North West Province hosts successful Human Resource Development Provincial Coordination Forum

Today, the quarterly meeting of the Human Resource Development (HRD) Provincial Coordination Forum sat at the Department of Education - HRM&D Mahikeng offices. The Forum has a mandate to create a link and alignment between the Human Resource Development Council and human resource development activities within the provinces.

The HRD Provincial Coordination Forum is a platform where Provinces provide feedback on the implementation of the HRD strategy as well as share best practice.

The meeting focused on the feedback of the HRDC meeting of 10 June 2016 and reports on the five-point plan of the HRDC.

In this regard, the North West province as the host province shared achievements and challenges as follows:

1. The establishment of Ikatisong School of Governance (ISOG) which is responsible for training, learning and development of public sector employees in the North West in order to ensure a capable, caring developmental public service. Some of the programmes offered by ISOG are: Performance Management and Development System (PMDS); Breaking barriers to entry into the public service; Management Development programmes and Public Entities Governance.
2. Establishment of the Skills Development Centre in the Kenneth Kaunda District.
3. The launch of Kgetsi-Ya-Tsie Education and Skills Development Fund.
4. The four TVET Colleges in the province enrolled 16 747 learners. However, just under 3000 of these learners are registered in various artisan related programmes which is a course for concern in light of the target of 30 000 artisans per annum by the year 2030 as per the National Development Plan.
5. One thousand and seventy two (1072) students have been placed on workplaces as part of the Work Integrated Learning (WIL).
6. One hundred and seventy (170) bursaries have been awarded to unemployed youth.
7. The province has established partnership between the Office of the Premier, District Municipalities and Anglo-gold Ashanti to train 80 unemployed youth as Artisans by 2018.
8. The province is also making strides in increasing the supply of professionals through bursary awards and participation in international scholarship and exchange programmes for it has currently awarded 142 bursaries for students in Cuba.
9. Various skills development programmes are funded by Sector Education and Training Authorities (merSETA, EWSETA, CETA, ETDP, PSETA, CATHSSETA, HWSETA, TETA and FASSET).
10. The Adult Education and Training (AET) Programme has registered 18 022 unemployed learners.

The North West province outlined a number of challenges with regard to skills development and some of these challenges are: a lack of Provincial HRD Structure for improved integrated planning, implementation and reporting; significant decline in the implementation of AET, learnerships and bursaries programme for employees and accredited training providers from the Province.

The meeting received progress reports from other provinces in attendance based on the five-point plan.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the Chairperson, Ms Brenda Ntombela said “this platform is good for sharing best practice among all Provinces and sister Departments”

The forum will sit again in October 2016 in the Western Cape.

Enquires:
Ms Brenda Ntombela
E-mail: Ntombela.B@dhet.gov.za
Cell: 082 573 3716