Qinga said the department had partnered with the Treasury, the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA), and a number of municipalities to train, coach and provide learnerships for mid-level financial administrators in municipalities.

"This will directly help in dealing with the shortage of skills in these municipalities. We are funding this initiative with over R70m over the next three years," she said.

In other initiatives, the department said money made available to the national student financial aid scheme had more than doubled over the past two years, reaching R6bn.

Qinga said that in 2010, R200m had been available to students who had completed their studies but could not get their certificates because of outstanding fees.

The students are expected to repay the money once they had found jobs.