Noting the paradox of high unemployment and skills shortages, South Africa's Minister for Higher Education and Training described initiatives to better align skills with needs, improve the quality of technical and vocational education and training and increase opportunities to do apprenticeships.

UNESCO: MEDIA SERVICES

While COBOL has not gone away at the banks, more and more of the technical staff spend their time programming new features and interfaces in modern languages and web application frameworks that provide highly applicable and transferable skills to startups only too happy to hire them for their technical training and domain experience.

FORBES: Why The Financial Technology Revolution Is Only Just Getting Started

Current plans call for intensive classroom training in advanced technical and leadership skills, a broad range of work assignments and the use of company leaders as personal mentors.

WSJ: TI Battles a Line-Job Gender Gap

Some just get technical training, get a job and then come back maybe five years later to upgrade their skills or adapt them to a new business.

WHITEHOUSE: Discussing the Economy in Des Moines