The Firm Survey Analysis is a project focusing on issues that were raised by over 100 firms that participated in the 2003-2004 Firm Survey. To date the project has been run by Development Studies researchers (Professor Sarah Bracking, and co-Principal Investigators, Dr Myriam Velia and Glen Robbins) located the School of Built Environment and Development Studies at UKZN and supported by the SARChI Chair in Applied Poverty Reduction Assessment. Professor Imraan Valodia has now moved to the University of Witwatersrand, and remains an institutional collaborator.
With the data analysis having come to an end, the current focus is on dissemination of the data analysis. This will be done in a variety of ways mostly through presentations at workshops. Conference presentations and proceedings are included as part of disseminating to the wider public the on-going research work-in-progress by the team. The major purpose is to update and inform the major funding parties as well as to influence policy makers. This will be done more precisely in a policy report and a policy brief that will detail the findings of the research as well as suggest some policy recommendations.
The survey analysis focused on identifying the challenges that are faced by manufacturing firms of different sizes. These challenges ranged from operational issues like maintenance, as well as other factors beyond their control like the fall in the ZAR-USD exchange rate as well as the economic recession of 2008 and the 2013 economic crisis and how this affected the local markets. Among the issues raised, skills constraints have been identified as a major problem in some of the manufacturing industries. There is an identified gap between technical skills that are required in most industries and the skills training offered by most TVETs within Durban.