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6 February 2006

SKILLS DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, welcome.

This cluster is made up of the Ministries of Education, Labour, Science and Technology and Sport and Recreation.

As outlined by the President in his State of the Nation Address on Friday, Skills Development will be a key element of the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (ASGI-SA). There is compelling evidence that points to the strong relationship between investments in human capital (education, training, health, nutrition) and economic growth and development

The need to improve the quality of human resources is important for developing countries given firstly for its role in improving the quality of life of peoples and building democracy but also for its role in the attraction of foreign direct investment. As you are aware, all government departments have been deeply involved in the development of ASGI.

We will brief you on a range of issues that are related to the Skills Development Strategy. These include amongst others:

- A coherent supply side strategy at all levels of the schooling and education system
* Literacy and numeracy Strategy
* Early Childhood Development (ECD)
* Maths and Science schools programme – Dinaledi Schools
* Modernisation of the curriculum
* Recapitalisation of Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges
* Higher Education and teacher development

- A coherent response to the demands for skills development
* Programme of Action including ASGISA projects
* Progress on the National Skills Development Strategy, implemented by sector education and training authorities (SETAs) and NSF
* Umsobomvu Youth Fund and FET Colleges
* Learnerships and SETAs

- Promotion of niche areas in Science and technology
* Space Science
* Astronomy
* Biotechnology
* South African Research Chairs Initiative
* Systematic and Institutional Support
* International Science and Technology agreements

“Mens sana in corpore sano” (A healthy mind in a healthy body): the strategy to promote sports amongst our people
* National Academic Programme
* 2010 FIFA World Cup
* School Sport
* Community Mass Participation Programme
* Sport and Recreation Amendment Bill

A coherent supply side strategy at all levels of the schooling and education system

Our first major challenge is to improve the quality of general and further education, as these are the foundation for skills development. Secondly, we need to strengthen and accelerate collaboration and co-ordination of our various initiatives. Third, the foundation in each area of skills is Mathematics and Science achievement.

Strengthening the school system

Studies conducted in South Africa and abroad confirm that high levels of reading, writing and numeracy are the most practical and relevant of skills and that these skills are essential bases for developing the high-level vocational skills and knowledge required in South Africa. The focus of this programme will be to improve the resources of our poorest schools, including access to libraries and books in order to improve the literacy and numeracy levels of our learners. The first step will be the provision of 100 fiction books to all Quintile 1 and 2 primary schools in the nodal areas. This year we will strengthen our support to districts with regard to learner attainment and teacher support.

Early Childhood Development

In line with White Paper 5, we are currently implementing Grade R for approximately 400 000 learners in both schools and community-based sites. The Department is working towards reaching the target of 1 million learners by 2010. 4 500 ECD practitioners were trained towards a Level four ECD qualification. Of these, 3 927 ECD practitioners achieved full qualifications at level four, whilst the rest achieved credits towards qualifications. The gazetted (Norms and Standards for funding grade R classes) was published on 14 October for public comment. The Social cluster has approved an integrated plan for the implementation of the skills programmes for ECD practitioners in line with the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP). Provinces are in the process of developing business plans for implementation this year.

Maths and Science schools programme, Dinaledi Schools

This year we will increase the number of Dinaledi schools from 102 to 400 and to 529 by January 2007. Over the next three years we will increase them to one thousand. The aim is to double the number of learners passing higher grade Maths and Science in Grade 12 by 2008 through targeted interventions and investment.

Modernisation of the curriculum

The Department of Education aims to ensure that the education sector offers programmes that address the skills needs of our country. The new curricula and programmes developed by the Department of Education have been modernised and made more relevant and appropriate to prepare learners for the workplace. This year the new curriculum has been introduced into Grade 10, with Life Orientation and Maths/Mathematical Literacy as compulsory learning areas. Training of teachers for Grade 11 and 12 will continue this year in order to deliver on this high level curriculum. Ongoing training for Grade10 teachers will also continue.

FET re-capitalisation

Government has allocated R1.9 billion over the medium term for the recapitalisation of FET colleges. The re-capitalisation of these colleges will ensure that these Colleges become attractive first choice options for more young learners to enrol in quality programmes that meet the needs of the economy. The Department of Education undertook a study of skills shortages as part of the re-capitalisation of FET colleges. As a result of this study, programmes to address needs in civil engineering construction; information technology; financial management; marketing; tourism; manufacturing and assembly; fabrication and extraction; primary agriculture and manufacturing and assembly have been developed and will be offered at FET colleges from 2007. The National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS) 2005-2010 also puts and obligation on SETAs to enter into agreements with FET Colleges to recognise and support them as the Institute of Sectoral or Occupational Excellence. A number of SETAs are already involved with FET Colleges.

Transformation and restructuring of the higher education landscape

The restructuring process is proceeding relatively smoothly and within the agreed time frames. Nine of the 10 proposed mergers have already taken place, giving rise to new institutions. The restructuring has resulted in a new higher education institutional landscape ready to meet the high level skills needs of the country. The already existing Foundation programmes in critical skills areas at universities and Higher Education will be used to promote expansion in engineering and mathematical sciences. The possibility of full service bursaries to recruit more teachers in scarce skills areas is being explored. For example, the Department of Education has allocated R50-million to the Faculty of Veterinary Sciences at the University of Pretoria to support operations at the veterinary hospital as a national strategic asset.

NFSAS

The Government, through the National Student Financial Scheme, (NFSAS), plays an important role in enabling large numbers of academically able but financially needy students to access Higher education annually. This year, over 1.3 billion rand will be available for loans and bursaries through the NFSAS.

No fee schools

The introduction of no-fee schools for poor learners will ensure greater access to schools and thus to the literacy and numeracy skills that form the basis of meeting the skills challenge in the country.

A coherent response to the demands for skills development

Programme of action 2005/06

All of the items related to skills development in the Programme of Action for 2005 were either completed or enjoyed significant progress. Some of the highlights include:

* The successful launch of a revised National Skills Development Strategy with a projected R5 billion per year levy funding mechanism.

* A successful Employment and Skills Development Lead Employer or ESDLE pilot project that include FET Colleges is scheduled to be completed by September 2006. Thus far 7 856 learners are participating in the ESDLE pilot programmes,

* The learnership and apprenticeship programmes have grown from strength to strength with a 155 460 employed and unemployed learners enrolled by the end of March 2005

* The SETA system was successfully re-established when four SETAs were successfully merged. A total of 23 SETAs are now fully operational

* The sector skills plans for all 23 sectors of the economy were extensively reviewed and re-aligned to the revised NSDS 2005 – 2010

These cooperative projects are testimony to the fact that Government is working together contrary to what some detractors might be saying.

Progress on the NSDS for 2005 – 2010.

The adjusted NSDS 2005 – 2010 was launched in March 2005. This revised strategy is a comprehensive framework, which can be applied in a variety of ways to develop skills for both employed and unemployed. The NSDS has five key objectives with clearly defined targets and indicators that are guiding all SETAs and NSF funded projects interventions. SETAs now have a total of 15 success indicators to implement and report against.

In the past SETAs were accused of being insensitive to needs of the economy and the public. To remedy this, one of the most significant changes in the current strategy relates to SETAs broadening their support of learners in learnerships, apprenticeships, internships, bursaries, workplace experiential learning and unit standards based skills programmes.

During the previous financial year only one SETA got a disclaimer out of 25 SETAs. Furthermore the surplus has been reduced from R2-billion to R200-million. This indicates growing capacity to utilise available funds.

There were numerous projects that required close cooperation between the Department of Labour and other departments involved in skills development. These included:

* An amount of R421 million was allocated for training of unemployed people through our provincial offices in projects linked to housing, agriculture, road construction, working for water in 2005. By end of December 2005 about 80 000 had completed training in these programmes.

* Partnerships in training people with Correctional Services in their centres; EPWP small contractor learnership with Public Works; contributing to bursary schemes managed by NSFAS and NRF; workplace skill development support programme linked to DTI new investment incentive scheme.

During the next financial year, we will intensify our focus on the implementation of the second year of our NSDS 2005 - 2010 as well as the development of a state of the art, fully integrated Employment Services System. Vital to the implementation of these two key projects will be the link to the ASGI-SA. A detailed analysis of the skills requirements analysis for each ASGI-SA project has already been embarked upon.

An estimated 108 ASGI-SA projects have been identified and the skills development needs of each project will be mapped against clusters of SETAs and other stakeholders or role players.

The Employment Services System is a very exciting project that will be implemented this year to allow the Government to have a direct handle on all labour market information such as the existing vacancies, the numbers of people with qualifications in the various occupations, their location, matching work seekers with vacancies on line and so on.

An important feature of the Employment Services System will be the opportunity for every public and private sector organisation to list on the system every single employment or learning opportunity that is available.

Another key feature of the Employment Services System lies in its integrated design that will ensure that a single registration point is used for organisation or citizen registration. This integrated design will be further enhanced by direct linkages between the Employment Services System and other critical human resource based database systems such at Home Affairs, Education, South African Revenue Service and Statistics South Africa.

Umsobomvu Youth Fund and FET Colleges

Since 2005, the Umsobomvu Youth Fund has supported young people to access skills training programmes at selected FET Colleges. These colleges were supported from the 2005/6 budget allocation. The Fund has committed to approve funding in the 2006/07 financial year to an additional 10 FET Colleges. In addition to support for skills training, Umsobomvu Youth Fund has supported the establishment of Youth Advisory Centres (YAC) at selected FET Colleges. At December 2005, there were 17 YAC points located at FET Colleges. In each case, the Fund supports a YAC to the amount of R190 000 per college. These funds are used to employ youth at FET Colleges to provide advisory services on opportunities available to youth.

Promotion of niche areas in Science and technology

The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has recorded a number of significant achievements as a result of its investment in the country’s science and technology (s&t) skills base.

Space Science

The department’s efforts in space science have focused on developing the region as a hub for astronomy and space s&t. Through the Astronomy Geographical Advantage Programme (AGAP), South Africa continues to promote high technology investment in space science to ensure that local researchers and students are able to participate at the cutting edge of international astronomy. A key result of this was witnessed last November when President Mbeki launched one of South Africa’s flagship science projects: the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT).

Astronomy

Related to the country’s bid to host the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), a bursary programme has provided the first 12 postgraduate recipients with funding in the 2004/05 financial year. A further 11 recipients have been identified for 2006. This programme is now being extended to South Africa’s partners in the bid – Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique and Namibia. Ongoing efforts in enhancing PUSET also include the National Science Week (NSW) held annually in May.

Biotechnology

The implementation of the National Biotechnology Strategy has seen the development of a National Bio-informatics Network (NBN), which now has a presence in eight Universities and invests in technology research and development, as well as infrastructure and teaching. In 2005, 71 students (51% of whom are women and 34% black students), have received training in biotechnology related subjects.

South African Chairs Initiative

The South African Research Chairs Initiative is a strategic national structural intervention towards the creation of a coherent and national research and innovation system. The initiative is aimed at attracting and retaining qualified researchers to the higher education sector in order to reverse the country’s dramatic decline in research outputs and capacity at publicly funded institutions. It is envisaged that this programme, which has already been allocated R200 million, will produce 210 research chairs by 2010 with the potential to develop targeted research capacity in support of the National Research and Development Strategy and other national initiatives.

Systemic and Institutional Support

The DST’s Post-Doctoral Research Fellowships programme has already yielded encouraging results that also suggest that a change in the trend of the racial and gender profile of s&t students may be emerging. In round one, a total of 44 applications have been received of which 50% were submitted by black students and 61% by female students. Of the female student applicants, 88% have been recommended for support. The Young Professional Development Fellowship programme in collaboration with science councils and national institutions is aimed at enabling outstanding Masters and Doctoral graduates to obtain research experience at science councils in partnership with Universities.

International Science and Technology agreements

The DST has successfully leveraged human capital support through international science and technology agreements. This has resulted in jointly funded projects with 16 countries in areas such as agriculture, manufacturing and biotechnology. The intervention on the Institutes for Advanced Tooling brought into focus the fact that for every tooling engineer established, 18 new jobs are created – which is particularly critical for the automotive and plastics sector. South Africa has to produce about 2 500 over the next five years to replace existing toolmakers that are aging as well as to reverse the current R3 billion in tooling orders that is going abroad to foreign manufacturing bases. It is estimated that 45 000 jobs in machining, welding, fabrication and tool designs will be created with these interventions.

“Mens sana in corpore sano” (A healthy mind in a healthy body): the strategy to promote sports amongst our people

National Academy Programme

Athletes and teams that will be participating in the Commonwealth Games to be held in Melbourne, Australia in March 2006 have commenced training under the National Academy Programme. The National Academy Programme has contributed to the successes of our athletes and teams that participated in the Olympic and Paralympic Games of 2004 as well as in the Commonwealth Youth Games in Australia during the same year. Increased investment in the Siyadlala Mass Participation Programme (MPP) will provide more access to sport and recreation activities by large numbers of people who have not previously enjoyed such access. The programme is intended to inculcate healthy lifestyle amongst the youth and divert their energies away from anti-social behaviour. The Academy will expand its activities to include support to the South African Football Association (SAFA) to prepare a competitive team for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

2010 FIFA World Cup

South Africa’s progress in preparing for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in all its facets will continue to feature prominently in the run-up to the event.

The Ministry has been piloting and pioneering planning and commencement of construction of 2010 FIFA World Cup venues. This will provide many opportunities for communities and institutions to develop and offer respectively a range of necessary skills, not only in construction related industry but also in tourism, marketing etc

Our government has already allocated R242 million towards planning for this infrastructure provisioning. We are on track with building a lasting legacy from hosting the 2010 World Cup. Those in charge of football must play their part and prepare a winning squad for the tournament.

School Sport

Resulting from the framework on School Sports, which the Ministers of Education as well as Sport and Recreation signed on 17 March 2005, the two Ministries have now taken full responsibility for School Sport. In terms of the agreement between USSASA and government, will cease to exist in June 2006, the two departments will collaborate on all aspects of school sport including curricular and extracurricular activities as well as recreational and competitive sport. It will also rekindle a spirit of participation and a culture of sport that has declined, especially amongst schools in disadvantaged communities, over the few years.

Community Mass Participation Programme

The programme has been extended from 60 hubs in 2004 to 131 hubs in 2005. It has exceeded most of the target in the Key Performance Areas set for the year.

Presently, the main impact on the communities concerned is related to increased levels of activity, especially amongst the young in the communities concerned. The project has also contributed to job creation through the recruitment and training of unemployed youth to run the programme. They are being paid a small stipend and several have been recruited into more permanent jobs based on the skills that they have developed.

Sport and Recreation Bill

In 2006, the Ministry of Sport and Recreation will introduce in parliament, the Sport and Recreation Amendment Bill. The Bill will enable Government to intervene in all sporting codes. It will be submitted to Cabinet by April 2006.

Issued by: Department of Education
6 February 2006