PRESENTATION TO PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION: NBFET

2005/06 ANNUAL REPORT

14 NOVEMBER 2006

09:00 – 13:00

Mandate of the NBFET

According to the FET Act No.98 of 1998, the NBFET must advise the Minister of Education on:

• Any aspect on FET at the request of the Minister;

• Quality promotion and assurance in FET training;

• National FET policy, goals and priorities; and

• The norms and standards in FET,

Foreword to the Report

• 2nd NBFET – May 2005

• Great deal of ground covered

• Activities and Highlights– Declaration Statements

– Workshop between Colleges and SETAs

– Workshop on FETC (Vocational)

– W\shop on College Recapitalisation

– FET Curriculum

Operational context

• Education & Training under pressure for the next ten years• Economic and Social dev, as well as Poverty Alleviation &

Employment creation• Stakeholders and role players to put maximum effort to ensure

sustainable dev underpinned by economic growth, skills revolution and strong democracy.

• It is thus hoped that the content of the report and especially, its recommendations will assist the Minister in creating an enabling

environment for the FET sector to thrive

Purpose of the Report

• Section 40(a)(ii) of the FET Act, no 98 of 1998 requires the NBFET to:

– Report on the quality of further education and training in respect of the country as a whole while;

• Section 3(c) of the relevant Regulations requires the Board to; ‘Monitor and report annually to the Minister on the goals and

performance of the National education and Training system.

Thus this report seeks to provide an account of the Second NBFETduring the period of its inauguration on August 2005 to October 2006and to highlight certain recommendations arising from those activities.

Composition of the Board

The National Board on Further Education and Training is composed of;• Ordinary members – drawn from stakeholder representatives• Non-voting members – drawn from Heads of Departments of the

Provincial FET Directorates

Equally important to note is that the Board is an advisory body to theMinister and not a policy making body.It is based on participatory democracy underpinned by partnerships,co-operation and the articulation of the needs interest of all the playersinvolved in the FET sector.The important principle is to get the right balance between expert policy making functions and stakeholder representation.

On its inter-action with the Minister

At the inauguration of the 2nd NBFET the Minister raised the following as

challenges that needed the attention of all the stakeholders in the FET

Sector:

• Systemic development of the FET sector, led by the DoE, with support from government and private sector

• Positioning of the FET colleges as key lever for skills development

• Increasing the number of students in high quality vocational programmes

• Developing high quality modern and responsive FET programme offering

• Focus on the development and employment needs and opportunities related to major capital development projects over the next ten years

• Differentiation of the FET college system according to national and provincial priorities

The Board’s response to the Minister’s call

For the realisation of the Minister’s call the Board took cognisance of the fact that;• In the next five years the FET sector will have to receive significant new

investment in teaching and learning resources and equipment.• There will be a need for re-orientation of administration, governance,

management, teaching and learning and the entire academic support systems.

Given the nature of the work the Board is supposed to do, the Board feels that it would be advisable if structured meetings could be facilitated

between the Board and the Minister. These should be, at least;• One per annum between the entire Board and the Minister and;• Two (one per term) between the Minister and the executive committee of

the Board.

The Board activities for the period under review.

The Board has, at its meetings and executive committee workshops, sought to prioritise those areas about which more information and engagement for cooperative governance is required for a comprehensive and satisfactory grounded recommendations to the Minister. The areasidentified are;• Declaration Statement between SETAs and FET College Principals• FET Strategic Plan 2005 – 2009• National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS) 2005-2010• Master Craftsman/Artisan• Worldskills Competition• Umsobomvu Youth Fund• FETC (Vocational)• FET Colleges Recapitalisation• FET Curriculum

JIPSA

• To establish a systematic approach to addressing the requirements for qualified and competent artisans in an integrated and complementary manner with other critical and scarce skills that are required to deliver on the ASGISA projects

• To increase the numbers of people in both learnerships and apprenticeship pathways in order to meet or exceed two to three times the proposed JIPSA target of 50 000 by March 2010 through a project that will ensure a national agreement and alignment of both learnerships, apprenticeship and FET pathways,

• To maintain and ensure integration of principles such as redress, relevance, responsiveness and career paths for learners in order to meet the ever changing social and growth skills needs in the economy beyond 2010, to make the pathways attractive to prospective learners, and to use this initiative as a foundation for further learning

Apprentice Training – Pre mid 1980s

N3

N2

N1

Enterprise(Public or Private)

Mainly routine tasks under supervision

Mainly routine tasks under supervision

Mainly observation – supervised routine

General Education (Standard 7 or 8)

TradeTest

(type of trade)

6-9 months on-the-job

3 months block release

6-9 months on-the-job

3 months block release

6-9 months on-the-job

3 months block release

CollegeTheory & Workshops

(Practical)

Apprentice Training – late 1980s to date

N3

N2

N1

Enterprise(Public or Private)

General Education (Grades 9 and 12)

TradeTest

(type of trade)

CollegeTheory & Workshops

(Practical)

N4Specified tasks

under supervision for determined period of time

Enterprise Training Courses

“Institutional”

Apprentice / Learnership Training – current shifts and new initiatives

Enterprise(Public or Private)

Occupational recognition

through assessment

CollegeTheory & Workshops

(Practical)

LearnershipsApprenticeships

FET 3

FET 2

FET 1

O-D Qual

Practice and experience in an occupationally relevant context + Specialised and contextual theory

and knowledge

General and Occupationally Relevant Skills

Enterprise Training Courses

“Institutional”

General Knowledge & Theory

Specified tasks under

supervision for determined

period of time

Forms of Learning

• Occupationally and Professionally Related Qualifications – Focus is on scarce and priority skills

General knowledge and theory

General and occupationally relevant skills

Practice and experience in an occupationally

relevant context

+Specialised and contextual

theory and knowledge

Education & Training Quality Assurance Quality Assurance of Training & Practice

3 learning modes for achieving occupational / professional competence

Specialised and contextual knowledge &

theory

Application (structured learning)

Workplace experience(practice)

General and occupationally relevant knowledge and theory;

Specialised and contextual knowledge &

theory

Application (structured learning)

Workplace experience(practice)

General and occupationally relevant knowledge and theory;

Existing artisan/learnerships interventions

• NSDS 2001-2005– 88 410 section Skills Development Act 18 (2) formerly unemployed

learners below 35 yrs) – 21 237 Manpower Training Act Section 13 apprentices ( between 18 and

35 yrs and do an apprenticeship and trade test) – 45 813 SDA Section 18 (1) previously employed learners in learnerships – 15 466 MTA apprentices above 35 yrs and MTA Section 28 (People with

sufficient experience and prepared to undergo a trade test to become artisans)

• NSDS 2005-2010 (2005/6)– 41 004 SDA Section 18 (2) learnerships– 3 594 MTA Section 13 apprentices below 35 yrs– 16 301 SDA Section 18(1) – 2 962 MTA apprentices above 35yrs and MTA section 28

THIRD ARTISAN DELIVERY PATHWAY: FET COLLEGES

Table 7: Enrolment in public FET Colleges 2004 Programme Business Engineering Other Total

NIC/NSC 20 000 9 000 4 000 33 000

N1 – N3 13 500 131 000 6 500 151 000

N4 – N6 73 500 54 000 6 000 133 500

Other 9 500 17 000 29 000 55 500

Total 117 000 211 000 45 000 373 000

These are very high numbers of learners enrolled in engineering studies at FET and post-FET levels. Although these learners have no practical work experience, and most may not find engineering employment, with ther appropriate top up of work experience and additional employment based practical training, they could add significantly to the cadre of skilled artisans in SA.

Proposed Target of 50 000 artisans trained by March 2010• Proposed target of 50 000

– Can be achieved within the current skills development framework and resources without major adjustments,

– Do not require a separate Business Plan Process.

• The NSDS 2005 – 2010 sets the following target to be achieved by March 2010 and to be funded as part of the projected R21,9 billion.– 125 000 workers in employment to be trained in identified scarce and

critical skills list in Learnerships; Apprenticeships; Bursaries and Internships learning programmes and another

– 125 000 unemployed young people below 35 yrs to be trained in identified scarce and critical skills list in Learnerships; Apprenticeships; Bursaries and Internships learning programmes

Proposed commitments in order to achieve and or exceed the proposed targets

• DoL / DoE and other Government departments Short Term interventions.– Facilitate and secure national agreement and alignment between the 3 pathways

(FET; Learnerships and Apprenticeship) to achieve artisan level or equivalent status.

– Maintain and provide data on learners with N1 – N 6 qualifications for recruitment purposes

– Conclude and implement new Tax Allowances as from 01 April 2007 for Learnerships and apprenticeships.

– Ensure prioritization and focus on Artisan delivery amongst SETAs and other institutions.

– Support Artisan delivery in identified scarce and critical skills through additional funding allocations from NSF Scarce and critical skills support and other related sources

– Secure internal government usage of the 1% levy budgeted for training and reporting, financial contribution to SETAs, levels of representation in SETA Boards etc, and development of identified sector specific skills needs through integrated sector frameworks.

– Ensuring adjustments on prioritized trades, improved moderation, adjusted assessment standards in identified priority trades.

Proposed commitments in order to achieve and or exceed the proposed targets

Business and Labour.– Commit to make SETAs to function and to deliver on their agreed targets– Actively canvass and make workplaces available for young people to

obtain experiential learning, and to fulfill trade union and employer obligations towards these learners.

– Reach agreements on the percentages of learners to be recruited and to be placed in full time employment after training, payable allowances rates and other employment related conditions.

– To work together in the development, submission of the Workplace Skills Plans and implementation and compilation and submission of the Annual Training Report.

– Work closely with DoL/DoE in the clarifying relations and alignment between NQF learnerships levels and various Trades in their sectors.

– Provide dedicated mentors for young people and – Commit additional funding beyond 1% skills levy funds towards training.

Recommendations & matters requiring urgent attention.

• Schools

• Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting

• Programmes, Curriculum and Accreditation

• National Qualifications Framework

• Teacher Shortages in Schools.

Short and medium term goals

• Medium Term interventions – Implementation of a comprehensive Employment Services System that will provide

reliable data and information gathering regarding artisans and other occupations by• Sector, trade (occupation), race, age and gender, geographic location • Numbers of new apprentice contracts signed, throughputs per year of training, trade

assessments and achievement of trade status (certification). • Provide linkages with other systems used in SARS, StatsSA, DoHA, UIF, NLRD etc. to

ensure accuracy of information.– Reviewing the designated trades– Ensuring alignment and rationalization across similar trades to ensure occupational

portability and coherence– Establishing a high level discussion about the phasing out of NATED (N) courses– Developing a set of guidelines about apprenticeships and contract management,

accompanied by legislative amendments to the SDA to amongst others clarify the role of Indlela in apprenticeship assessment nationally, bring certainty on future the apprenticeship system, requirements fro Trade Test, Apprenticeship conditions of employment etc.

– Reviewing the system of Section 28 assessments – Developing new systems for moderation of trade assessments to ensure standardization

of trade tests.

In Conclusion

At the beginning of this report we stated that Section (3)(c) of the

Regulations to the Further Education and Training Act requires the

NBFET to;• “Monitor and report annually to the Minister on the goals and

performance of the national education and training system.”

There are currently no agreed performance indicators against which the

quality of implementation in FET can be measured. Consequently it will not

be possible, to date, for the NBFET to submit a comprehensive report on

the quality, goals and performance in the FET sector in the country as a

whole.

There is a need for an educationally sound quality measurement system

which should be integrated into FETMIS.

Thank You