SETA Public Hearing: Presentation to the Labour Portfolio Committee
By Mr. S Morotoba, Department of Labour
18 March 2003
Chairperson,
Honorable members
Colleagues from Setas
Distinguished guests
Thank you for the continued interest in our work and thank you for extending this invitation to the second set of eight Setas. I hope, time permitting an invitation will be extended to the remaining 9 Setas next year.
Chairperson, please allow me to also record an apology on behalf of our Director General, Adv Rams Ramashia who could not join us, as he is currently involved in OHS blitz campaign in the Limpopo province.
Setas delivery in terms of their mandates
Chairperson, broadly we are satisfied with the overall level of the majority of Seta performance despite the teething problems that we continue to experience in other areas. Last year during the September Annual Skills development Conference, the Minister of Labour tabled a consolidated annual report on the collective Seta achievements and we intend doing the same for the current financial year.
Seta performance has been uneven across the sectors and I am sure you will notice that from the presentations that are going to follow. We have intervened in areas of non-performance and we have always remained transparent in dealing with isolated incidences of fraud that lead towards negative publicity of Setas.
The department has concluded Memorandum of Understanding as an interim measure in the absence of a legislative provision allowing us to sign a Service Level Agreement with all Setas. The MoU outlines departmental obligations such as monthly transfer of skills development levies to Setas, Sectoral information, various forms of support etc, It also puts an obligation on Setas to spend the money in implementing their individual business plan, delivery of agreed skills development targets. We have developed and agreed on a Quarterly Monitoring and Reporting system. The Department has to date used these QMRs report to amongst others:-
Assess the individual performance of each Seta and their skills development contribution towards our National Skills Development Strategy.
To follow-up on non-performing Setas.
The National Skills Authority used these reports to review some regulations or guidelines and advised the Minister accordingly.
We have established a Quarterly National Skills Development Forum wherein the National Skills Authority will be liaising with Setas with regard to the quarterly reports
We are in a process of ensuring that employers and employees organisations including relevant government department who are constituent members to a Seta, are able to use these reports to monitor the performance of their Seta and to take appropriate action where necessary. After all it is their Seta and no official of the department of labour serves on any of these Seta Councils or Boards.
The QMR Synthesis Report which is a consolidation of all the Skills Development initiatives, i.e. Seta initiatives, National skills Fund skills development initiatives at Seta and Provincial levels, is published every quarter on the Department of Labour website. Steps are being initiated as you may have noticed with our other skills development publications, to make sure that it is available to other sectors of our communities without access to computers. I invite you to use it as a basis of evaluating individual Seta performance.
The Department has finalised a its work with regard to the establishment of a comprehensive frau prevention system that will be instituted at Seta level, provider, learners, Skills development Facilitator, workplace and it will also enable members of the public to report any form of fraud in Skills Levies System.
The Department has indicated difficulties and constrains that arose as a result of omission or lacuna in the skills development act and we hope that the proposed legislative amendment will also assist a lot in ensuring that Seta deliver much better on their current function. To date, we have done a lot of work on the proposed amendments and the Minister will arrange a briefing session once outstanding aspects are finalised.
Accountability of Setas
Chairperson, the invitation to Setas to address you, should be seen in context and not as a witch-hunt. Setas are public entities established in terms of the law passed by this parliament and they operate or are supposed to operate on the basis of a financial framework established by government. They are accountable to a range of stakeholders. They remain accountable to:-
Their stakeholders in accordance with their constitutions that the Minister of Labour approved when establishing them.
The department of Labour in terms of the Skills Development Act requirements, the Public Finance Management Act and all other relevant legislation of the country.
Parliament. To this date, the Minister has tabled the first and second Annual Reports of all Setas in parliament since Setas were established
He has answered a series of parliamentary questions as an Executive Authority responsible for Setas in parliament.
The opportunity afforded to the Eight Setas present here today allows you as legislators to obtain first hand information from Setas.
Setas are also given an opportunity to meet the general public including showcasing themselves during the Annual National Skills Development Conference hosted by the Minister of Labour.
In their own right, Setas have conducted road shows and have adopted various strategies in meeting their stakeholders.
The minister has committed himself to visit a number of Setas this year and I hope members of the Portfolio Committee will do the same.
Learnership campaign
Chairperson, I will be failing in my duty if I do not touch on the Learnership Campaign, one of our flagship programmes. We have since realised that collectively even though we have some odd 25 000 people in Learnerships, new entrants or young people constituted only about 5000. Given the level of youth unemployment in our country this figure is very small and unacceptable.
As part of our massive drive to have 50 000 young people participating in Learnerships by end of 2004, the department conducted a stakeholder Learnership Implementation Workshop on the 11th to 14th February this year at the St. Georges Hotel. The strategic planning workshop attended by about 250 people from Setas, Colleges and Technikons, National Skills Authority Constituencies and various government departments representatives, managed to develop Terms of References for the various Task Teams that will oversee Learnership campaign aspects such as: - Learnership Implementation, Funding, Marketing and Communications; Group Training for SMMEs, Exit Strategy and Employment Services functions such as recruitment and placement of learners.
The campaign has three phases. Phase I takes us to the end of March 2004, Phase II covers the period 2005 –2009, and Phase III covers the period 2010 to 20014.
The various Task Teams at the same workshop also managed to achieve the following: -
An outline of Learnership implementation education and training provision related matters that require urgent attention, obstacles and proposed solutions; the information necessary to make the campaign successful; the various partnerships that must be established or further strengthened with provider institutions; establishment of cluster working groups to carry the work forward, their support structures and action plans with clear time frames.
The marketing and communication of the campaign and appropriate messages to be communicated throughout the various stages of the campaign, target groups, sectors that could absorb large numbers of learners, various media to be used and the medium of communication taking into consideration the provincial and regional languages etc.
The funding that will be necessary to sustain the campaign, effective utilization of current resources available to Setas through the Levy grant system, employers Tax rebates, international donor funds, allowances for learners, costing of the various learnership programmes etc.
Assistance that must be provided to SMMEs through possible establishment of group training organisation models, the necessary policies and guidelines that must be in place etc.
Learnership information dissemination strategies to employers and prospective learners through our network of Provincial and Labour Centers, and other career information centers, recruitment and guidance etc.
Agreements that must be reached by labour an business regarding numbers of learners, placement of the various learners in the various government projects, entrepreneurship training, after care and support, linkages with other existing initiatives and so on.
To date, the various Task Teams are involved in an intensive process of implementing the workshop recommendations and addressing various aspects of the campaign.
The success of this campaign depends on all of us. Through this campaign, we are hoping that the various employers both public and private including SMMEs will each take at least a single young person and commit themselves to train that person in one of the learnerships. This campaign will go a long way in addressing the problem faced by our young people and will hopefully form part of the Department of Labour’s contribution towards the Growth Summit.
I look forward to a fruitful engagement during the next two days and that the time spent by all of us will remain in our memory for the years to come.
Chairperson please allow me to introduce the following Seta representatives