All 21 Setas commit to national skills development intervention – Nzimande

4th March 2022

By: Schalk Burger

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

     

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Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister Dr Blade Nzimande on March 4 said all 21 sector education and training authorities (Setas) have committed to achieving the skills development interventions planned for the 2022/23 financial year, especially those interventions aimed at enabling government's Economic Recovery and Reconstruction Plan (ERRP).

"There is agreement and commitment by Setas to the need to significantly expand the participation of young people in skills development programmes and workplace-based learning opportunities and this is given practical effect in each of their 2022/23 performance plans. The artisans produced are urgently needed to implement the ERRP," he noted during a media briefing following his engagements with the Setas.

The skills development and training intervention also sought to strengthen and support the District Development Model aimed at improving the provision of services and socioeconomic development in each of the 44 districts and metros, he added.

COMMUNITY COLLEGES
Further, all Setas committed to using part of their discretionary grants to support the offering of some of their programmes through community education and training sites, most of which were former adult education centres.

"The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) will host a national summit on March 8 and 9 for the community education and training sector to engage strategic partners on using community education and learning centres to massify skills development programme provision," said Nzimande.

The summit would identify priorities for dedicated community education and training infrastructure, accreditation of programmes, lecturer capacity, partnerships and the information management systems for proper monitoring and reporting, he said.

"We are transforming the former adult education centres to community education and learning colleges focusing on a broader range of skills in addition to adult education.

"For example, the Education, Training and Development Practices (ETDP) Seta will offer some of their early childhood development programmes in the colleges, and will also assist through capacity building for the colleges.

"The Finance and Accounting Services Seta will offer financial literacy and entrepreneurial development in some of the colleges," he illustrated.

Further, the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) is also working to improve lecturer qualifications by offering advanced diplomas in adult and community education and training as part of capacity building. This is being driven by the ETDP Seta and offered by the Durban University of Technology.

"To facilitate this transition from learning to working, we continue to establish partnerships domestically and internationally, as we are doing with the German government, to improve our capacity to train," Nzimande noted.

The DHET and the Setas have committed to ensuring that the South African skills development system will offer more than 100 000 education and training opportunities during the 2022/23 financial year through learnerships, apprenticeships and internships, besides other opportunities, Nzimande said.

Further, the DHET has begun the process of crafting a national skills masterplan to gain a complete picture of the skills the country has and needs and what interventions are necessary to address the gap between them. The process will also promote the development of more efficient and effective mechanisms for country-wide skills planning.

WORKPLACE-BASED BENEFIT
Meanwhile, each of the Setas has committed to place between 500 and 1 500 unemployed technical and vocational education and training (TVET) college graduates within their sectors at workplaces from April 1.

Nzimande said the DHET and the Setas were working to surpass this number, as set out by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his State of the Nation Address, but emphasised that each Seta had to prioritise placing TVET graduates to complete their training and, thereby, facilitate the "all important transition from learning to working".

"Given the spending to support youths through the TVET system, it is only logical and important to assist TVET college graduates to transition to the workplace through appropriate placements.

"We call on employers to open their workplaces for placement of TVET college students, as well as to give workplace exposure to TVET college lecturers so that they can teach and train according to what is currently needed in industries," he said.

Unemployment among the country's youth is at a "staggering" 66.5%, and those who are not in education, employment or training number 3.4-million, he pointed out.

Tracer studies performed by the Setas and the DHET to monitor the impact of education and training support have found that, of those provided with bursaries, there is a job absorption rate of 61%. Bursary interventions at universities have led to 95% of those who qualify being employed, he said.

Specifically, Nzimande highlighted that, of those who had been exposed to work-integrated learning at universities of technology, 89% were employed after qualifying and 83% of those who participated in learnership programmes were employed after qualifying.

"In terms of TVET colleges, of those who had some form of work-integrated learning, 74% secured employment and 63% of those who completed internships secured employment. The department's tracer studies found that 79% of those trained through skills development initiatives got employed after undergoing training that involved workplace placement.

"These figures are positive and mean that such workplace-based experience opportunities help to facilitate the transition from learning to working," Nzimande said.

Edited by Chanel de Bruyn
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor Online

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