There is wide agreement that South Africa produces too few artisans to meet the needs of the economy and that improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the artisan development system is important for accelerating growth and reducing unemployment. Indeed, the National Development Plan (NDP) sets a target of producing 30 000 artisans a year by 2030, which would be more than double the number of artisans who graduated in 2013. (This was already considerably higher than the low point of 2005, when only 4 500 artisans graduated.)
