Department of Higher Education and Training
The recently launched green paper on post-school education and training proposes, amongst other things, the establishment of an institute for vocational and continuing education and training.
It is envisaged that one of the institute’s functions would be to “play a supporting role to existing institutions, especially the further education and training (FET) colleges and the sector education and training authorities (SETAs)”.
Seeking to provide a “vision” for South Africa’s post-school education and training system, the green paper includes a chapter focusing principally on SETAs and the national skills levy. It also outlines proposals for “improving the quality of … FET colleges”.
According to the green paper, improvements to the colleges are likely to entail:
• developing “appropriate programmes”;
• upgrading lecturer qualifications;
• capacity building for more effective management and governance;
• more effective learner support;
• utilising appropriate information technology systems “for both learning and management”; and
• building strong partnerships between colleges and employers in both the public and private sectors.
On the issue of SETAs, the green paper refers to two “schools of thought” on their roles:
• one sees SETAs as “grant-making institutions”;
• the other sees them “promoting sector skills initiatives – making them available to employers and project managing them on behalf of employers”.
According to the paper, “the former model tends to suit larger, better established employers and the latter smaller, or less established entities”.
While the green paper appears to favour the second option, it acknowledges that “those SETAs that have project-managed skills development interventions have tended to do this through tender processes”, inviting training providers to deliver training against agreed unit standards or qualifications.
Unintended consequences of the approach have included:
• a tendency for training courses to focus on the “formal achievement of unit standard outcomes” as opposed to “genuine learning”; and
• limited “short-term contract opportunities” for FET colleges and universities to provide SETA-funded training, undermining the potential for “longer-term developmental partnerships between public institutions and employers”.
The paper also refers to the need to revise and improve workplace skills plans, stating that − in their current form – they “do not reflect real priorities in business”.
In a preface to the green paper, higher education and training minister Blade Nzimande states that government’s economic and industrial strategy − as expressed in its medium-term planning framework, new growth path and industrial policy action plan − “make clear the importance of education and training”.
With this in mind, the minister and his department “are resolved” to address “the enormous challenge” implicit across the post-school system, as well as imperatives identified in government’s human resource development strategy 2010-2030 and ten-year innovation plan.
The deadline for written submissions on the green paper has been set at 30 April 2012. It is available on the department of higher education and training website at www.dhet.gov.za.
Update: The green paper has since been published in notice 1 of Government Gazette 34942.
Sabinet Cape Town Office
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