CBE & BEPCs on implementing pipeline for graduates to become professionally registered; Process to complete review of the White Paper; with Deputy Minister

Public Works and Infrastructure

26 February 2020
Chairperson: Ms N Ntobongwana (ANC)
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Meeting Summary

A key priority of the skills pipeline was the absorption of graduates into the working environment, in line with government’s economic transformation and job creation agenda. The entity wants to help graduates advance from candidacy programmes in the different councils, all the way to professional status.

The entity liaised with the Construction Education and Training Authority (CETA) to discuss funding the skills pipeline. They need funding from CETA to implement their transformation initiatives.

MerSETA was funding different workplaces and the CBE was responsible for monitoring how these funds are utilised. Monitoring was necessary because some of the candidates did not get sufficient exposure to work that would help them become recognised as professionals. CBE also met with the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) to discuss collaboration on research and funding of students in the field of built environment.

The Department said it was co-ordinating the implementation of the skills pipeline interventions across the public works sector to help capacitate it with more professionals. One of the programmes that was implemented was graduate internships. The Work Integrated Learning Programme (WIL) was instituted to provide access to a workplace to assist students to meet the set qualification requirements.

A Committee Member said it was alarming for the entity to present such an inadequate report after having five months to prepare it. The Department did not seem to have a proper implementation plan in place to address the matters that arose in the last meeting. Many departments seem to be failing to provide vocational training. This was contradictory to the skills pipeline.

The attrition rate of black graduates being integrated into the system was very high. This could be caused by gate-keeping or the system’s failure to provide effective mentorship programmes. It had to be addressed, but transformation must not take place without assessing the requisite skills, expertise

The policy framework for the Department was encapsulated in two White Papers: Public Works towards the 21st Century (1997), and Creating an Enabling Environment for Reconstruction Growth and Development in the Construction Industry (1999).

DPWI produced a diagnostic report and the Comprehensive Policy Review Report of the two White Papers to identify gaps and challenges encountered during the implementation of the Paper’s and provided recommendations in addressing the same.

Meeting report

Opening Remarks by the Chairperson

The Chairperson recounted the Committee’s meeting with the Council for the Built Environment (CBE). It was held near the end of 2019, and she requested a status update by the first quarter of 2020 on matters arising from that meeting. The most crucial matter was the need for transformation in the built environment industry.  The Minister’s apology was noted but deemed unacceptable, as the Committee submitted its Programme to the Minister’s office, clearly setting out meetings requesting the Minister’s attendance. This included the meeting held today. It was the Minister’s responsibility to manage this invitation despite ‘Cabinet Wednesdays’ at the National Assembly Chamber.

Ms L Shabalala (ANC) raised concern over vacancy rates, given that the financial year end was drawing near. The Committee should not be surprised by under-expenditure and other performance shortfalls in the Department because there were still officials playing acting roles in vacant positions.

The Chairperson said that this matter was not part of the agenda. The Department will meet with the Committee on 04 March 2020 to report on its third quarter performance, when the Committee will then evaluate the impact of such vacancies and proceed with the appropriate oversight.

Political input by the Deputy Minister

Ms Noxolo Kiviet, Deputy Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure (DM), said the Department and the CBE were there to present a matter of constitutional obligation, the implementation of a skills pipeline project. It was a privilege for the Department to share a progress update with the Committee and South Africans at large, on work that it has done. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) led the presentation, followed by input from the Director-General (DG).

The Minister was absent due to attending upon matters connected to the Finance Minister’s 2020 Budget Speech, as the contents were a collective effort of Cabinet and the Presidency. The Department made apologies for this. The Minister office appreciated the concerns raised by the Committee and resolved to work on a plan to address them effectively. The Department’s entities were delegated to the DM, who was present at the meeting.

Briefing by the Council for the Built Environment

Dr Sitsabo Dlamini, Chairperson of the CBE Board, said that since the entity’s last presentation at Parliament in October, there had been a number of issues the entity was seized with.

The entity started its Transformation Indaba in October 2019. The event resulted in key growth areas which became a fundamental focus of the entity’s transformation interventions. As it falls under its leadership, the work will be done in collaboration with the six Council for the Built Environment Professions (CBEPs). Other strategic partners are identified to mobilise stakeholders around the national infrastructure development programme, aimed to stimulate a contribution towards robust economic growth.

A key priority of the skills pipeline is the absorption of graduates into the working environment. This is in line with government’s economic transformation and job creation agenda. The entity is looking to help with graduates advancement from candidacy programmes in the different councils, all the way to professional status. The entity plans to generate an authoritative report to outline CBE’s transformation agenda, including its implementation philosophy. The measures, which were taken from the resolutions that emerged from the last meeting with the Committee, will also be integrated into the report.

Ms Priscilla Mdlalose, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the CBE, said that the purpose of the briefing is to report on how the entity moved to address issues raised by the Committee.  These issues concern the progress made by CBE towards professionalisation of graduates in the skills pipeline during the 2019/2020 financial year.

The report showed:

  •  the role of CBE and the 6 break-even points (BEP’s),
  • the transformation initiatives undertaken,
  • the definition of the relationship between state, regulators, and interest groups,
  • BEPC’s interventions and roles in the skills pipeline,
  • registration statistics and
  • the challenges faced by CBE and BEPC’s in achieving their mandate

Ms Mdlalose said the CBE and the Department established the Transformation Collaborative Forums to engage on transformation matters, including policy reviews. National Treasury was also part of the discussions because it plays a vital role in aiding the procurement processes. These engagements detailed CBE’s Transformation Indaba resolutions, directly aligned with concerns raised by the industry and the Committee. Terms of reference were developed to define the scope of the forums, and the forums are composed inclusive of youth, people living with disabilities and women. These resolutions were presented to the DM, who facilitated a workshop, including the Department officials and leaders of the different entities. This workshop aimed at synergising plans of all strategic partners and role players for implementing resolutions. A monitoring tool will be developed to ensure that relevant departments were fulfilling their responsibility of ensuring the implementation of the resolutions.

The entity engaged with the Construction Education and Training Authority (CETA) on 21 January 2020 and with MerSETA on 11 February 2020, to discuss funding of the skills pipeline. The six CBEPs all attended these meetings as they need funding from CETA to implement their respective transformation initiatives. Some of the councils were now engaging CETA individually, to get the funding they need. MerSETA was funding different workplaces and the CBE was responsible for monitoring how these funds were utilised. The monitoring was necessary because some candidates reportedly did not get sufficient exposure to work to help them become recognised as professionals. CBE also met with the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) on13 February 2020 to discuss collaboration on research and funding of students in the field of built environment.

Mr Sipho Madonsela, CEO of the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA), said that he collaborated with the Registrars of the CBEPs and the CBE’s CEO in compiling the presentation content. He described the evolution of the relationships between the State, built environment professions’ interest groups and the regulators.

He discussed the skills pipeline, accreditation; the Continuing Professional Development Regime, setting standards for registration renewals, and logging in of points; the management of professional conduct ( from code of practice to investigations), and discipline and enforcement within the profession. The presentation showed statistics for the registration and deregistration of professionals in the different built environment professions.

Briefing by the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure on the Skills Pipeline

Ms Vangile Manzini, Chief Director: Professional Services, DPWI, said the Department was co-ordinating the implementation of the skills pipeline interventions across the public works sector to help capacitate it with more professionals. One of the programmes implemented was graduate internships, work placement of graduates, for them to integrate learning and theory while applying for candidacy in the various CBEPs. The Work Integrated Learning Programme (WIL) was instituted to give students access to a workplace, so they can meet the requirements for set qualifications.

The Department is also in partnership with the South African Council for Project and Construction Management Professions to provide a structured mentorship programme to accelerate professional registration. It also caters for professional development of permanent officials to increase the pool of professionals. The programme is funded by the Construction CETA.

Ms Manzini ended by setting out statistics for the Department’s consolidated target projections of beneficiaries participating in the skills pipeline interventions.

Review of the White Paper (1997) entitled “Public Works Towards the 21st Century”

The Department recounted that in June 2019, at the start of the Sixth Administration, the President reconfigured government and added infrastructure to the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI). The impetus for the development of the Public Works Bill arose from the added responsibility of infrastructure conferred to DPWI, the previous exercises on policy review conducted, especially in relation to the 1997 and 1999 White Papers, and the need to align to the Infrastructure Development Act of 2014 to the functional practicalities facing the Department.

The policy framework for the Department was encapsulated in two White Papers: Public Works towards the 21st Century (1997), and Creating an Enabling Environment for Reconstruction Growth and Development in the Construction Industry (1999).

DPWI produced a diagnostic report and the Comprehensive Policy Review Report of the two White Papers to identify gaps and challenges encountered during the implementation of the Paper’s and provided recommendations in addressing the same. The presentation slides also listed the key issues and findings at the core of the review of the White Papers leading to the development of the Public Works Bill. This was followed by an outline of the legislative development process as part of the implementation plan, including the key activities that need to be carried out for an expected outcome, and the timeframe within which each task had to be completed.

Discussion

Ms A Siwisa (EFF) stated her alarm for an entity to present such an inadequate report after having five months to prepare it. The Department did not seem to have a proper implementation plan in place to address the matters which arose at the last meeting, held on 23 October 2019. This included the issue of deregistration. The questions put forward were, at which schools the Department promoted enrolment into mathematics and physical science subjects as well as built environment careers, which townships and rural areas did the Department and CBE visit, and how are the people who are already in the industry, being assisted?

Ms Siwisa said the report did not include any detail on procurement policies. Nothing was said about how only 30% of tenders were for public sector and the rest were for private sector. The Department did not review the seven areas of the BBBEE policy.

The report must be concrete and practical. The implication of its resolutions would have a direct impact on many unemployed graduates. The lack of a functional Board was also delaying the progress in addressing the concerns raised by the Members.

Mr W Thring (ACDP) asked the entity to unpack the resolutions of its previous Transformation Indaba. By the Department’s own admission, several graduates did not have mentors and this increased the likelihood of them falling through the cracks. Many departments appeared to be failing to provide them with vocational training. This was contradictory to the skills pipeline.

He appreciated the bursaries awarded to students. The attrition rate of black graduates being integrated into the system was very high. This could be caused by gate-keeping or the system’s failure to provide effective mentorship programmes. This had to be addressed, even if it necessitated the review of any legal impediments and requirements. Transformation must not take place without assessing the requisite skills, expertise and competence required for effective governance.

Ms L Shabalala said that the statistics given by the Department for the different provinces had to consider population within each province, because population was unequal.

It was commendable that CBE had collaborative forums with key stakeholders. It was a positive proponent of the transformation agenda. But the resolutions of the past Indaba events seemed to not have materialised into any practical solutions towards transformation. They were not translated into programmes.

She asked who was responsible for awarding the bursaries in the bursary schemes, if they were with the Department of Education, or the Premier’s office? This information has to be publicised for students looking to enquire about bursaries.

She appreciated the progress made but expressed concern that the end of the financial year was nearing. There had to be clear timeframes attached to the implementation of resolutions.

Ms S van Schalkwyk (ANC) spoke of her support for the collaborative forums established, but asked if there was a proper tracking mechanism in place to monitor the implementation of the resolution, according to their timeframes.

On the current statistics for targets set for beneficiaries participating in the skills pipeline as at 31 January 2020, for the schools programme, she asked if the entity reached its target?

The exact schools targeted for the pipeline programme must be ascertained. The Committee would assist in monitoring the implementation of these programmes at these schools.

On the process of advancing graduates from candidacy to being registered as professionals, the Department, with the help of the Committee, must develop an adequate monitoring mechanism that is used to effectively monitor what happened in the workplaces and ensure that standards are being maintained. In practice, interns were ‘glorified tea-girls and boys’. They were not being exposed to the duties that would make them eligible to professional registration.

She asked if there was access to the legal regime that has a balanced enforcement and incentives? Most private firms were relying on incentives from the Department to promote these kinds of initiatives within them. It was worrisome that the majority of graduates were not registered in practice. It was only once they moved to the private sector, when they actually considered registration. Why did these graduates not see the need for registration while still in public sector, she asked? How are public sector candidates being encouraged to get registered?

Ms S Graham (DA) referred to slide seven on the skills pipeline and asked if there was a safety net to assist unemployed graduates with their continuous professional development and registration fees so that they can stay registered and accredited with their respective councils. Next, what is the difference between what is provided by the councils and the voluntary association, has the entity conducted a membership audit to ascertain why there was a disparity between the two types of establishments, are there any incentives offered to private companies to encourage them to take on interns, and are they getting BBBEE credits, and tax rebates?

Ms M Hicklin (DA) said it was the Department’s responsibility to ensure there were accredited and professional graduates working in the industry. There were several professionals working in government without being accredited. What is being done to enforce compliance with these requirements, within the public sector?

Mr T Mashele (ANC) said that although the report stipulated there were people working in the Department without being registered in their respective councils, graduates should not be punished for system failures. All that mattered was that candidates were employed. What is the Department doing to transform the industry so that this registration process does not become a challenge, he asked, and who defined the responsibilities of the councils? It was problematic that the report only stopped at identifying the challenges but did not present viable solutions for those challenges.

The infrastructure budget could be used to provide the necessary policies to allow graduates to have mentors, unless government was implying that the private sector was responsible for this as industry leaders.

One of the challenges pointed out was that black architectural practitioners were not getting work. Teh question was who should be blamed for this and who should give them opportunities? Was it the private sector and what has the Department done to address this? Lastly he asked what the Department expected from the Committee in its oversight role.

Responses

Adv Sam Vukela, Director-General (DG), DPWI, pointed out that the bursaries were with DPWI. They were advertised and students were encouraged to apply. The Department had partnership arrangements with various companies, some of these companies volunteered to share work, taking up interns to give them experience once they were done with their studies.

An official from the Department said that the Department targeted schools in townships and rural areas. The bursary information would be provided in detail. The mentors were senior professionals within the Department as well as retirees who were asked to mentor the candidates, helping them become professionals in their respective fields.

The Department would sign Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with private sector companies to take up candidates. Companies were not paid for taking up interns and the Department pleaded with them to not poach from the public sector.

The Department will exercise the occupation-specific dispensation (OSD) to attract and retain candidates and hopefully advance them through professional development. Others will be appointed within the areas of lesser responsibility, not necessarily taking the roles of professionals. There were provisions within the Department to bring more candidates into the public sector.

The key areas through which the industry can be improved is procurement, skills development, prioritising the inclusion of women and youth. The issues around occupation-specific dispensation affects those working in public sector.

There is a need for national stakeholder forums which will be championed by the Deputy Minister. There will be a meeting with the collaborative forums on 27 February 2020 to resolve on developing the monitoring tools to help candidates advance towards being accredited professionals. There will also be a structural candidacy framework to standardise support for candidates

Mr Madonsela confirmed that ECSA has a Board which was duly appointed by the Minister.

Mr Dlamini said that the fundamental resolution of the Indaba was a holistic transformation of the built environment professions. There will be an improved system put in place to assist in ensuring that every graduate emerging from training institution was absorbed into the workplace. The council will implement a database, coupled with an online tracking system, which would track the progress of candidates in the professional development.

Deputy Minister Kiviet said that there was a public perception that the Department predominantly spoke about its plans more than it executed them.

There would be a follow-up meeting to widen the interaction band between all relevant stakeholders for more effective execution of plans. The transformation collaboration was critical and should hopefully have progressive outcomes. Much of the detail in laws applicable was in the fine print, this was where the transformation agenda was derailed.

She encouraged officials and Members to equip themselves with the legal information. A progress report on the collaborative forum will be compiled and sent to Parliament on 11 March 2020.

Discussion (follow-up questions)

Ms Graham said she was excited that there would finally be a Public Works Bill and asked what plans were in place to further capacitate the Department in implementing and enforcing the Bill? There had to be mechanism for enforcing compliance with the lease agreements and other regulatory requirements for those leasing the buildings owned by DPWI.

Ms van Schalkwyk welcomed the report and hoped that the outlined plan would materialise in practice. She asked what effect the Act would have on the work of the Department, if DPWI has enough capacity to implement and enforce the Bill, and if the Bill considers the Department’s new mandate?

Responses

Adv Vukela said the Department relied heavily on the intergovernmental structures to realise the full implementation of the Bill and for it to be enforced effectively. There were other consultations on the Bill which did not yield fruitful results but it will be taken through the legislative development process outlined in the presentation, within projected timeframes.

Adv Vukela noted Ms Graham’s suggestion for a mechanism that will enforce compliance. Internally, capacity was a concern, but measures were being put in place to minimise the areas of concern.

The Deputy Minister said the DPWI wants to realise what it was enjoined to do. The Department has to channel the correct energies to the different tasks at hand to fulfil its constitutional mandate.

The Chairperson thanked the Members, the Deputy Minister and all the guests for attending the meeting.

The meeting was adjourned.

 

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