MEDIA STATEMENT

THE NATIONAL SKILLS AUTHORITY HOSTS A SUCCESSFULTWO DAY NATIONAL SKILLS CONFERENCE

24 March 2017

The National Skills Authority (NSA), together with the Department of Higher Education and Training had a successful National Skills Conference which took place at Saint George Hotel, Irene in Pretoria.

The conference, attended by the Deputy President, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa and the Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Blade Nzimande on the second day, was made up of delegates who represented amongst others government, organised business, organised labour, community, training providers, Human Resource Development Council South Africa, Quality Councils, Sector Education and Training Authorities, Universities, Provincial Skills Development Forums and  Technical and Vocational Education and Training.

Introducing the Deputy President, the Minister of Higher Education and Training thanked the National Skills Authority and the delegates of their continued commitment in making sure the solutions are sought for the country’s skills development challenges.

“At its essence, the National Skills Conference is about the future of our country. It is about the skills and the capabilities that will enable our young people to build a prosperous, equitable and just society. It is mainly about ending the cycle of poverty” said the Deputy President.

The Deputy President applauded the conference for putting skills development at the centre of the country’s national agenda. He highlighted that he subscribed to the notion of the conference theme since it squarely aligns itself with the spirit of the National Development plan 2030 that we should “Build a strong relationship between the college sector and industry. He also encouraged cooperation as necessary between managers of institution and students, between educational institutions and employers, between universities and TVET Colleges.

“Gathered here today are South Africans from all corners of our land, people with different backgrounds, different responsibilities, different perspectives, but who share a common vision of a united, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous society”, he said in closing and encouraged a patriotic South Africa where we work together to find solutions to our challenges, where dialogue, reason and consensus triumph over insults, violence and intimidation.

It was also the presentations that were given on the first day of the conference that really allowed the conference to engage on a variety of matters around skills development challenges in the country.

These presentations allowed a platform for a question and answer session and really set a tone for the discussions during the breakaway commissions which engaged in a quest to find and propose solutions in the ongoing challenges our country is experiencing regards skills development.

The following are the outcomes and proposals of the commissions during the conference:

• Improve skills planning and forecasting
• Strengthen governance of SETAs and ensure legislative alignment and separation of powers
• Develop an NSDS monitoring and evaluation framework
• Strengthen the NSA oversight role to monitor the implementation of the NSDS
• Post 2020 NSDS to focus on long term planning, ensure integration of NSDS to key national strategies e.g HRDSA, NDP
• Regulate and develop a WPBL policy (including articulation, funding for WBPL, standardisation of stipends, roles and responsibilities employers and labour etc)
• Prioritise lecturer development for TVET colleges
• Investigate the effectiveness and employability/destination of TVET programmes
• Strengthen the involvement of community colleges in the post-school education and training system
• Ensure skills transfer
• Acceleration of Recognition of Prior Learning programmes and consideration of E-learning
• The need for NSA visibility and provincial footprints (Consultation with Provinces on scarce skills)
• Strengthen the capacity of the QCTO (financial, human, etc)
• Constituencies pledged their support towards the implementation of the NSDS and post-school education system

There was also the NSA Awards ceremony which took place on 23 March 2017. The aim of the NSA Awards ceremony was to celebrate excellence by recognising best skills development practices across all skills development implementers and National Skills Funded Projects in various categories. The NSA Chairperson, Ms Lulama Nare said the NSA Awards Ceremony recognises the good work done by men and women of our beautiful country charged also with the responsibility of developing our people with requisite skills for the socio-economic upliftment and inclusive growth path.

The winners were as follows:

NSDS Goal	Category	Recipient	Name of Company
Goal 4.2 Increasing access to occupationally‐directed programmes	Best Artisan Development Programme	Best Large company	Bronze ( Position 3) Sibanye Gold Silver   (Position 2) Anglo American Gold  (Position 1) Algoa Bus Company
		Best Provincial Department	Silver   (Position 2 KZN Department of Transport Gold  (Position 1) Gauteng City Region Academy (GCRA)
		Best Municipality	Bronze Ugu District Municipality
		Best Small (SMME)	Bronze ( Position 3) SSACI Silver   (Position 2) Aranda Textiles Mills Gold  (Position 1) Novus Academy
		Best TVET College	Bronze ( Position 3) West Coast TVET College Silver   (Position 2) Lephalale TVET College Gold  (Position 1) Umfolozi TVET College
		Best private college	Colliery Training College
Goal 4.3 Promoting the growth of a public TVET College system that is responsive to sector, local, regional and national skills needs and priorities	Best TVET placement programme	Best Large company	Boxer Superstores
		Best Small (SMME)	Bronze ( Position 3) IK Training and Assessment Silver   (Position 2)  Mareditel Gold (Position 1) Guest Resources Services
		Best TVET College	Silver   (Position 2)  Umfolozi TVET College Gold (Position 1) West Coast TVET College
		Best private college	Bronze ( Position 3) Aranda Learnership College Silver   (Position 2) Sparrow FET College Gold (Position 1)Furniture World Private College
Goal 4.4 Addressing the low level of youth and adult language and numeracy skills to enable additional training	Best AET Programme
		Best Large company	Bronze ( Position 3) Kumba Iron Ore Silver   (Position 2)  Richards Bay Minerals Gold (Position 1) Sibanye Gold
		Best Small (SMME	Silver   (Position 2)  Guest Resource Services Gold (Position 1) Celrose Clothing
		Best Provincial Department	Silver   (Position 2)  Kwazulu-Natal Department of Human Settlements Gold (Position 1) Kwazulu-Natal Office of the Premier
	Best Skills Programme	Best Large company	Bronze ( Position 3) Kumba Iron Ore Silver   (Position 2)  Networx for career development Gold (Position 1) Sibanye Gold
		Best National department	Silver   (Position 2) Department of Energy Gold (Position 1) Correctional Services
		Best Small company	Bronze ( Position 3) Aranda Textiles Mills Silver   (Position 2)  Celrose Clothing Gold (Position 1) Trade call investments
		Best TVET college	Umfolozi TVET College
		Best Private College	Silver   (Position 2) Furniture World Private College Gold (Position 1) Colliery Training College
Goal 4.5 Encouraging better use of workplace-based skills development	Best University Placement Programme (WIL)
		Best Large	Bronze ( Position 3) Boxer Superstores Silver   (Position 2)  AIDC Gold (Position 1) Sibanye Gold
		Best Small company	Bronze ( Position 3) Specsaver South Africa Silver   (Position 2)  SABC Group Learning and Development Gold (Position 1) Celrose Clothing
		Best municipality	Bronze ( Position 3) Silver   (Position 2) Gold (Position 1) Ethekwini Municipal Institute of Learning
Goal 4.6 Encouraging and supporting cooperatives, small enterprises, worker-initiated, NGO and community training initiatives	Best Community project
		Best Large company	Bronze ( Position 3) Kolomela Iron Ore Silver   (Position 2)  Siyaloba Training Academy Gold (Position 1) Bidvest Protea Coin
		Best Small Company	Marang Incorporated
		Best municipality	(Position 1) Ugu District Municipality
Goal 4.7  Increasing public Sector capacity for improved service delivery and supporting the building of a developmental state	Best Public Sector Internship and learnership programmes
		Best National Department	Bronze ( Position 3) Department of Energy Silver   (Position 2)  Department of Science and Technology Gold (Position 1) Department of Correctional Services
		Best Provincial Department	Bronze ( Position 3) )  KZN department of Transport Silver   (Position 2 KZN Provincial Treasury Gold (Position 1) Eastern Cape Department of Roads and Public Works
		Best Municipality	Bronze ( Position 3) Silver   (Position 2)  Gold (Position 1) Pixley ka Seme District municipality
		Best Large company	Bronze ( Position 3) Unemployment Insurance Fund Silver   (Position 2)  Kolomela Iron Ore Gold (Position 1) AIDC
		Private College	Bronze ( Position 3) Algoa Bus Company Silver   (Position 2)  Celrose Clothing Gold (Position 1) SABC Group Learning and Development
Goal 4.8 Building career and vocational guidance	Best career and vocational guidance programme	Best career guidance partnership	Second Chance Foundation

 

 

 

Enquiries:

Dr Thabo Mashongoane

Director: National Skills Authority Secretariat

Tel: 012 312 5666

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

Issued by the NSA

For more information, please visit the National Skills Authority website:  www.nationalskillsauthority.org.za