National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS). South Africa

SETA's

SETA’s are an initiative of the National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS).

The National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS) contributes to sustainable development of skills, growth and equity of skills development institutions by aligning their wok and resources to the Sills Development institutions by aligning their work and resources to the skills needs for effective delivery and implementation.

What is a SETA?

“SETA” stands for Sector Education and Training Authority. These organizations were re-established by the Minister of Labour, Membathisi Mdladlana, on 3 March 2005. They are concerned with education and training and their job is to help implement the National Skills Development Strategy and to increase the skills of people in their sector.

The SETAs have replaced the 33 Industry Training Boards but have greater powers and responsibilities. They cover every industry and occupation whereas the Industry Training Boards covered some sectors only and focused mainly on apprenticeships. SETAs are concerned with learnerships, the internships, learning programme type matrix and unit based skills programme.

There are millions of people who need to learn new skills. Some are already in jobs who need to improve their skills and to learn new ones. Each year there are thousands of young people who finish their education and are looking for jobs. More than 50% of Grade 12 learners leave school without basic skills to seek work. They need skills and training. There are nearly 4.3 million people who are unemployed. Most of them have few skills and little training. There is an estimated figure of between 6,000 and 7,000 unemployed graduates. There are those who want to run their own businesses; people with disabilities, and those whose current skills provide them with barely enough money to survive. All need and can benefit from skills development.

SETAs have been established to manage the many skills development needs. Each SETA coordinates skills development in its particular sector. For the purposes of planning and managing the delivery of training, the economy has been divided into 23 sectors, each of which has its own SETA.

A sector is made up of economic activities that are linked and related. So, for example, there is a SETA that deals with the banking sector: another is concerned with skills development in the information technology sector; another is responsible for the manufacturing sector and there is a SETA for agriculture. The SETAs cover both the public and private sectors.

The principles of the NSDS are the following:

• Support economic growth for the employment creation and poverty eradication.
• Promote productive citizenship for all by aligning skills development with national strategies for growth and development
• Accelerate broad based economic empowerment and employment equity, (85% Black, 54% women and 4% people with disabilities including youth in all categories). Learners with disabilities to be provided with reasonable accommodation such as assistive devices and access to participate in skills development
• Support, monitor and evaluate the delivery and quality assurance system necessary for the implementation of the NSDS
• Advance the culture of excellence in skills development and life-long learning

The role of SETAs

There are twenty-five (25) SETAs each classified according to economic sectors.

The functions and responsibilities of SETAs are set out in Chapter 3, section 10 of the Skills Development Act, 1998.

The Skills Development Act states that the functions and duties of a SETA are to:

• Develop a sector skills plan. This is a plan to describe the trends in each sector, the skills that are in demand and to identify priorities for skills development
• Implement the sector skills plan.
• Develop and administer Learnerships. Learnerships include the traditional apprenticeships of the past. Like apprenticeships, Learnerships combine practice and theory. The main difference is that Learnerships go beyond "blue-collar" trades - they also prepare people for jobs in the new services sector, and for higher para-professional occupations. Learnerships are a new way of training.
• Support the implementation of the National Qualifications Framework. The National Qualifications Framework (NQF) is the framework, based on eight levels, on which any qualification or learning outcome can be registered.
• Undertake Quality Assurance. In promoting quality provision, SETAs will:
• Accredit education and training providers.
• Monitor provision to ensure that programmes are being followed.
• Register Assessors.
• Collaborate with other Education and Training Quality assurers.
• Report to the South African Qualifications Authority on how they fulfil the ETQa role.
• Disburse levies collected from employers in their sector. Employers pays 1% of their salary payroll to SARS on a monthly basis. The SETA uses 10% of the money to cover administration costs. 70% can be claimed back by companies. The remaining 20% goes to the National Skills Fund.
• Report to the Minister and to the South African Qualifications Authority. SETAs are statutory bodies. This means that they are established by Act of Parliament and they are given clear responsibilities to be discharged in the public interest. The levy collected from employers is public money. The Director-General of the Department of Labour is the Accounting Officer. SETAs must therefore report to the Director-General on the efficient and effective use of funds. They are also governed by the Public Finance Management Act, the provisions of which are designed to ensure that public bodies operate in a manner that is not wasteful or irresponsible. In order that SETAs are publicly accountable, and to give them full responsibilities and scope to organize their work, each SETA is required to enter into a Service Level Agreement with the Department of Labour.

Developing the Sector Skills Plan

Each SETA must draw up a Sector Skills Plan (SSP).. SSPs are important in making decisions about the priorities for skills development. The SSP is important for the SETA since it provides the framework and the background for its actions.

Source careerplanet.co.za

List of SETA's in South Africa

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All at sea with Seta?

Skills development has been identified as a key requirement for economic growth in South Africa, and for the economic empowerment of the previously disadvantaged majority.

As a result, the Skills Development Act (1998) provides a framework for the development of skills in the workplace. Amongst other things, the Act makes provision for skills development by means of a levy-grant scheme, and the establishment of 27 sector-specific Sector Education and Training Authorities – or Setas – to administer the scheme's funds, and manage the skills development process.

What is a Seta?

The Setas were established in March 2000 and are responsible for the disbursement of training levies payable by all employers in the country. Setas replace and extend the work of the old industry training boards and are accredited by the South African Qualifications Authority.

Each separate economic sector has one Seta. There are 27 Setas which cover all work sectors in South Africa, including government sectors. The members of Setas include trade unions, government and bargaining councils from appropriate industries.

Within its own sector, a Seta must develop and implement a skills development plan, be responsible for quality control and pay out development grants. They are responsible for about R2.5-billion each year.

Part of the objective of the Setas is to ensure that the skills requirements of the various sectors are identified, and that the adequate and appropriate skills are readily available. They are required to ensure that training is of the appropriate quality, meets agreed standards as laid out by the national framework, and caters for the training needs of new entrants to the labour market as well as the currently employed work force.

The Setas are also responsible for a learnership programme and the implementation of strategic sector skills plans. They have discretionary funds, drawn from their levy income, that can be used for projects designed to assist in the achievement of sector priorities, including the design and implementation of learnerships.

The 27 Setas each renew an MoU with the Department of Labour on an annual basis.

What do I have to pay?

A compulsory skills-development levy was introduced on 1 April 2000, payable by employers who are registered with the South African Revenue Service (SARS) for employees' tax purposes, or by employers with an annual payroll in excess of R250 000. The levy rate is 1% of the total payroll, and the collection of the funds is administered by SARS.

How are the funds disbursed?

The levies paid to SARS are put in a special fund. 80% of the money from this fund is distributed to the different Setas and the other 20% is paid into the National Skills Fund. The Setas then pay grants to employers who appoint a Skills Development Facilitator. The National Skills Fund funds skills development projects that don't fall under the Setas.

How do I get my Seta to work for me?

Appointing a facilitator

In order to be eligible for grants, an employer must appoint a Skills Development Facilitator who can be a full-time or part-time employee or contracted consultant.

The facilitator is responsible for the development and planning of a company's skills development strategy. This will include the development and implementation of an annual workplace skills plan and the submission of an annual training report. He or she also serves as a resource to the employer with regard to the criteria required for accreditation of courses, skills programmes and learnership development.

Once a facilitator has been appointed, employers can develop the skills of their staff, and reclaim the funds for doing this in three ways:

Workplace skills plan

In the first year of the levy-grant scheme employers can recover in grants a minimum of 50% of the levy they have paid. The grants, referred to as grants A, B, C and D, have certain conditions that must be adhered to.

For the appointment and registration of a Skills Development Facilitator - Grant A – employers will be able to recover 15% of the levy they have paid. The appointment of a facilitator is necessary before applications for Grants B, C and D will be considered.
Grant B: An employer will be able to recover 10% of the total levy payment for preparing, submitting and obtaining approval from the appropriate Seta for a workplace skills plan.
Grant C: An employer will be able to recover a further 20% of the total levy payment by preparing and submitting an annual training report based on the approved workplace skills plan.
Grand D: Each Seta makes available grants to the equivalent of 5% of the total levy payment by the employer for specific sector skills initiatives. The criteria will be made available by the employer’s relevant Seta.
Learnerships

140 learnership programmes have been developed by the Setas, ranging from basic entry level to post professional levels. If employers agree to embark on learnership programmes they will be able to access a cash grant from their Seta as well as a tax incentive. Every time an employer signs up a learnership agreement they can claim R25 000 offset against taxable income. When the recognised phase of the learnership has been completed they can claim an additional R25 000 against taxable income.

Strategic grants

Setas are eligible to provide additional grants to companies for developmental or special skills training, for example, in the area of HIV/AIDS and adult basic education and training.

Tell me more about the National Skills Fund...

The National Skills Fund is administered by the department of labour. It is made up of 20% of the total skills levy paid by employers and is used to address significant national skills priorities.

Funds are allocated through a range of funding windows. The National Skills Authority provides advice on each window and the criteria to be used to determine the allocation of funds.

The principal funding windows deal with strategic projects, social development initiatives, innovation and research, and a bursary programme to support students to study in areas of scarce skills.

Nineteen strategic projects to the value of R1.3-billion were approved over a three-and-a-half-year period by the minister of labour in 2002.

Where can I find my Seta?

www.courses.co.za has a full listing of all the setas

Source southafrica.info

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Thousands of jobs at parastatals

There are thousands of vacancies at South Africa's cash-strapped state-owned enterprises, with Transnet alone looking to fill 4,459 posts, according to Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan.

Hogan said Eskom has 1,228 vacancies, South African Airways 607, South African Express 39 and Broadband Infraco 77.

Arms manufacturer Denel has 68 jobs to fill and the South African Forestry Company (Safcol) 135, she said in reply to a parliamentary question by the Freedom Front.

Alexkor has four vacancies.

Hogan said the parastatals have a recruitment policies system in place to fill their vacant posts.

SETA's

Source http://www.timeslive.co.za

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SA Education minister wants workplaces to be sites of training

Higher Education and Training Minister Dr Blade Nzimande appealed to business on Tuesday to provide artisans and learners with access to their facilities to gain "structured workplace experience", the lack of which he described as the main constraint to meeting South Africa's skills development objectives.

Speaking on the anniversary of the formation of his department, Nzimande told delegates to the annual Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa conference that the availability of quality, structured workplace experience, which was aligned with the theoretical and practical curricula, was the "real bottleneck".

A round table would be convened later in the year at which government would seek to debate ways of overcoming the problem with both business and labour.

Nzimande said that he had been impressed, during a recent visit to Germany, with that country's "dual system", whereby trainees worked for four days in a week and attended college classes on the fifth.

"I must therefore appeal to employers with a proven track record in engineering-related artisan development to open up their workplaces and take on additional learners in artisan and trade-related apprenticeships, learnerships and structured work-experience programmes to enable them to meet the requirements for trade testing and achieve artisan certificated status," he added.

Government's economic policy priority, he added, was the stimulation of investment into the productive sectors for the economy, supported by appropriate skills development.

The Department of Higher Education and Training was, therefore, prioritising the following:
- The expansion of artisan training.
- The creation of a credible third National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS3), as well as restructured Sector Education and Training Authorities.
- The strengthening of the Further Education and Training (FET) colleges.

The Minister promised to take a personal responsibility for the acceleration of artisan training, as well as for the creation of a national register for artisans.

The register would hold the names and details of all those who had qualified through the relevant trade test and were practising as artisans in the trade in which they had qualified.

However, Nzimande also expressed his disappointment with the fact that no mention had been made about the importance of skills development in a joint declaration signed a day earlier between three major trade union federations and a grouping of important South African manufacturers.

The declaration outlined several other interventions to improve the industrialisation prospects of the economy, including a strident call for intervention to weaken the South African currency.

"We welcome the initiative by labour and employers in the manufacturing industry seeking industrial and economic policy interventions to create decent jobs.

"However, I must express my disappointment that the joint declaration, signed by the country's three major trade union federations and a grouping of important South African manufacturers, failed to make any mention about the importance of skills development and the necessity for a skills development strategy to support those initiatives," Nzimande said.

"I also intend engaging organised labour on this matter as the creation of decent work and skills development are indivisible," the Minister said.

SETA's

Edited by: Creamer Media Reporter

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SETA giving out bursaries, skills programmes, learnership's & internships

Seta CEOs and their representatives responded to the challenge from Marius Fransman and Minister Trevor Manuel at the Mitchells Plain Summit.

Sesi Nxesi of the ETDP Seta committed to supporting: 20 bursaries, 20 skills programmes, and 5 internships

Raymond Patel, Merseta CEO committed approximately R10m to 1) retrain 50 -100 previously retrenched persons, 2) 50 Learnerships at Cape College of Education and Northlink, 3) 75 learners to attend skills programmes particularly New Venture Creation, 4) 25 bursaries, and 5) 25 learners to have the opportunity for experiential learning.

From the Forestry Seta, Simangaliso Mkhwanazi committed to: 50 cabinet makers, 50 upholsterers, and 50 wood polishers.

From Petrus Maoko from Construction Seta says that they have supported R59m to date. The Seta supports artisan development, apprenticeship and Abet, and Recognition of Prior Learning. In conjunction with Ikamva, Petrus committed that they will work out how many persons they can support. Mitchells Plain youth can benefit by contacting the Bellville office.

Agriseta committed to 15 bursaries, 10-15 experiential learning places, 10 internships, and if it is possible to have a group of 20 learners, the Agriseta will offer an Agricultural learnership.

SETA's LINK

News Source http://www.skillsportal.co.za

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