Skilled for the future PDF Print E-mail
Wednesday, 20 August 2008 12:03
ImageFew would deny that skills development is one of the most important challenges facing South Africa today. The good news is that significant and far-reaching progress is being made. Skills analyst Donald Perkins says for the first time government is taking the critical issue of skills development “really seriously”. “I think we have had a wake-up call in recent years. We have lost vital skills to other countries and we seem to be realising that we now need to play catch-up – fast,” he says.

The Education Department is one area of government that has been given the thumbs up in this regard.

It has been applauded for its efforts to increase teacher salaries and education expert. Professor Tom Bisschoff of the Witswaterstrand University’s Education and Management says the move will encourage new teachers to join the field.

“This is a good move for the Education Department, especially to the new entrants [teachers] as the salaries now are more compatible and equivalent to the current government scales,” he says.

Speaking to BuaNews, Professor Bisschoff said the move would see an increase in applications as new young teachers are encouraged to apply for positions.

“Although I was disappointed with the salary increase last year, which was not in the best interest of teachers, I believe that the Occupation Specific Dispensation will definitely retain the dignity and uplift the spirit of teachers in the country,” he says.

Education Minister Naledi Pandor, signed the Occupation Specific Dispensation (OSD) agreement for educators’ salaries recently and the deal will be backdated to 1 January 2008.

Signing the OSD agreement, Minister Pandor said: “We congratulate all role players and especially thank the negotiators for their tireless efforts in crafting an agreement, the significance of which will be felt long after today.”

She said it has taken nine months of intense deliberation, discussion, and negotiations to come to the agreement.

The salaries of educators will be upwardly adjusted based on the salary notches that applied on 1 July 2007 and then translated to the new OSD salary scales. This means that educators that will receive not less than 4% while the increases range from 4 to 9.9%. “A newly qualified educator entering the profession will now earn R115 276 per annum as compared to R107 700 per annum prior to the implementation of the OSD,” said Ms Pandor.

A shortage of skilled workers has been identified as the major impediment to economic growth in South Africa.

In response to this shortage, the Skills Development Act was implemented last year. This was accompanied by the Skills Development Levies Act which requires all employers with an annual payroll higher than R500 000 to pay 1% of their payroll each month as a Skills Development Levy (SDL).

The SDL is allocated to the relevant Sector Education and Training Authority, or Seta. There are currently 23 Setas operating and cover the whole economy.

Also encouraging is that, under the auspices of the Economic Cluster, work has been commissioned on re-focusing the National Human Resource Development Strategy, which the Cluster will table before Cabinet in July this year.

In regard to the resolution of organisational issues regarding quality assurance and qualifications, the NQF Review was completed last year and a Joint Policy Statement was issued by the Ministers of Labour and Education.

Draft legislation is to be published by both Departments shortly, for tabling in Parliament later this year. A National Qualifications Framework Bill, together with consequential amendments to the Higher Education and General and Further Education Acts, was gazetted recently by the Department of Education for comment. The Skills Development Amendment Bill 2008 is well advanced and will shortly be tabled by the Department of Labour for engagement with the social partners at NEDLAC. The National Qualifications Framework will now consist of three distinct but closely inter-related qualification sub-frameworks, under SAQA as an apex organisation. These are the Higher Education Qualification Framework, the General and Further Education Qualifications Framework and the Trades and Occupations Qualifications Framework. This underscores the belief that we learn throughout our life and that this needs a structured framework to support and assist learners wherever they are.

This year also completes the cycle of curriculum change that was initiated in 1998. Students will sit for a new matric exam, with a reduced number of subject offerings, but with substantial cognitive demands. Maths (or Maths Literacy) is now a compulsory subject, as is Life Orientation. All exams will now be set at a national level, and the results will provide a good measure of the effectiveness of the new curriculum.

The “Second Chance” programme for students who failed matric in 2007 has had a promising start, with over 100 000 students registering for the supplementary exam in May and June this year. Last year 25 425 students enrolled in the new National Certificate (Vocational) programmes, and the Department of Education has set an enrolment target of 40 000 students for 2008. So far, over 52 000 students have registered for the three-year programme. Currently, the higher education institutions graduate annually around 1 500 BEng and BSc (Engineering) students. Both these degrees are four-year qualifications.

In response to the need to increase graduate output, the Minister allocated proportionally R48 million to four leading universities, UCT, WITS, UKZN and UP based on their graduation and success rates, especially of Black students. These funds have been used by these institutions to enhance students support and teaching facilities.

The second phase of the National Skills Development Strategy 2005 – 2010 ended on 31st March this year. Good results continue to be achieved in the numbers of learners being registered in a variety of learning programmes.

Since April 2005 when the second phase of the strategy was launched until the end of the 3rd quarter of this financial year, a total of 194 913 employed learners and 117 729 unemployed learners in scarce and critical skills have been registered on accredited occupational based learning programmes by SETAs. Skills expert, John Davids, who runs workshops on the subject for government departments, says a gratifying element of this continued acceleration in learner registration is the increase in numbers of artisans being registered by Setas.

These high levels of artisan enrollments by Setas indicates that by 2010 the 50 000 qualified artisans needed by the country as predicated by JIPSA last year is now becoming a reality. The challenge will be to make sure that the quality of artisans that are coming out of the pipeline is the best we can develop. The Seta system has received considerable critical comment from a variety of role players and especially the media. Seta news always seems to be good for newspaper sales, although more recently the Eskom load shedding has taken the limelight. Meanwhile, social development initiatives that relate to skills development also continue to be addressed through the National Skills Fund in collaboration with the Provincial structures of the Department of Labour. Since April 2005 an average of over 9 000 unemployed persons per month have enjoyed skills training in projects across the country, including EPWP project funded by the National Skills Fund.

On average 66% of those that received training were placed in full time or temporary employment.

David Capel
 

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