The National Skills Authority successfully hosts a Hybrid Skills Conference at Birchwood Hotel on 28-29 September under the theme “Promoting innovation and digitization in the skills development ecosystem and contributing towards a responsive future of inclusive growth”.

The PSET role players came together to solicit solutions to the challenges and blockages experienced in the implementation of skills development interventions particularly as the country contends unprecedented socio-economic challenges that have been compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, that has gripped the world for over 18 months. The conference also charted a way forward in the implementation of agile skills development interventions in the digital world post-COVID-19.

The main speakers at the conference were Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation Dr Blade Nzimande; Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, and Deputy Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Mr Philemon Mapulane.

Opening the conference, the NSA Chairperson, Dr Charles Nwaila, remarked on the challenges experience by the Post School Education and Training Sector (PSET), which include, increasing demands, limited access to post school education, funding, digital divide, new demands for skills that meet the global shift to the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and digital economies and others. In this regard, the role of the Skills Development Sector is critical in producing a capable and skilled workforce needed to build and grow the economy. In order to achieve this, all-social partners need to proactively work together to build linkages and improve collaborations between workplace knowledge and skills demands and the academic curriculum.

In his keynote address, Minister Nzimande remarked on the need to align the work of the various stakeholders to advance the Human Resource Development Strategy (HRDS) of South Africa. He also called for the advancement of innovation and digitization in skills development which are key components in the country’s economic recovery as part of the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan (ERRP). “Now more than ever we need conversations about how to promote innovation and digitisation towards a responsive future of inclusive growth for the betterment of our society”, said Dr Nzimande. A big advocate of the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector, Minister Nzimande challenged business and institutions of learning to build industry partnerships to strengthen work-based learning.

The Minster concluded that, the Higher Education Science and Innovation (HESI) landscape must not only effectively respond to the 4IR developments as recipients, but must also be active innovators in themselves.

Minister Nzimande received and launched three research reports from the NSA on the following studies:

• SETA Governance study reviewed the success and challenges of the SETA system, which also highlighted recommendations to strengthen corporate governance in these institutions.
• National Skills Fund (NSF) Evaluation study measured the performance and impact of the NSF skills development interventions/ programmes over the period between 2015-2020; and to determine the extent to which the NSF funding has created or increased the response (catalysed) of the PSET system to address (develop and maintain) skills that are in demand in the country.
• Alignment of Provincial Skills Development Forums to District Development Model study, aimed at creating a framework to align and synchronise the work of the Provincial Skills Development Forums (PSDFs) with the emerging District Development Models (DDMs).

The Minister welcomed the work of the NSA on these reports as they are key in informing decisions on strengthening the work of skills development, and committed to engage the reports further. Deputy Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Mr Philemon Mapulane spoke on the National Digital and Future Skills Strategy which aims to support the promotion of digitization and innovation to drive economic competitiveness. Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma presented the District Development Model (DDM) that is meant to bring quality services closer to the people and the role of skills development in capacitating local municipalities to provide services to the people.

Other key discussions were on the role of quality assurance institutions in recognising digital programmes. Dr Thabo Mabogoane of the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation stressed the importance of monitoring and evaluation for the skills development system.  All social partner constituents made pledges and commitments on how to ensure achievement of planned outcomes for the next two years.

Key recommendations arising from the conference include the need to:

• Reskill and re-equip the workforce to support quick and agile response to digital skills demands (ERRP Skills Strategy);
• Collaborate with relevant authorities to ensure the review of Early Childhood Development curriculum to include digital literacy; and review curricula and methodologies by adding more modules to pre-vocation learning programme (PLP) to prepare learners for entrepreneurship
• NSA in conjunction with SETAs should create Digital hubs in community centres, libraries, education and training centres with free access to Wi-Fi for education and learning purpose;
• Refocus the application of the skills levy to include design and implementation of digital ecosystems underpinned by inclusive technology for use in upskilling and reskilling of vulnerable groups through accessible hubs;
• Build the requisite skills needed to leverage the green economy to contribute towards the livelihoods of people;
• Strengthen collaboration of stakeholders in PSET work across economic sectors;
• NSA to strengthen M&E to support collaboration beyond just signing MOUs but move towards effective implementation with measurable impact.

Representatives for the state, education and training providers, business, community and labour constituencies submitted pledges to implement the outcomes of the conference.

The conference concluded with closing remarks from the Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Mr Buti Manamela.

Issued by: National Skills Authority

For media enquiries: Mr Fhedzisani Mashau at Mashau.F@dhet.gov.za

For more information visit:  www.nationaskillsauthority.org.za

THE NATIONAL SKILLS AUTHORITY IN CONJUCTION WITH THE MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING CONVENED A SUCCESSFUL NATIONAL SKILLS CONFERENCE AND SKILLS AWARDS

The National Skills Conference and Skills Awards 2019 took place at Birchwood Hotel and Conference Centre in Boksburg on the 14 and 15 March 2019 under the theme: “Building a demand-led skills development system that focuses on inclusive economic growth.”

The conference brought together all education, training and skills development role-players to solicit solutions to the challenges and blockages experienced in the implementation of skills development interventions. The role-players included, among others, organised labour, business, private institutions, community-based organisations, government departments, as well as international guests.

The conference was graced by the presence of the Minister of Higher Education and Training, Mrs Naledi Pandor, the Minister of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, and the Director General of the Department of Small Business Development, Mr Lindokuhle Mkhumane who represented the Minister, Ms Lindiwe Zulu.

Opening the conference, Minister Pandor said “Our purpose here is to identify and discuss practical steps to improve the skills training sector. During this two day conference, I am keen to hear your views and ideas about how we make our skills system work better.”  

Minister Pandor specifically noted the fourth industrial revolution stating that South Africa is fully capable of undertaking projects that require digital skills, remarking on initiatives such as the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). She also lauded Professor Mashudu Tshifularo, an ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital, and his team for their ground-breaking work in developing a pioneering surgical procedure using 3D-printed middle ear bones to improve hearing. Minister Pandor noted that “If we intend to take full advantage of the fourth industrial revolution, all universities and colleges should be offering such courses.”

The Minster concluded that informed skills planning is required across the education and training system. Noting that the National List of Occupations in High Demand (OIHD) 2018 supports enrolment planning at Universities and TVET colleges and macro-planning at a national level, the Minister stated that, as part of its responsibility, the Department should identify the priority skills needs of South Africa in order to properly inform skills planning.

The conference also saw the handover to and official release by the Minister of three key reports, namely:

The National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS III) 2011-2016 Evaluation Report handed over on behalf of the NSA by the Chairperson of the National Skills Authority (NSA), Ms Lulama Nare. The report evaluates the work performed under the strategy and the impact of the work on the development of a ‘skilled and capable workforce’;

The Organisation for European Cooperation and Development (OECD) Report on Community Education and Training handed over by Ms Marieke Vanderweyer, a Labour Market Economist in the Employment, Labour and Social Affairs Directorate of the OECD. The OECD report focuses on adult learning in South Africa and follows the OECD report released in July 2017 and entitled “Getting Skills Right, a South African Report focused on how it measures its skills needs, policies and initiatives”. The report seeks to address imbalances, provides recommendations and best practices for alignment of skills demand and supply; and

The report on the National Skills Development Plan (NSDP) and Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA) Landscape Beyond 2020 presented by Mr Gwebinkundla Qonde, the Director General of the Department of Higher Education and Training. When presenting the NSDP, Mr Qonde assured delegates that wide consultation with relevant stakeholders was conducted to ensure that the final product is reflective of and responds to the skills challenges faced by the country. The NSDP was gazetted on the 7 March 2019 for public consideration.

Minister Pandor welcomed and officially released the reports, encouraging delegates to make time to read and act on them.

A key message of the conference was the need for proper monitoring and evaluation systems. The Minister in the Presidency responsible for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, provided excellent guidance on how the government can best ensure and promote efficiency through the monitoring and evaluation of its work. The Minister noted that the evaluation of work must include qualitative measures in order to understand its true impact.

Other plenary presentations were from the Statistician General, Mr Risenga Maluleke, Professor Haroon Bhorat from the University of Cape Town, Ms Laura Brewer from the International Labour Organisation, and Dr Vijay Reddy from the Human Sciences Research Council who updated the conference on the progress made during the first phase of the Labour Market Intelligence Partnership project as well as the intentions and plans for the second phase of the project.

The Skills Awards Ceremony took place on the first night of the conference and was intended to mobilise role-players in the skills development sector to ensure the realisation of the goals of the NSDS III.  Role-players were recognised for their achievements in promoting the training and development of people in the workplace, the unemployed and those not in training through the various learning programmes including artisan development, FET graduate placement, universities graduate placement, learnerships and internships.

The conference also sponsored fifty stalls for career guidance exhibitions and organised for delegates and learners from the neighbouring schools to attend the exhibition and gain exposure to career opportunities.

Key recommendations arising from the conference include the need to:

• Link skills development to more localized priorities and not only to national and global requirements.
• Work on ensuring that there is more inclusivity, particularly of people with disabilities.
• Create more partnerships with employers to make workplaces a place of learning.
• Strongly address issues around the transition between training and work needs.
• Build a demand-led system by putting in place the necessary partnerships to build brokering capacity with a focus on addressing the specific needs of small and micro businesses and actively support their participation.
• Address data challengeswith a focus on data management, analysis and monitoring.
• Identify specialised quality and relevant technical skills that will enable the absorption of unemployed people into the employment cycle.
• Promote stronger foundation skills and enhance digital skills training for the fourth industrial revolution; and foster core employability and transferrable skills.
• Strengthen the monitoring and evaluation function to ensure an efficient and seamless education and training system for the production of necessary skills.
• Focus on STEM skills and specialized management skills that are in high demand.
• Develop inter-SETA partnerships and collaboration.
• Measure the Return on Investment (ROI) on the R63 billion spent on skills development to date.
• Turnaround TVET colleges to produce the quality graduates needed by business; and business should become more active in addressing the skills development challenge.

The conference concluded with pledges made by Organised Labour, Organised Business, Community, Training Provides and State to implement the outcomes of the conference.

Enquiries:

Mr Fhedzisani Mashau

Contact Details: 012 312 6001

Email: Mashau.F@dhet.gov.za

Minister of Higher Education and Training applauds the Evaluation Report on the National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS III) by the National Skills Authority

In October 2016 the National Skills Authority (NSA) commissioned a consortium of researchers to evaluate the National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS III). The study set out to evaluate the design of NSDS III and its implementation from 2011 to 2016. It also explored impact. The evaluation was carried out between October 2016 and August 2018. The study included: desk research; learner and financial data analysis; interviews and focus groups; a survey of employers; tracer studies of learners; and case studies of NSDS implementation. The two-year study has now been completed and the report accepted by the NSA and the Minister of Higher Education and Training. It will now be the subject of extensive stakeholder engagement and its recommendations acted on.

The skills development levy brought in an income of about R63 billion over the period 2011 to 2016. Annual income currently runs at around R18 billion a year. Public service departments nationally and in provinces had around R19 billion ‘ring-fenced’ to spend on skills development during the period 2011-16. In addition, many employers devote additional resources to the challenge of raising skills levels of existing workers and producing the skills needed in a diverse and changing labour market. 21 Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) are responsible for implementation in partnership with a wide range of government and industry stakeholders. The study focused on the transformative imperatives, specifically the targeted groups such as youth, women, people living with disabilities, HIV/AIDS. The study recognised that the unemployment situation has not changed despite policy attention and interventions from a range of private and public entities. From the data received from the SETAs, more that 70% youth were enrolled in learning programmes, 42933 placed in internships in the five years and 61802 bursaries awarded.  The employers surveyed confirmed that training contributed to improved work readiness of you people entering the workplace and more partnerships were formed with organisations and business to absorb youth trained by SETAs.

During the period under review, almost 1.1 million people were funded by SETAs and 330 000 were funded by the National Skills Fund – just over 1.4 million beneficiaries – between 2011 and 2016.

Key successes – what has worked well?

• During the period since 2011 there has been an overall shift of focus, including:
  • more effective targeting of resources to NSDS goals;
  • more attention paid to government strategies and priorities; and
  • greater levels of collaboration between SETAs , skills development stakeholders and the public PSET system.
• Research capacity into skills development and TVET has been strengthened.
• Good quality career guides have been produced, explaining the learning pathways to occupations in demand.
• Artisan training and apprenticeships have been revived. Public TVET colleges are now playing an important role in the production of artisans.
• There has been effective channeling of available funds to: scarce skills/occupations in demand in each sector; particularly artisan trades.
• Learnerships, apprenticeships and internships have been the main focus of skills development funding, and these have been found to be effective in meeting skills needs of employers and enabling those graduating to obtain employment.
• The main focus of spending during the period has been young people and in particular those aged under 25 and not in any form of education, training or employment.
• There has been an expanded number of people accessing middle and higher level programmes (NQF levels 4-8), whilst maintaining programmes at levels 1-3 on the NQF targeted at those with lower levels of formal education.
• Role of state-owned enterprises in skills development has been revived.
• Strategic Infrastructure Projects have been supported with skills development and have helped build important skills for future projects.
• Participants (employers, workers and learners) report positive changes, including improved absorption of those qualifying, raised productivity, improved income.
• Skills development has been expanded in the public service, in particular for new entrants, and the funding problems of such programmes has been addressed.
• There has been a sound focus in allocating resources on achieving equity in relation to race and gender, fair distribution geographically and an emphasis on blue collar workers and working-class learners.

Challenges

Although there has been an overall shift of focus achieved during the five year period, there are gaps and shortfalls:

• There was limited progress in aligning skills development to industrial strategy and plans. Partnerships between Industrial strategy stakeholders and skills development institutions are weak and uneven.
• In building the relationship between skills development and the public PSET system the emphasis has often been on public institutions accessing SETA and NSF funding. There has been a drift from the intention of the Skills Development Act.
• Although skills development and TVET research has been strengthened, capacity in DHET and the SETAs to manage and interpret research remains weak.
• Career guides are not reaching those who needed them and are not being used to inform career and study choices.
• Throughput and pass rates for apprenticeships and learnerships are very low, with consequent high levels of wastage.
• Although there are examples of skills development supporting industrial strategy, the relationships between industrial strategy and skills development stakeholders are weak.
• The skills development system is mainly benefitting large employers, bypassing small and micro enterprises, including cooperatives, and not touching the informal sector.
• Targets have not been met for people with disabilities. They continue to face disadvantage in the labour market.
• Governance remains a challenge, with serious difficulties in holding institutions to account.

Key recommendations

The evaluation report includes 48 detailed recommendations that can be summarised as follows:

• Focus on the economy and the skills needs of industry. The national strategy and implementation plans for skills development should be reviewed with the intention of directing the collective efforts of all stakeholders on building a demand-led skills system that focuses on inclusive economic growth. Demand-led means that the current and future skills needs of employers as well as the future skills needs associated with industrial strategy for growth drive skills strategy.
• Plan for immediate, medium and long-term outputs and outcomes. Skills development to support the economy is complex and takes place in a wide range of contexts. This means that planning must include the establishment of multi-stakeholder structures, systems and processes. Some outputs can be achieved speedily but many outcomes may take many years to achieve. Realistic and costed targets need to be set for the short, medium and longer term.
• Manage and achieve more with available funds.  A financial strategy should be developed that clarifies who should fund what, maximises the use of, and return from, available funds, prioritises a small number of costed projects, improves cash flow management, and reduces waste by improving throughput rates. There should be a shift in focus of the NSF towards community based skills development programmes targeted at the unemployed. The NDP target of 30 000 artisans a year needs to be reviewed and costed, including reviewing the grant amount.
• Reposition the skills system. Structure should follow strategy. Once a revised strategy is agreed there should be a review of the structures and allocation of resources within the structures. Future employment growth is likely to be in small rather than larger companies. The skills system should be more flexible and responsive to the needs of small and micro enterprises and the informal economy. This will require the reallocation of resources to achieve more hands on support to those engaging in skills development. SETAs need to change from being administrators of grants to being brokers or facilitators of skills development. The skills profile of those employed in SETAs needs to change to achieve this.
• Governance should be streamlined, and oversight and accountability strengthened. Currently there are 21 SETA boards, a National Skills Authority with responsibilities that are overlapping with those of Nedlac. Accounting authorities should be reduced and rationalized, and accountability mechanisms clarified. In the long-term consideration should be given to establishing a single skills council.

Conclusion

The report was launched by the Minister of Higher Education and Training Mrs Naledi Pandor on the 14 March 2019 at the National Skills Conference.

Compiled by

National Skills Authority

Tel: 012 312 5709

Enquiries: Thabo Mashongoane, Tel (012) 312 5066,

E-Mail: Mashongoane.T@dhet.gov.za