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Higher Education & Training

‘Every workplace a training space’ – Nzimande

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:51

Dr Blade Nzimande

‘Every workplace a training space’ was the theme of the address delivered by Blade Nzimande, the Minister of Higher Education and Training which highlighted concerns, challenges and solutions to the complex issue of skills development in South Africa.

Nzimande complimented stakeholders and agencies for their speedy action in implementing policies which he said ‘signals an understanding of the challenges that we are faced with in this country and that we must act fast and in cooperation if we are to make a difference to the millions of young people and adults out there, but also to achieve better outcomes in skills development and produce a skilled and capable workforce for inclusive economic growth.’

The minister addressed Sector Education and Training Authority (Seta) members and senior Further Education and Training (FET) College principals and staff members as well as various representatives of government and industry. He pointed out that the Department of Higher Education and Training called for stakeholders to ‘do things differently’.

The minister launched NSDS III in January 2011 which indicated the direction and intentions of the guardians of higher education and training in the country. In February, the department brought together FET colleges and the SETAs to reiterate and consolidate the message presented in the National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS) III.

‘I have indicated before that we must build an integrated education and training system that is highly articulated, is efficient and produces high success rates.’ ‘We must further promote and institutionalise work integrated learning, therefore promoting efficiency in the education and training system and addressing the skills shortages and gaps experienced in the country. The Department of Higher Education and Training affords us that opportunity.

Nzimande reiterated government’s decision to make job creation and decent work its number one priority for the current period reminding listeners that education and training were a critical component of the priority both in the short term and medium to long term. ‘The New Growth Path speaks clearly to this priority and reflects on the important role of education and training.’

‘Furthermore there is the Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP) which anchors skills as a critical component of achieving growth and development of the various priority economic sectors, with a particular emphasis on building the productive sector of our economy, especially manufacturing. This very brief reflection points to a very critical aspect in relation to the institutions gathered here.’

‘They are a critical component of the economic sectors; they do not and should not exist parallel to the economic sectors. But also that the post school landscape institutions should not exist and operate parallel to each other. The output from these institutions is not for the sake of producing graduates. It is to a large extent to ensure that the economic sectors have the required skilled labour force to achieve the necessary growth, which is so critical for addressing poverty and inequality in our country.’

‘We cannot therefore as a country be proud of our education and training institutions, including those responsible for skills development when: There are about 5 000 University of Technology students who cannot complete their studies and graduate because they do not have workplace learning component required to do so. On the other hand we have SETAs which have the capacity and resources to facilitate this.There are about 20 000 FET college students who have completed the academic component but cannot qualify for any occupation because they cannot access workplace learning component.’ he said.

Nzimande admitted that ‘the SETAs have learnerships which are fully funded through the Skills Development Levy but most of these learnerships do not align with the needs of the students who are in our public institutions the SETAs have the closest relationship with employers and are best placed to facilitate work integrated learning, but this is the one component where we are doing badly as a country.’

‘Through the Skills Development Levy, thousands of learners have been funded and gone through various forms of training but most of this training does not lead to a qualification, nor does it enhance employability or self-sustaining economic activity. As part of addressing the above and other challenges we, as government, have recently signed a Skills Accord together with labour, business and community constituencies at National Economic Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC). Please study this accord as your agreement today needs to be guided and take forward this Accord. Through this Accord we want to turn every workplace into a training space! In fact we should all be worried that we are sitting on a social time bomb.’

Despite the billions of rands spent on education, training and skills development, Nzimande stressed that over 3 million young people were neither employed nor undergoing formal education or training. He urged stakeholders to find ways to address the problem before it escalated any further.

‘Our rural areas are being depleted while the urban areas are over-burdened. A false impression is created that there are no possibilities of creating viable economic activities in the rural areas, hence the unsustainable migration to the urban areas. Cabinet has recently resolved to pay more attention to rural areas. It is therefore important that as we sign this agreement today, we must also prioritise skills for rural development. This notion draws out the desperately needed human resources from the rural areas, draining them even further. Skills for rural areas and in the rural areas are a critical area that requires a concerted and coordinated effort if we are to turn the situation around.’

‘A crucial component of skills development is that of resourcing and promoting vocational education and training. We need a radical break with the notion that post school education only means university education. Not everyone needs to or wants to go to university after school. Vocational Education and Training (VET) is not seen as a viable option by many young people. They would rather stay at home as in their minds there is no value in a VET career.’

‘This is despite the fact that worldwide, VET comprises the largest component of post-secondary education and training, with universities making up a smaller component. The question is why is this the case in South Africa and how do we reverse the situation, and give the public confidence that VET is valuable and also enhances employability and self-sustaining economic activity? The agreement being signed today is an important contributor towards changing this reality and mindset.’

Nzimade shared his concerns regarding the poor performance of FET college graduates. ’The success rate is low, the employability rate is low and the linkages between colleges and industry are few.’

Others point of contention included capacity limits within colleges, and industry concerns regarding skills shortages, especially of the middle level skills. He raised concerns regarding the alignment between what was being taught at the colleges and what industry needed, which he said resulted in low employability of college graduates.

On a positive note Nzimande reported that industry was ‘ready and willing to support teaching and learning in FET colleges.’

‘As part of government's contribution to turning every workplace into a training space, we intend to increase learnerships at all levels of government, and we expect the state owned enterprises to do the same. Priority should be given to learnerships and apprenticeships for FET students and students fro the universities of technology. To do this will also enormously contribute towards enhancing the image and status of FET colleges. We are also strengthening FET Colleges.’

‘In fact I am honestly pleased by this initiative, but do not want us to be complacent. I see this initiative as just the beginning of a long and difficult road that we will have to walk together to address the challenges I have outlined above and many others I have not touched on here. And the big question is how we address these. We know the problems, let us act and work on addressing these problems. Indeed we must make every workplace a training space!’

‘Naturally, I will have to spell out a few expectations from this initiative. I am comforted by the fact that we are all beginning to move in one direction. We need to pull harder and take those who are weaker with us. In line with the NEDLAC Accord I have mentioned above, I expect sectors to have their own agreements in relation to one of the most critical elements of our work, which is planning for skills development.’

The importance of planning was illustrated through another pressing matter, the shortage of artisans in the country. An artisan is a qualified person and there are many types of artisans.

According to Nzimande ‘some of the questions that we need to answer are:’

‘A few years ago, SASOL imported a particular type of welders because we were not producing this particular type of skill in the country. This year the Medupi project requires the same type of welders, we are still not producing these welders (or so it is alleged). The project is then left with no option but to import these skills. A strike ensues in Limpopo, with locals contending that the project should not overlook them and employ foreigners.’

‘If this is the case, why have we not produced these ‘coded welders, as they are called when we have about R1 billion in the SETA system? The Medupi project has been planned, why have we not managed to identify the skills that will be required for this project and produce them in our institutions? Do we have capacity in our colleges to teach these specialised skills? What skills needs analysis and planning was done to support the project?’

‘These questions could be taken further to ask, if we are able to do the exercise above and answer or have a mechanism to answer these questions, the next question is, given that we have 21 SETAs and about 14 of them that facilitate the training of artisans, do we need all these SETAs to do this exercise or should they cluster and pull resources together to answer the above questions more effectively and respond to the needs of industry more efficiently?’

‘What should be the most effective way to get the FET colleges to specialise, and in which types of training of artisans, to respond to their local economic needs and how do they link with industry in their localities? How do the sectors prioritise amongst all these priority skills and therefore where should the skills development levy be steered? A short answer to all these questions is alignment between the SETAs, the public FET colleges, the universities of technology, labour and employers. Precisely what you are doing today must be our answer.’

The minister said the department was working on an engagement with stakeholders to produce concrete plans on these matters as they relate to the skills development system.

‘ The stakeholders will have to bring together the key role players in their respective sectors and agree on priorities for skills development and training provision. As agreed by all parties in the signing of the Skills Accord, industrial training should be linked more strongly to the NGP and its manufacturing-driver, the IPAP2 as well as the needs of sectors. A further commitment is to ensure that the funding of training through the skills development levy is directed towards training that meets the skills needs of the economy, including the training of professionals and training programmes that lead to a qualification.’

‘We must have a balance between short courses and occupationally directed programmes and professions. We must drive a demand-led system of investment in training for the sectors and encourage an increased employer commitment to skills development. But it is also our responsibility through the SETAs to facilitate this. I also wish to emphasise the urgent necessity for municipalities to open their workplaces for training, especially also to absorb FET college students for workplace exposure through learnerships and apprenticeships. Municipalities are short of very critical skills, and there is no other way of producing them other than to train for themselves, in partnerships with the SETAs and public FET colleges. Those which have started we say well done, but must do more, and those which have not started we say start now; Isuka muva likholwa yizagila!’

‘Mayors, municipal managers and other senior officials must work with us so that learners and apprentices work with dedicated mentors to effectively expose them to hard core skill areas and not turn them into runners, coffee-makers, messengers or photocopy specialists. One way of ensuring that there is effective training and mentorship is that such work is built into performance agreements and contracts of all managers and supervisors. On this we will all be making sure that we effectively respond to the President's clarion call to skill the nation and create jobs and other forms of sustainable livelihoods.’

The minister called on the ‘labour movement’ and other key role-players such as employers, Setas and FET colleges to ensure that every workplace becomes a training space with and for the workers and the youth of the country. ‘These are after all the workers and their children’ he said.

‘It gives me comfort and confidence that with this initiative we will indeed achieve our goals. I am pleased that as the stakeholders which have a responsibility to implement and achieve the objectives of NSDS III, you have taken the initiative to undertake this task.’

‘I also call upon all SETAs to open offices in the townships and rural areas and train skills development facilitators from these areas. It is also important to change the colour and gender of skills facilitators so that we have more blacks and women trainers. In addition let us train more facilitators from rural areas and localities in order to bring skills development closer to where communities are. It is very disempowering and undesirable to have skills development facilitators in Umkhanyakude for example being from Durban.’

‘Service level agreements I will sign with all the SETAs will have to include such arrangements. I am pleased that it is clear to all of us that this phase of NSDS III has indeed signalled that it is not business as usual. We need to strengthen our institutions to perform all these tasks that lie ahead of us. And more importantly we must encourage dialogue about skills development and training between employers, labour, training providers and other stakeholders, mediated within each sector by the SETAs. But we must focus on practical and concrete outcomes.’

‘I congratulate this effort and encourage you to do more and a special gratitude to all of you for your commitment. Together we can do more. And we will support these initiatives and make them work.’