After months of delays, a draft National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS) for next year to 2015, which has been described as "frankly disappointing" and "a missed opportunity", is ready to be circulated for the comments and input from stakeholders.
The process of drafting the strategy for the third phase of the NSDS began at last year's national skills conference in November, with the understanding that the public participation process would have to be completed by September this year. The delay has meant that business and labour will have less than two months to study the document and make their submissions.
The draft strategy, prepared for the National Skills Authority by the Department of Labour, with technical assistance from a German consultancy, has drawn criticism as being both regressive and ignoring a wide range of constituency recommendations at the conference last year.
The final strategy, which in future will fall under the ambit of the new Department of Higher Education and Training, will be presented at this year's conference. However, the department has had little interaction with the sector education and training authorities (Setas) - the bodies tasked with the NSDS's implementation.
"It's a missed opportunity," says Livhu Nengovhela, the chief executive of the Mining Qualifications Authority.
"It ignores all our recommendations that the third phase of the NSDS move away from being a numbers-based, one-size-fits-all strategy."
The previous two iterations of the NSDS set overall targets in a number of skills development-related areas and then required the 23 Setas to achieve these in proportion to the income they received in skills development levies. There is no indication that this method is being reviewed.
"This ignores the fact that adult basic education and training (Abet) is irrelevant in white-collar sectors such as banking and financial sectors but crucial in ours," adds Nengovhela.
Services Seta chief executive Ivor Blumenthal said he was disappointed that the team drafting the strategy had not consulted with stakeholders on its content or processes in the eight months following the national skills conference. "Frankly, we are no further forward than we were then.
"What is very worrying is that the social partners (business and labour) are now being asked to be reactive rather than completely redesign the strategy to meet the needs of the economy.
"I would have expected much wider engagement with organised business and labour," added Blumenthal. "We have completely failed to use this opportunity to put right the failings of the first 10 years of the National Skills Development Strategy."
During the five years (to date) of the second phase of the NSDS, companies have paid a total of R21.9 billion in skills development levies: R16.8bn went to the Setas and R5.1bn to the National Skills Fund. Of the amount that was channelled to the Setas, just under half went back to the contributing companies in the form of mandatory grants.
Mandatory grants are levy repayments to companies that submit workplace skills plans and annual training reports. The remaining funds - discretionary grants in Seta-speak - go towards training.
Reviewing the past year's skills development activities during his recent budget speech, Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana said the Setas were quietly making significant inroads into the country's most pressing skills shortages.
"The Setas were able to register 17 228 artisans in training and 109 351 workers completed training in scarce and critical skills through learnerships, apprenticeships and other learning programmes. Targets were well exceeded in this area.
"With funding from the National Skills Fund, the department was able to assist 41 336 unemployed people to enter learning programmes. This was also in excess of the target of 16 000 that was set," he said.
Two more extremely positive developments in skills training are expected in the next fortnight.
In the first instance, the skills development section of the Department of Labour transfers to the newly created Department of Higher Education and Training.
In the second, the department will announce the board of the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO) and the processes that will be followed to have it up and running by April.
The fact that the Department of Labour's skills development team, led by deputy director-general Sam Morotoba and backed by executive manager Liz Thobejane, will be moved as a unit to the new department has, however, to an extent allayed fears of there a lack of continuity.
The marriage of higher education and training is made more exciting by the news that after more than a year of delays, the QCTO is about to come into being. In terms of the underpinning legislation, the council will oversee development of a range of occupational qualifications that will carry the same intellectual weight as those offered by academic institutions.
By working through the Setas and what is going to be called the Occupational Qualifications Sub-framework of the National Qualifications Framework, learners will be able to engage in a series of skills programmes academically on par with those of colleges and universities… all the way up to post-graduate level. What's more, these qualifications are designed specifically to meet the needs of the workplace.
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