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Foundation phase, vocational training and entrepreneurship stressed in new human-resource plan

EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT The HRD plan is expected to address the systemic blockages that impede economic growth

SKILLS DEVELOPMENT Technical and Vocational Education and Training colleges are working hard at ensuring that the needed skills are available for industry

Photo by Duane Daws

18th April 2014

By: Zandile Mavuso

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor: Features

  

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Few would argue with the notion that unemployment, which stands at around 25% on the narrow definition as reported by Statistics South Africa, remains one of the country’s most pressing challenges. Fewer still could contest the view that South Africa’s education and training systems are not adequately aligned with the needs of South Africa’s modern and fast-changing economy.

Speaking at the recent launch of the National Integrated Human Resource Development Plan (NIHRDP) 2014-2018, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe indicated that government was aware of the importance of appropriate human-resource development to overcoming the country’s poverty, inequality and unemployment problems. He noted that it had been identified as one of the five core programmes to drive reconstruction and development.

“Human-resource development (HRD) reduces inequality, accelerates economic growth, eradicates poverty and increases the rate of job creation. It also permeates every aspect of our society in that it opens the door to the future to which we aspire,” he pointed out.

But translating that analysis into a workable and effective plans is far from a simple task. For its part, the Human Resource Development Council (HRDC) has identified the need to ensure alignment, coordination and integration between the HRD and the various national developmental strategies and policies.

The council stated that the NIHRDP 2014-2018 aimed to achieve a responsive and demand-driven approach to promote HRD that is informed by South Africa’s development policies and strate- gies, such as the National Development Plan (NDP), the National Growth Plan (NGP) and the Industrial Policy Action Plan (Ipap).

The HRDC highlighted that, with regard to South Africa’s policies and strategies, the NDP identified areas of possible employment creation in the conventionally defined economic sectors and in crosscutting income-generating activities for sustainable livelihoods.

The NGP identified five drivers for job creation and supporting them through appropriate HRD measures was important to encourage a more employment-intensive growth for South Africa, the council noted.

With the NGP targeting to create five-million jobs by 2020, the HRDC stated that it was vital to develop the necessary skills so that people could be absorbed into the generated job opportunities.

As a result, the HRDC recognised a need to identify a limited set of HRD priorities and develop a HRD plan that would incrementally address the systemic blockages and which should, if managed well, guarantee some degree of success.

Therefore, the HRDC noted that a value chain approach – outlined in five strategic outcome- orientated goals, headed by different technical task teams (TTTs), would address the key stages of development – early childhood development (ECD), schooling, technical and vocational education and training, higher education and training, and the world of work.

The goals will be reached by implementing the five programmes of foundational learning, vocational and continuing education and training, higher education and training, skills needs in the labour market, and enabling entrepreneurship.

Building Foundations
The National Planning Commission has identified a need for more school principals – especially in poor communities – who can lead efficient and disciplined schools, support their teachers, mentor less-experienced staff, involve parents in the education of their children and seek opportunities to promote their schools in the broader community.

As a result, the aim of the NIHRDP 2014-2018 in this programme is to improve the quality of education and the throughput rate of learners at the foundational learning level.

To help the NIHRDP achieve its goals for 2014 to 2018, foundational learning TTT leader Letseka Moeketsi asserted that the ECD and the subject and pedagogical knowledge of teachers, as well as school leadership and management, needed improvement to ensure that foundational learning formed a critical part of HRD.

“A good foundational education system is an essential and critical element of a quality education system. The quality of the schooling system has a huge effect on the rest of the education and training value chain and it is for this reason that we need to focus on improving the level of education at this stage,” said Moeketsi.

The research conducted by the vocational and continuing education and training TTT indicates that enrolments at and throughput rates at technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges have been lower than expected, which have led to poor output in the middle-level skills sector, especially artisans, who are critical to the economy. In addition, about 65% of TVET college students are not able to gain work experience, which is a requirement for completing their national technical diplomas.

“The TVET system is currently not used effec- tively and efficiently as a ‘second chance’ for those exiting the schooling system without a national senior certificate or those that do obtain the certificate but fail to gain acceptance into univer- sity,” highlighted vocational and continuing educa- tion and training TTT leader Seamus Needham.

Therefore, the aim of the programme is to strengthen and accelerate partnerships with industry and TVET colleges and universities, design and implement a programme qualifications mix and address role differentiation and the relationship between organised labour, student representative organisations and government.

The programme also aims to conduct labour market research on growth areas, including the informal sector, review the community education and training centres (CETC) and the process by which learners leave the schooling system and enter the CETC programme, expand access to the TVET college system to achieve 1.25-million enrolments, ensure the development and delivery of quality programmes that are relevant to the needs of the economy and improve the learner throughput rates to 75%.

Quantity and Quality
The HRDC pointed out at the recent summit that South Africa faced the challenge of the current academic labour force being inadequate in terms of quantity, qualifications and requisite skills to generate the capacity of competent workers needed to compete confidently and effectively in the international knowledge economy.

With regard to partnerships between industry and higher education, there was increasing focus on universities worldwide to contribute towards a new knowledge and an economy that was rapid, competitive, productive and open to innovation, adding value to the technological capabilities in the marketplace, said the council.

It further mentioned that higher education institutions (HEIs) could largely benefit from collaboration and partnership agreements with industry.

“Research has shown that in South Africa only 36% of academics have a PhD and that only one in every 6.9 master’s degree students will obtain a doctorate. Moreover, the growth in South African PhD students from 2005 to 2010 was 11%, compared with a growth of 63% among non-South African students,” noted higher education and training TTT leader Simon Tankard at the HRDC Summit.

He highlighted that the NIHRDP 2014-2018 for this programme aims to increase the following: the development and retention of academics, especially in critical scarce skills areas at HEIs; the number of South African patents registered in South Africa and abroad, while streamlining the registration process of patents; funding for innovation and technological research in the areas identified in the NGP, the IPAP and the NDP; the development and strengthening of partnerships between HEIs and industry to fund and commercialise research; and the use of information and communication technology as a tool across various HRD interventions.

There are concerns that the current processes of modelling and forecasting skills needs are not appropriate. Subsequently, a central institutional mechanism for skills planning will be developed through the NIHRDP 2014-2018.

This programme, comprising four addi- tional programmes, aims to review the current skills system and reposition the system to more effectively address the skills needs for the South African economy.

The programme will also ensure that South Africa produces a sufficient number of artisans on a yearly basis to meet the needs of the economy, improve the provision of an integrated accredited and nonaccredited costed National Worker Education and Training Framework and Implementation Plan and drive the establishment of the requisite capabilities in the public service to drive the developmental agenda of the country.

Reiterating the importance of skills development, HRDC production of professionals TTT chairperson Chantyl Mulder noted during the summit that skills development, was not only the government’s job, especially if the country is to develop high-end professional skills. She pointed out that industry organisations should play a more active role in enabling individuals to enter the professional ranks.

Enabling Entrepreneurship
Enabling entrepreneurship TTT leader Dr Taddy Blecher said at the summit that entrepreneurship was a national developmental issue, which was imperative for an inclusive and growing economy.

He mentioned that despite there being a myriad of entrepreneurship education and training initiatives, they were largely uncoordinated, unstandardised and ineffective.

The TTT emphasised that, based on its findings, there was a low conversion rate from training of entrepreneurs to entrepreneurs starting small enterprises or cooperative start-ups, compared with peer economies where entrepreneurship forms part of the formal schooling system. Little is being done to increase the understanding and measure the impact of entrepreneurship training on small business start-ups.

“South Africa is lagging behind other nations when it comes to the early-stage-entrepreneurial- activity index, which measures entrepreneurial activity by considering the percentage of the active population – people between the ages of 25 and 64 – who are entrepreneurs in any given country,” said Blecher.

The NIHRDP 2014-2018 for this programme will mainstream and integrate entrepreneurship into foundational learning, TVET colleges and HEI, as well as identify blockages in entrepreneurship and establish supporting systems and tools to enable successful entrepreneurship in South Africa.

Addressing the summit, Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande emphasised that the development of a skilled and capable workforce, through a comprehensive HRD strategy, is key not only to the country’s development but in also addressing socioeconomic challenges in the country. Therefore, the HRDC is an important coordinating forum and platform in the mobilisation of all key stakeholders and role-players in driving such a strategy.

Motlanthe said he believed the NIHRDP 2014-2018 signalled the determination of the HRDC to move society onto a higher plane of development and provided a sharpened focus on promoting economic growth in the country; it would also encourage the necessary swiftness to advance towards the goal of reconstruction and development.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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