Success
15 May 2007
Artisan development remains a vital cog if the government's skills
revolution in the form of Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South
Africa (AsgiSA) were to be accomplished, Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana
has said.
Briefing the media on Monday night, ahead of his Budget Vote in Parliament
today (Tuesday), Minister Mdladlana said his department was set to "turn the
tide" in the delivery of artisans and other technical skills, and the organised
labour and employers in both the private and public sectors to join the
government in this process.
"The acquisition of intermediate artisan and technical skills for the AsgiSA
infrastructure development programmes remain a major challenge if we are to
meet the needs of our growing economy and increased government investment in
capital formation from the previous ten percent Gross Domestic Product level to
the planned 25 percent by 2014," he said.
Contrary to misleading reports that the government abandoned the
apprenticeship system with the establishment of Sector Education and Training
Authorities (SETAs), the Department had in fact been developing an average 5
630 artisan and 16 000 graduate learnerships in various occupations each
year.
"As part of our response to the Joint Initiative on Priority Skills
Acquisition (JIPSA) call to increase the numbers of artisans to 12 500 per
annum in order to meet the 50 000 target by 2010, we have embarked on a number
of interventions.
"We have already allocated R316 million under the National Skills Fund to 13
SETAs to support their interventions in the scarce and critical priority areas
that include artisans, and are currently repositioning the Institute for
National Development of Learnerships, Employment and Labour Assessment
(Indlela) to play a major role in the assessment standard, moderation of
assessment and training of artisan trainers in order to maintain and or surpass
international standards," the Minister said.
The Department has also established a number of working groups in
partnerships with SETAs to address some of the systemic issues that affect the
training of artisans as well as disparities in the learnership and
apprenticeship incentives.
"I have interrogated SETAs' financial statements, including their levels of
investments and called for reprioritisation of their funding from some of the
commitments towards scarce and critical skills identified in their
sectors."
"This exercise has yielded some results as SETAs revised their initial
target to deliver 6 800 artisans in the 2007/08 Service Level Agreements to 16
568. I am happy to announce that for the 2007/08 financial year, we have
budgeted an amount of R300 million under the National Skills Fund to support
those SETAs that will be taking on apprentices in the identified 16 priority
artisan trades."
To qualify for a slice of this budget, the SETAs would have to, among
others, demonstrate adjustment in their artisan target provided in their
2007/08 Service Level Agreement by 31 March 2007 and demonstrate how they have
reprioritised their skills development funds towards scarce and critical skills
identified in their sector plans including the identified priority artisan
trades.
Minister Mdladlana singled out Steel and Engineering Industries Federation
of South Africa and the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Sector
Education and Training Authority for praise, saying the duo had heeded the call
and took leadership in this regard.
The Minister further called on employers to avail workplace opportunities
for young people by ensuring that a certain proportion of these graduates are
permanently placed in their industries on completion of training.
He also urged trade unions to welcome and assist young people undergoing
training in their work places.
Enquiries:
Zolisa Sigabi
Cell: 082 906 3878
E-mail: zolisa.sigabi@labour.gov.za
Issued by: Department of Labour
15 May 2007
Source: Department of Labour (http://www.labour.gov.za)
