It is my belief that through the NSDS 2005 – 2010 together with our social partners we will support the broader goals of government to halve unemployment and poverty and reduce inequality by 2014 and further to unsure that the institution of skill development, which in the main are the SETA’s and the NSF use their resources to advance our skills revolution.

Mr. MMS Mdladlana, MP

Minister of Labour

The strategic plan is a representation of how the LGSETA have aligned its work and resources to the skills needs of the Local Government sector for effective delivery and implementation.

As the political leadership we support the strategic framework to guide Seta towards the desired vision. We have made choices and will see through these choices. The political support extends beyond political will. It will clearly manifest in tough hands on support and vision for the benefit of the plan.

The LGSeta strategic plan is designed to close the gap between good intention and good practice. It provides answers to the following strategic conversations:

• The assumption about the operating environment
• The definition of the business opportunities
• The value proposition
• The business model design
• A systematic process of reviewing progress, sharing learning and adjusting strategy
• A set of metrics of how we are doing , and

The practical process: Everything that everyone in the Seta does must produce value. This is an everyday process. It must become a way of thinking, a way of life.

Strategic Objective 3: Deploy communication as a business tool in support of

Core business

Strategic Objective 4: Monitor and evaluate implementation

Pillars of the strategic plan

Programme of Action

• Ubuntu
• Transparency
• Professional ethics
• Consistency
• Objectivity
• Quality

Value is the moving target

The LGSETA should keep reinventing offerings to the Stakeholders

We must constantly improve their perception of our Core Values

• Excel in the delivery of core business.

Excel in the delivery of core business.

• The National Skills Development Strategy mission is: To contribute sustainable development of skills growth, development and equity of skills development institutions by aligning their work and resources to the skills needs for effective delivery and implementation.
• In terms of this Act, the LGSETA is mandated to manage and coordinate training and skills development within the local government.
• The LGSETA should bring skills to the employed and those wanting to be employed in the sector. However, they should ensure that:

• The skills learned are needed by the employers and communities.
• People are able to use the skills they have learned.
• The training is conducted to agreed standards.
• The qualifications acquired by the learners are recognized nationally.
• The training is subject to quality control.

Establish effective business processes, policies, systems and procedures.

To inquire into effectiveness is to ask how well an organization is doing, relative to some set of standards. Since organizations are viewed as instruments for attainment of goals, the criteria emphasized should focus on the number and quality outputs and the economies realized in transforming inputs into outputs.

The business processes, systems and practices of the LGSETA were developed to contribute to the survival of the organization and to serve the interest of external constituencies. There will be a radical improvement in results if it we apply some common sense and discipline:

• All stakeholders understand the strategy and that their role is to make it happen.
• Everyone is pulling in the same direction.
• Everyone focuses on the few actions that will make the greatest impact.
• All staff are trained and equipped to do their jobs properly.
• They are doing the right thing and in the best possible way.
• Management style inspires staff to discover their true potential.
• Efforts are concentrated on the right customers.
• The value proposition inspires confidence.
• The business model is customized to meet their needs.
• Measuring the right things and are learning from our results.

Deploy communication as a business tool in support of core business.

"What we have here is a failure to communicate"

This statement has meaning to everyone because each of us has faced situations in which the basic problem was communication. Whether on a person-to-person basis, nation-to-nation, in organizations, or in small groups, breakdown in communication is pervasive.

It would be extremely difficult to find an aspect of a manager’s job that does not involve communication. Serious problems arise when directives are misunderstood, when casual kidding in a work group lead to anger or when informal remarks by a top level manager are distorted. Each of these situations is a result of a breakdown somewhere in the process of communication.

Accordingly, the pertinent question is not whether managers engage in communication because communication is inherent to the functioning of an organization. Rather, the pertinent question is whether managers will communicate well or poorly. In other words communication itself is unavoidable. Every manager must be a communicator. In fact everything a manager does communicate something in some way to somebody or some group. The only question is: With what effect?

Despite the tremendous advances in communication and information technology, communication among people in the organization leaves much to be desired. Communication among people does not depend on technology but rather focuses in people and their surroundings. It is a process that occurs within people. For 2005/8 period, the LGSETA should:

• Raise awareness of, provide information to and educate stakeholders about all aspects relating to the Seta.
• Announce education and training opportunities in the sector.
• Build mutually beneficial and appropriate relations with stakeholders.
• Raise the profile of the Seta among people in leadership roles and influential positions in the country.
• Develop a brand out of the LGSETA and promoting it.

Monitor and evaluate performance.

Since the establishment of the Setas, a major shortcoming of the LGSETA was inability to monitor performance and report on progress in the implementation of its programmes. One of the core businesses of the Seta is – report to the Minister of Labour and stakeholders. This will not be realizable in the absence of a process to measure progress towards planned performance. Process is essential to monitoring, detecting and correcting significant variations, or discrepancies in the results obtained from planned activities. In the period 2005/8 the control process would include:

• Setting performance standards,
• Measuring performance,
• Compare performance with the standards and determine deviation, and
• Remedying unfavourable deviation by taking corrective action.

In today’s business environment planning has become a widespread management function involving people throughout the organization in the analysis, identification and selection of goals and priorities.

The LGSETA strategic plan is based on the following pillars:

• Providing the skills required by the economy
• Increasing investments in the economy
• Intervention in the second economy
• Improve economic inclusion
• Massively improve government capacity
• Bring government closer to the people

• Prioritisation of scarce skills and enable access to training
• Stimulate quality training for all in the workplace
• Promote employability and sustainable liveliwoods through skills development
• Assist new entrants into the labour market and self employment
• Improve the quality and relevance of provision.

• Reviewed during 2004
• Providing a clear indication of priorities for the sector.

• To achieve government targets qualitatively rather than quantitatively
• To place the Seta firmly within the national government machinery to improve the lives of the citizenry
• To rise to the demands of increased expectations of a developmental government
• To make our stakeholders to develop an even greater appreciation to the reasons for existence of this institution (ie LGSETA).
• To align the Seta programme s to keep up with changes in legislation and still relocate to the needs of the sector.

• Studying of past events
• Examination of current conditions
• Forecast of future trends

• Proper audit of current programmes
• Conduct impact assessment
• Develop a list of scarce skills
• Develop provincial Human Resources and Skills Development Strategy
• Conduct audit on of Workplace skills plan and Sector’s Plan
• Implement capacity building programme - strengthen governance
• Coordinate skills provision within the sector

• Audit development of Learnership
• Ensure proper utilization of training programmes and incentives
• Increase commitment to the ABET programme
• Better commitment to Workplace Skills Plan.
• Address training resource disparities
• Assist in the functioning of ward committees
• Increase government’s capacity to implement
• Audit training expenditure
• Align all skills programme to value –add.

The LGSETA should be measured in terms of the ability to partner stakeholders

in the delivery of their respective mandate:

• Human Resource and skills development strategy should be developed for the Provinces to educate, train and build capacity of all people to enhance their contribution to social, economic political and cultural life in their areas.

• Close linkages and partnership must be developed and sustained amongst and between business, labour, civil society, education and training providers and government in order to be responsive to the changing economic, social and demographic trends.

• Heighten the awareness of the importance of training in the work place, and promote a culture of life long learning.