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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