Chairperson, I was in a better state before that intervention. The question has been asked by hon Marais, and it is about the state of our intervention on the shortcomings in Limpopo. Limpopo is a very peculiar case, as you all know. We don't need to go into the history of that.
So, what we have had to do as the Public Service and Administration is to, first of all, conduct a readiness exercise to understand exactly where we are in terms of the implementation of our programmes there. We further had to assess the shortages of the scarce skills that are required in Limpopo, so that when we tailor our intervention it actually addresses the problems instead of exacerbating them.
I need to say, right at the outset, that the intervention that the government has put in place for the province of Limpopo is to ensure that those government programmes that need to continue are dealt with by additional support from national government. But what we are doing now with the Public Service and Administration is to ensure that we give the necessary capacity going forward.
We can indicate right now that the Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy, Palama, has provided specialised training, after the identification of what the needs are, to 2 655 public servants, as well as induction courses to ensure that the public servants in Limpopo are given the necessary essential elements and tools. We have given this to 3 171 public servants in this period. Further than that, we have given specific training which includes advanced management development, public financial management, which is absolutely essential, and the supply chain management programmes that we provide. Beyond that, together with the province of Limpopo, we have ensured that the bursaries that are given for the scarce skills that we need for that province are upgraded. In the past, in the year 2009-10, 473 bursaries were provided. This financial year 1 105 bursaries have been given to ensure that we overcome these scarce skills.
The province has implemented 419 workplace learning programmes in this financial year to fill those gaps that we have identified. We have also ensured that we enrol more learners for Adult Education and Training Programmes to uplift the basic education in the Public Service for people who do not have matriculation certificates. Thank you.