Address by Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Blade Nzimande in the National Assembly, November 10 2009

"Skills development within a single post-school education and training system"

Mr Speaker,

Honourable Members,

As you are all aware, the education and training landscape in government was reconfigured following the momentous April elections. Our dedicated ministries of Basic Education and Higher Education and Training are now working to ensure that these two critical segments of our education system receive greater attention and dedicated focus from government.

The bringing together of Higher Education Institutions, Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges, Adult Education and Training and the Skills Development Sector into a single Department of Higher Education and Training provides a powerful basis for addressing education and training in an integrated way. Our department has the responsibility to develop the country's education and training institutional capacity and resources into a coherent but diverse and differentiated post school learning system, serving adults and youth within the framework of the Human Resource Development Strategy for South Africa .

While the Ministry of Higher Education and Training was created in April, we have only gained full responsibility for all assigned legislation from 1 st November. So in effect, our complete programme of action was grounded by legislative authority only from last week. We are now responsible for a range of institutions and public entities which were previously distributed across the former Department of Education and the Department of Labour.

Honourable Members, we are wasting no time in galvanizing our skills development programme.

In a meeting with the National Skills Authority (NSA) on 30 October we have agreed that:

• The NSA needs to be strengthened in order to perform its expert advisory role
• The NSA must have administrative, policy and research capacity to support its work
• Alignment of the work of the NSA with HRD-SA is a priority
• The relationship between the NSA and other statutory bodies needs to be strengthened

Following consultation with the NSA, I announced last week that I will be gazetting the extension of the National Skills Development Strategy II and current SETA licence by one year, from March 2010 to March 2011. I also announced that I have appointed the Director General for Higher Education and Training, Professor Mary Metcalfe as the Chairperson of the NSA during this important period of transition in order to strengthen relationships between my Department and the NSA. This is an interim arrangement until a new NSA Chairperson is appointed.

Prior to the public announcement, I met all the Chairpersons of the Board of SETAs as well as their CEOs and informed them of the way forward.

It is my considered view, supported by the NSA, that this extension is important to ensure alignment of the National Skills Development Strategy with HRD-SA and to allow some deliberation on the way forward. Current mechanisms contained in NSDS II will be emphasised in the Service Level Agreements between the DHET and SETA's for the 2010 financial year in order to focus on immediate priorities such as SETA/FET college partnerships and capacity building. SETAs will to continue with their current mandate and implement their 2010/11 Service Level Agreements as well as to contribute to the new strategies to finalize NSDS III.

These extensions will ensure both continuity and change. Service delivery will continue and be consolidated whilst the new Department of Higher Education and Training will take forward inclusive processes, with its social partners, to renew and refresh strategies, policy and institutions in order to strengthen the skills and human resource base of the country.

In all our consultation meetings, we agreed that we need a coordinated skills development strategy, informed by an overarching industrial strategy, based on clear sectoral industrial strategies, placing particular emphasis on scarce skills. This will require re-focusing and possibly restructuring of the SETAs to be guided by this overarching objective, rather than the other way round.

We in the Department of Higher Education and Training are clear that we need to respond to the mandate and the vision of President when he created this new department. There are important potential synergies which have not achieved the necessary momentum over the last 15 years even though that was the original intention of the ANC pre-1994.

We therefore require a fundamental reform of government's skills development strategy as well as the respective roles of, and relationships between FET Colleges , Universities of Technology, other universities, the National Skills Fund and the SETAs.

This requires that we think out of our boxes to develop an overarching, highly integrated and articulated system of higher education and training, but without at the same time mechanically collapsing into each other the distinctive roles, features, and contribution of each of the components of such a system.

One of the first things we need to do is "re-skill". The skills sector needs to understand more about the formal institutions and vice versa. Have to better understand the different subsystems in order to forge the cooperative links.

Our human development planning strategies, which will be developed and adopted in meaningful and effective partnerships with social partners, will be informed by strategic information management systems and research for a post-school education and training system and the labour market.

Managing a single post-school education and training system comprised of FET colleges, SETAs and HE institutions will be a major challenge. Comprehensive management information systems (MIS) will be developed for each sub-system to enable both the size and shape of the sector to be determined over time, but also to measure the extent to which learners migrate between the sub-systems and progress successfully into and through the labour market. The MISs need also to be extended to the private education and training providers of FET and higher education. The recent Council for Higher Education report on the state of higher education in South Africa points out that our information on private further and higher education is inadequate and that we need to update it in order to work towards an integrated system of Higher Education and Training.

The DHET commits itself to the establishment of these MISs through the commissioning of systematic monitoring and evaluation exercises and regular research reviews in each of the sub-systems in partnership with research and higher education institutions.

The Further Education and Training College Sub-system

The FET College subsystem has grown and changed over the last fifteen years, and further changes are anticipated with the move of the Colleges to a national function. . The goal is to increase the number of young people and adults accessing continuing education at these technical and vocational centres, in a way that supports an inclusive growth path.

We will consolidate the institutional base for FET colleges in partnership with the skills development system and improve responsiveness to the needs of the economy. Programme offerings will be expanded, training partnerships with industry will be funded through SETAs, partnerships with employers will be established and a work-placement programme for graduates of FET colleges will be set up. We will also expand workplace training opportunities for students. All these initiatives will make FET Colleges more attractive and institutions of choice instead of the consolation prize. Quality interventions also include initiatives to improve management capacity, materials development and the introduction of formal qualifications for lecturers.

We will work closely with the National Board for Further Education and Training and consult those involved in this subsystem in reviewing the impact of some of the recent changes, particularly the changes in the management and governance structures (including making the college council the employer); the development and implementation of new programmes; and the introduction of new norms and standards for funding.

Working with the sector we will consider how these multiple changes can be consolidated during a new period of rapid expansion and further change; and we will assess the extent to which all components of this subsystem have the necessary capacity to perform the management and governance responsibilities given to them.

The NBFET and the Ministry have agreed on an urgent national audit on individual institutional arrangements for governance and administration. We are working with stakeholders to secure sufficient support and stability to sustain these changes and to take forward new developments.

The Skills sub-system

Despite gains made to date in the area of skills development and training, the Ministry must address a number of challenges which have limited the effectiveness of the policy intentions. These include but are not limited to:

Improved coordination between the SETA system and education and training institutions, particularly FET Colleges and Universities of technology

Negative perceptions of SETAs performance, management and governance

The need to improve strategic utilisation of funds and in partiular to minimise the cost of delivery of learnerships and the high amounts of unspent and or committed funds in the skills system

Inadequate alignment of industry needs and provision of training and skills development and in particular the need to increase the supply of artisans and technicians. In this regard we will engage with SOEs, the public sector and other large employers with a view to get them more involved in training through apprenticeships, learnerships and internships.

Finalisation of industrial policy action plans to improve the effectiveness of skills development efforts. With regards to employment creation and skills development, the finalisation of industrial strategy is necessary to ensure the alignment of the Sector Skills Plans of the 23 SETAs to steer skills development strategies for the development of the labour force of our country.

Mr Speaker, there are widespread concerns about the SETAs, some of which have previously been articulated in this House. While it is wrong to paint all the SETAs with one brush, there is clearly unevenness in their performance. There is definitely a need for an intensive assessment of the SETAs to ensure greater accountability, improved employment of resources, better management of funds and streamlining and alignment of their operations in order that they fulfil their role as a central cog of our skills training and job creation machinery.

We therefore look forward to a strengthened NSA which rigorously perform its policy advisory role to the Ministry, operate as a powerful source of strategy to complement the HRD Council, as well as establish the processes necessary to effectively monitor agencies and quality assurance processes.

With a re-invigorated and strengthened NSA we can ensure that SETA structures are:

• Based on a more precise understanding of the role of the SETAs and the priorities they should follow
• Reflect an appropriate segmentation of the economy that is aligned with emerging industrial strategies and the work of the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations
• Minimize capacity deficits at all levels, avoid duplication and maximize economies of scale
• Financially sustainable
• Build the public sector to play a leading role

Part of this broad process of engagement will be a strategic planning session of the NSA in December to which we will invite the Council for Higher Education and the NBFET.

My department has already begun to engage the NSF and the intention is to urgently improve operating systems and procedures so that it can better fulfill its mandate. This includes reviewing the process and criteria around the training layoff scheme and reporting to NEDLAC so that any blockages to this fund being used timeously for its intended purpose are identified and dealt with.

We will also be holding a strategic planning day for SETA's next week where they will seek to learn from each other as they explore ways in which our priorities can be taken forward urgently in their plans for 2010. The priorities for the SETAs during 2010/11 will be to align with government's strategic priorities and focus on immediate priorities including SETA/FET College partnerships; provision of opportunities for work-based learning to accompany formal learning in Colleges and Universities of Technology; skills for rural development and cooperatives; the training layoff scheme and intensified artisan training.

We will invite representatives from the FET and University sectors to attend this meeting so that conversation about new possibilities can be expedited urgently.

The establishment of the Qualifications Council for Trades and Occupations is a significant development for the skills subsystem. I am pleased to announce that I am in the process of appointing a chairperson for the QCTO and we expect the Board to immediately begin with its work of establishing a Council. We will request the QCTO to work in close collaboration with other qualifications and quality assurance councils in the higher education and training system.

Mr Speaker, Honourable members, in closing, I wish to commit my Ministry and Department to working with energy and commitment to realise the vision of the RDP:

"The democratic government has the ultimate responsibility for ensuring that our human resources are developed to the full. Education, training and development opportunities must be provided in accordance with national standards. However, civil society must be encouraged to play an active part in the provision of learning opportunities as part of the national human resources development strategy."

Source: www.education.gov.za

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