THE ROLE OF THE PRIVATE SECTOR IN THE
UPLIFTMENT OF THE SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE LEVEL
IN THE PRIMARY AGRICULTURE SECTOR

Submission by:

M C van Niekerk, Executive Officer
Primary Agriculture Education and Training Authority
(PAETA)
09-06-03

BACKGROUND

Sector Education and Training Authorities and their roles

March 2000 the Minister of Labour trough the Skills Development Act of 1998 established 25 Sector Education and Training authorities (SETAs) of which PAETA (Primary Agriculture Education and Training Authority) is one;
The broad goal of the SETAs is the upliftment of the skills and knowledge of the employees and employers in their respective sectors;
The three main functions of any SETA to achieve the broad goal are:
The mentioned Skills Development Act makes provision for the payment of grants to those employers who are contributing through the skills development levy (1% of total wage and salary bill). Employers can get up to 70% of their contribution back if they fulfil certain requirements. SETAs are responsible for the management and administration of these fund;
To control the quality of training and development in the sector through the accreditation of training providers; and
To play a supportive role towards the training and development actions in their respective sectors, viz the development and registration of learnerships and skills programmes.

Primary Agriculture Sector

The Primary Agriculture Education and Training Authority (PAETA) serves the primary agricultural sector;
The scope of coverage of PAETA demarcates it mainly to those development actions within the fences of the farm – the farm worker and farmer, of which
There are estimated to be:
40 000 bigger, or so called commercial farming units;
400 000 permanent workers;
350 000 seasonal workers; and
400 000 emerging farmers

TRENDS IN TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE PRIMARY AGRICULTURE SECTOR THAT ARE IDENTIFIABLE THROUGH THE OPERATIONS OF PAETA


Payment of Grants

PAETA received (last three years) R50,4 million form 4 816 employers in the sector;
A total of 2 682 Workplace Skills Plans were received from employers over the three years and a total amount of R13,6 million was paid out in terms of mandatory grants to employers;
It is calculated that over the three year period, at least 75 000 employees in the sector received some form of training.
The training in the sector is being delivered either by an outside provider (mostly from the private sector) and or the enterprises themselves (internally).

The following conclusions could be made;
Training and development takes place in the sector notwithstanding the fact that the sector has a relative low percentage of employers who are obliged to contribute towards the skills development levy (the majority are excluded in terms of the R250 000 annual payroll as the entry level prescribed by the Skills Levies Act).
Although limited, the private sector providers are playing a role;
Employers are not claiming back to the extent that PAETA would like to see it; and.
As a result o f non-claiming by employers, a discretionary fund develops within PAETA which creates opportunities for PAETA to initiate, on a pro-active basis, priority skills development actions within the sector.


Quality Assurance

PAETA/SETAs took up the responsibility of training and education quality assurance in their respective sectors;
To date a total of 180 requests for accreditation had been received by PAETA from mainly private sector providers; and
Only 22 providers could be accredited (i.e. meeting the requirements for accreditation)

The following conclusions could be made:
Although there are a proliferation of private training providers in the sector, most of them are not in a position to meet the minimum accreditation requirements;
The sector needs "strong" providers who could fulfil the training needs of the sector; and
The further and higher education and training institutions/systems must buy into the SAQA processes (South African Qualifications Authority).

Supportive role of PAETA/SETAs

Identification of training and development needs through Sector Skills Plans;
Development of learnerships and skills programmes; and
Identification of areas which need special attention (eg. PAETA did research on the implications of land reform for training and education.)

The following conclusions could be made:
Farm workers are in need of life skills and to a lesser extent operational skills
Farm management skills, especially financial management is the largest single need of the emerging and to some extent the commercial farmers;
Although learnerships could play an important role with regards to the training and development needs of the sector, skills programmes seems to be the answer for the short and medium term; and
The chances of land reform beneficiaries becoming successful farmers are limited if there is not an active move to coordinate all the actions and role players in this field.

3. CLOSURE

Private sector education, training and development institutions, agri-businesses, suppliers of primary agriculture inputs are contributing a great deal in the form of services, funds and expertise towards the sector but the effect thereof is fairly limited because it is done in an un-coordinated manner and the needed follow-up actions and plans are not in place.

The primary agricultural sector is in dire need of coordination of efforts which may not imply increased control.