker base: It links public employment programmes to accredited occupational qualifications.
- Adult Education and Training: It offers literacy, numeracy and functional skills from NQF Level-1 to 4.
- Local economic development training: It supports informal-sector and township-economy entrepreneurs.
- Arts and culture development: It is creating pathways from community artist to accredited practitioner.
Notably, this partnership is provided for joint planning, which also includes co-funding of established accredited programmes and full grant funding for new pilot initiatives, for over a period of up to three years.
Furthermore, the Local Government Sector Education and Training Authority (LGSETA) is a South African public entity established under the Skills Development Act of 1998. It promotes skills development, manages training grants and improves service delivery across municipal structures.
LGSETA creates Sector Skills Plans (SSPs) to target training needs in local government. It develops occupational qualifications and accredits training providers. It also approves and pays skills development grants to aligned stakeholders. It focuses major training on municipal employees, traditional leaders, ward councillors and unemployed youth.