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1. The HRD Strategy is the co-responsibility of myself (Minister of Labour) and the Minister of Education. The Minister of Education has spoken about some of the key contributions of education to the Strategy and I shall now do the same for skills development.

2. My principal responsibility is in respect of learning in and for the workplace. However, given that many adults were denied schooling as children, de facto many are forced to acquire their basic learning whilst they are working. Therefore, in respect to Adult Basic Education and Training, many industries are engaged in supporting workers in their studies. The Mining Industry is leading the pack, with over 25 000 workers engaged in ABET studies. The National Skills Development Strategy has set a target of 70% of workers with the equivalent of a grade 10 Certificate by March 2005 - and all twenty-five SETAs have committed themselves to contributing towards reaching this target. Ten SETAs have applied to the National Skills Fund to support additional ABET industry-wide programmes.

3. The Education SETA has initiated programmes to support the upgrading of workers working in and for the Early Childhood Development sector - so skills development is making a small contribution towards this HRD target too.

4. However, my main responsibility is in respect of Strategy Objective 3 of the HRD Strategy: Increasing Employer Participation in Lifelong Learning. The principal vehicle for doing this is through the 25 Sector Education and Training Authorities or SETAs, which are about to complete their second year of operation. Overall we estimate that some 35% of eligible firms have received grants -but this figure conceals some of the pioneering work that is beginning to take place under the auspices of the SETAs:

a). The Construction SETA is working on a national project to recognise the skills of thousands of informal sector builders and contractors;

b). Over half of all government departments have submitted workplace skills plans, thanks to the efforts of the Public Service SETA;

c). The Local Government SETA has developed 13 modules of municipal financial management training and over 3000 people have participated in one or more of these programmes across all provinces.

d). The Tourism SETA has 2500 pledges from employers to provide work experience to young learners in the sector and more than 7000 workers in the industry are engaged in quality assured training.

e). The Financial Services SETA has individually contacted all 5000 SMMEs in their sector offering assistance, and so far over 20%are participating in targeted initiatives. They also conducted free seminars for the industry on the new Capital Gains Tax my colleague Minister Manual will be pleased to hear.

f). Fifty black farmers in the Makatini Flats area are growing cotton to substitute for what would otherwise have had to be imported - thanks to the combined efforts of the Land Bank and the Primary Agriculture SETA.

g). Over 103 new learnership programmes have been registered with my Department and in November we had 1384 learners already registered. We anticipate that the target of 3000 will be achieved with the new intake early this year.

There are many more examples, however time does not permit me to elaborate. I would like to thank my Cabinet Colleagues for their support of their SETAs. Their support is fundamental to the success of the efforts of the SETAs. And whilst the expenditure levels are not yet up at the required level I believe that the building blocks are now in place and 2002 will see us going to scale in many sectors.

5. For those employers and workers not normally reached by the SETAs, there is the National Skills Fund. The Fund was established to support national skills development priorities. It is currently seriously under-spent, but I believe that plans are well advanced to reverse this trend even within the current financial year. The Fund is disbursed essentially through four channels:

a). The Department of Labour Provinces: 90% of the funds allocated for training linked to local economic development have been disbursed;

b). The SETAs: In 2001 the SETAs were invited to submit major, multi-year strategic projects to support small businesses or vulnerable workers in their sector - in support of overall employment and growth targets.

c). The Department of Labour in partnership with the DTI: whereby financial support is provided to new investors to train workers in specific skills. This is one area in which there has been little progress

d). My Department is in the process of finalising contracts and significant levels of funding should flow soon thereafter. To give you just a taste of these projects - one covers up-skilling Domestic Workers, another plans to support communities surrounding the Trans-National Conservation Park areas to benefit from expanded tourism, another is in support of micro-lenders and another combines three industries to support SMMEs up the value-chain (from agriculture to secondary agriculture processing to food and beverage manufacturing). There are 24 such projects in all. [Only the Insurance Industry failed to get its project proposal recommended - it wanted to train school-children to understand the products of the insurance industry!!!! We said they must pay for their own marketing strategies!!

e). The Department of Labour in partnership with the DTI: whereby financial support is provided to new investors to train workers in specific skills. This is one area in which there has been little progress.

f.) Special projects: the proposed bursaries to fund scarce skill bursaries will be funded under this disbursement envelope - and we trust that these will be disbursed by March this year.

These are some of the contributions of the Skills Development Strategy to the overall targets of the HRD Strategy. We are also hoping, with our proposed Public-Private Partnership on IT in the Department, to massively expand our service on labour market information to inform career guidance services. How these initiatives fit into the overall integrated HRD strategy will emerge during the presentation.

Issued by Ministry of Labour

13 February 2002