Speaking in parliament recently, Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana raised concerns about learners on learnerships who were not getting the full benefit of their training courses.
"Either employers or Setas are exploiting learners and we cant allow that,' Mdladlana said. He also noted that there were a number of cases where the CCMA had become involved in disputes around learners.
A learnership is a work-based route to a qualification, first introduced in chapter 4 of the Skills Development Act of 1998. Rather than spending a number of years of full-time study at an institution (and paying upfront for the privilege), a learnership allows the learner to work and study towards a nationally recognised qualification.
There are currently more than 700 different learnerships registered and more than 100 000 people have entered the programmes.
Terms of employment for learners on learnerships are detailed in a Sectoral Determination issued in terms of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act. However incidences are still reported of learners not being paid their stipends or working long hours.
Another form of exploitation is for the learners to be engaged in activities which are not envisaged in the learnership. This is a problem, according to Suzanne Hattingh, author of "Roadmap to learnerships. "The main abuse of learners I see is denying them a valuable learning experience," Hattingh told The Skills Portal.
This is because employers do not accept that learners have to be given sufficient time for application of learning - across all the components of the qualification. Many employers still see learners as a form of "cheap labour.
Mdladlana did concede that most Setas were successful in their learnerships. Frank Groenewald, CEO of the Bankseta, is confident about the integrity of his sectors learnerships. "I have heard people talking about abuse of learners but I have never seen proof of it in the banking or micro finance sector."
For Groenewald one of the keys to success is to be realistic about the number of learners to be engaged. "Learnerships are highly successful if they are run professionally by dedicated people with sufficient resources. It is better to resource the programmes well and ensure success, than to chase numbers by cutting the funding and not caring about the next intake of learners'.
This is a sentiment shared by Hattingh. "The focus on increasing the numbers of learners is probably the greatest single obstacle in the learnership system,' she says. "While I understand the need for the Department of Labour and Setas to set targets, this inevitably affects the quality of learning'.
Hattingh urges employers and training providers to spend up to four months planning their learnership programmes before implementing them. "I get too many calls from people who say, "we are launching the learnership in two weeks time - can you please help us make sure that we succeed", she says.
Hattingh cautions that there are no guarantees to success in learnerships, but thorough planning and realistic objectives are the best place to start.
The Learnership programme was developed in South Africa as a modern way to advance apprenticeships to meet the modern demands of the workplace. Learnerships also manage to formalise the learning and workplace experience - which is usually sadly lacking in internships offered by companies.
Another significant benefit of Learnerships over internships is that Learnerships come with a formal pay structure where learners will be paid a monthly stipend, or payment, for the time they are on the Learnership. Also, internships do not have a learning component, while Learnerships are all linked directly to a formal qualification.
