Madam Deputy Speaker, I am avoiding making a mistake and getting punished. Hon members, as you are all aware, the education and training landscape in government was reconfigured following the momentous April elections. Our dedicated Ministries of Basic Education and Higher Education and Training are now working to ensure that these two critical segments of our education system receive greater attention and dedicated focus from government.
The bringing together of higher education institutions, further education and training colleges, adult education and training and the skills development sector into a single Department of Higher Education and Training, provides a powerful basis for addressing education and training in an integrated way. Our department has the responsibility to develop the country's education and training institutional capacity and resources into a coherent but diverse and differentiated post-school learning system, serving adults and youth within the framework of the Human Resource Development Strategy for South Africa, HRDS-SA.
While the Ministry of Higher Education and Training was created in April, we have only gained full responsibility for all assigned legislation from 1 November. So, in effect, our complete programme of action was grounded by legislative authority only from last week. We are now responsible for a range of institutions and public entities which were previously distributed across the former Department of Education and the Department of Labour. We are wasting no time, hence our making this statement in galvanising our skills development programme.
In a meeting with the National Skills Authority, NSA, on 30 October, we agreed that the NSA, which advises the Minister on skills development, needs to be strengthened in order to perform its expert advisory role. The NSA must have administrative, policy and research capacity to support its work. Alignment of the work of the NSA with the Human Resource Development Strategy for South Africa is a priority. The relationship between the NSA and other statutory bodies needs to be strengthened.
Following consultation with the National Skills Authority, I informed the public last week that I would be gazetting the extension of the National Skills Development Strategy II and the current Seta licence by one year from March 2010 to March 2011. I also announced that I have appointed the Director-General for Higher Education and Training, Ms Mary Metcalfe, as the interim chairperson of the National Skills Agency, NSA, during this important period of transition in order to strengthen the relationships between my department and the NSA. As I have already indicated, this is an interim arrangement until a new chairperson is appointed, hopefully soon.
Prior to the public announcement, I met all the chairpersons of the board of the Setas, as well as their CEOs and informed them of the way forward. It is my considered view, supported by the National Skills Authority, that this extension is important to ensure alignment of the National Skills Development Strategy with the Human Resources Development Strategy and to allow some deliberation on the way forward.
Current mechanisms contained in the National Skills Development Strategy II, which is the current one guiding the work of the Setas, will be emphasised in the service-level agreements between our department and the Setas for the 2010 financial year in order to focus on immediate priorities such as the Seta-FET college partnerships and capacity-building. Setas will continue with their current mandate and implement their 2010-11 service agreements as well as contribute to the new strategies to finalise the new National Skills Development Strategy.
These extensions will ensure both continuity and change. Service delivery will continue and be consolidated whilst the new Department of Higher Education and Training will take forward inclusive processes, with all social partners, to renew and refresh strategies, policy and institutions in order to strengthen the skills and human resource base of our country.
In all our consultation meetings, we agreed that we need a co-ordinated skills development strategy, informed by an overarching industrial strategy, based on clear sectoral industrial strategies, placing particular emphasis on scarce skills. This will require refocusing and possibly restructuring the Setas to be guided by this overarching objective, rather than the other way round.
We in the Department of Higher Education and Training are clear that we need to respond to the mandate and the vision of the President when he created this new department. There are important potential synergies which have not achieved the necessary momentum over the last 15 years, even though that was the original intention of the ANC pre-1994. As the ANC, we had said, prior to 1994, that we needed an integrated education and training system. This is what we are returning to now.
We therefore require a fundamental reform of government's skills development strategy, as well as the respective roles and relationships between FET colleges, universities of technology, other universities, the National Skills Fund and the Setas. This requires that we think out of our boxes to develop an overarching, highly integrated and articulated system of higher education and training, but without, at the same time, mechanically collapsing into each other the distinctive roles, features, and contribution of each of the components of such a system.
One of the first things we need to do - all of us - is to re-skill. The skills sector needs to understand more about the formal institutions of education and vice versa. We all have now to better understand the different subsystems in order to forge co-operative links. Our human development planning strategies, which will be developed and adopted in meaningful and effective partnerships with social partners, will be informed by strategic information management systems and research for a post-school education and training system and the labour market.
Managing a single post-school education and training system that is comprised of FET colleges, the Setas and higher education institutions, adult education and training including the training of the unemployed, will indeed be a major challenge. We need a comprehensive management information system, which we intend developing and also to ensure that over time we are able to measure the extent to which learners migrate between the subsystems and progress successfully into and through the labour market.
This Management Information System also needs to be extended to the private education and training providers of further education and training and higher education. The recent Council for Higher Education report on the state of higher education in South Africa points out that our information on private further and higher education is inadequate and that we need to update it in order to work towards an integrated system of higher education and training.
To this end, the Department of Higher Education and Training commits itself to the establishment of these information systems through the commissioning of systematic monitoring and evaluation exercises and regular research reviews in each of the subsystems in partnership with other research and higher education institutions.
Allow me to turn to the further education and training college subsystem. The FET college subsystem has grown and changed over the last 15 years, and further changes are anticipated with the move of the colleges to a national function, thanks to the leadership of the past Minister of Education, Comrade Naledi Pandor. [Applause.] The goal is to increase the number of young people and adults accessing continuing education at these technical and vocational centres, in a way that supports an inclusive growth path.
We will consolidate the institutional base for FET colleges as we are prioritising these in partnership with the Skills Development System and improve responsiveness to the needs of the economy. This is very important because before the differential location of former FET colleges in the Department of Education and the location of the Skills Development Resources and Funding in the Department of Labour did not make it possible to build these synergies.
Programme offerings in the FET sector will be expanded, training partnerships with industry will be funded through Setas, partnerships with employers will be established, and a workplace programme for graduates of FET colleges will be set up. All these initiatives will make FET colleges more attractive and institutions of choice instead of being seen as a consolation prize for those who did not get into university. Quality interventions also include initiatives to improve management capacity, materials development, and the introduction of formal qualifications for lecturers.
We will also work closely with the National Board for Further Education and Training and consult those involved in this subsystem in reviewing the impact of some of the recent changes, particularly the changes in the management and governance structures, the development and implementation of new programmes, and the introduction of new norms and standards for funding. I hear the hon Ellis is making a noise because he needs to re- skill. He no longer understands these areas now. [Interjections.] The last time he spoke only about formal education in the then portfolio committee of 1994 to 1999.
Madam Deputy Speaker, Mr Blade Nzimande is obviously missing me, because I haven't said a word. [Laughter.] Not a word, Dr Blade Nzimande, sir.
No, I can hear your voice, hon Ellis. [Interjections.]
I've never been more innocent in my life, Madam Deputy Speaker.
Hon Minister, he is right. I was looking at him. He is innocent. It was the hon member next to him.
Thank you. I was just drawing his attention because he also made a very un-nuanced resolution about the fall of the Berlin Wall ... [Laughter.] ... and forgetting that this is 125th anniversary of that Berlin Conference which divided Africa and caused perpetual problems. So you can't celebrate in a one-sided manner.
The National Board for Further Education and Training, NBFET, and the Ministry have agreed on an urgent national audit on individual institutional arrangements for governance and administration. We are working with stakeholders to secure sufficient support and stability to sustain these changes and to take forward new developments.
Briefly, on the skills subsystem, we are saying that despite the gains made to date in the area of skills development and training, there are a number of challenges we need to attend to. We must have improved co-ordination between the sector education and training authority system and the education and training institutions. We must address the negative perceptions about the Setas. We need to improve strategic utilisation of funds, in particular to minimise the cost of delivery of learnerships and the high amounts of unspent funds in terms of skills development funding.
In addition, we need to improve the alignment of industry needs and the provision of training and skills development, particularly the need to increase the supply of artisans and technicians. In this regard, we will engage with the state-owned enterprises, SOEs, Eskom permitting, the public sector, and other large employers with a view to get them more involved in training through apprenticeships, learnerships and internships. We also need to finalise the alignment with an overarching industrial policy in order to improve the effectiveness of skills development efforts.
There are widespread concerns about the Setas, some of which have previously been articulated in this House. While it is wrong to paint all the Setas with one brush, there is clearly unevenness in their performance. There is definitely a need for an intensive assessment of the Setas to ensure greater accountability, improved employment of resources, better management of funds, and streamlining and alignment of their operations in order that they fulfil their role as a central cog of our skills training and job-creation machinery.
With a reinvigorated and strengthened National Skills Authority, the NSA, we can ensure that the Seta structures are based on a more precise understanding of their role and the priorities they should follow; reflect an appropriate segmentation of the economy that is aligned with emerging industrial strategies; minimise capacity deficits at all levels, avoiding duplication; ensure that these Setas are financially sustainable; and build, at the same time, the public sector to play a leading role in skills development.
Part of this broad process of engagement will be a strategic planning session with the National Skills Authority which we are going to have in December to which we will invite the Council of Higher Education and other statutory bodies. My department has already begun to engage the National Skills Fund, the NSF. The intention is to urgently improve the operating systems and procedures so that it can better fulfil its mandate. This includes reviewing the process and criteria around the training lay-off scheme and reporting to Nedlac - the National Economic Development and Labour Council - so that any blockages in this fund are used timeously for their intended purpose. We are indeed disturbed because the information we have is that much as we have set aside R2,4 billion for the training lay- off scheme, only four companies thus far have taken this up, and it is important that we identify what the blockages are.
We will also be holding a strategic planning day for Setas next week, during which we want to forge a new way of working amongst them so that they can learn from each other as they explore ways in which our priorities can be taken forward urgently. The priorities that we have set for the Setas during the extension year 2010-11 will be to align with government strategic priorities and focus on immediate priorities, including the Seta- FET college partnerships, especially the provision of opportunities for work-based learning, particularly from students in FET colleges and universities of technology.
We will also soon be establishing the Qualifications Council for Trade and Occupations. I'm pleased to announce that I'm in the process of appointing a chairperson for this body, known as the QCTO, and we expect the board to immediately begin with its work of establishing a council. We will request the QCTO to work in close collaboration with other qualifications and quality assurance councils in the higher education and training system.
Madam Deputy Speaker, hon members and comrades, in closing I wish to commit my Ministry and department to working with energy and commitment towards realising these goals. We are also calling upon each member of this House, in his or her own way, to also make a contribution to this task of trying to drive a skills revolution in this country, so that, indeed, as two great thinkers once said, that the free development of each does indeed become the condition for the free development of all. Although the revolution has no copyright, those words were from Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Siyabonga kakhulu. [Thank you very much.] [Applause.]
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Minister, for those good promises. We just hope that they will be met. Let me start by acknowledging the fact that the response before me was written by Dr James, presented by me with his approval.
A focus on skills development is overdue, as it brings - to cite Elizabeth Bibesco's aphorism: "certainty to hope". We cannot continue to see communities inhabit a world - whether by design, default or neglect - that fails to nurture the talents of people, particularly those who by virtue of poverty are starved of opportunities through no fault of their own.
The DA therefore supports the proposition that a skilled and educated nation is a prosperous one in material and spiritual terms. We are critical, though, of the government's approach. We are aware that, as the United States of America discovered, the markets do not educate and skill a nation, but neither, as China discovered, does central planning in the style of the former Soviet Union.
Firstly, therefore, to skill South Africans requires a governance system that artfully combines local knowledge of - and practical support for - communities in need of education, and not one that comes from on high. Our position is to improve on existing governance arrangements instead of pursuing the inefficient and unnecessary folly of pulling everything to the centre.
Secondly, we propose a higher education system with multiple entry points at a diversity of institutions and, importantly, having multiple exit points with students having obtained excellent qualifications, for excellence, and not mediocrity, has a market.
We propose a system that starts with the further education and training colleges for technical, vocational, and professional training, including for teachers, nurses, agricultural extension workers and the police. Those who wish to continue their education can trade up into the second or third year of an undergraduate degree - some may go further to graduate level.
Finally, Setas are not a broken good design, but a wasteful design and should be abolished. They should be replaced by a modern apprenticeship system regulated with trade unions and employers, by industrial councils that certify quality of training undertaken at the FET colleges. A famous 17th century Frenchman once said: "Steadfastness of the wise is but the art of keeping the welcome human emotions of agitation locked in their hearts." Thank you. [Applause.]
Madam Deputy Speaker, hon members, with the current changes sweeping across the education sector, one can only adopt a wait and see attitude in order to make an informed assessment of what the outcomes will be, with the hope that we one day will realise our dreams. The need for this swift intervention, Mr Minister, in the shortage of skills cannot be denied because we are indeed faced with a crisis in our country.
Let me state the obvious, if only to underscore a point: that it is not all skills that are in short supply; it is skills relevant to the economy that are much needed. There are in South Africa many people without jobs and many jobs without people and that is why the issue of relevant skills takes centre stage.
I am glad that the Minister has done a skills audit, albeit that I think it was too short a period, unless the Minister found the skills audit in place. I am also glad that the Minister has considered the human resource development plan amongst the tools that were used in coming up with the recommendations.
It is our considered view as Cope that general education is the baseline to everything that we want to achieve. The new provisions for skills development must never and can never replace the need for education. In fact, linking skills to education is the sustainable way.
It is clear in our minds that in responding to the skills shortage we need a mixed bag of interventions, that is crisis intervention, providing skills that are short now. We need short-term and long-term measures. We must be able to plan and provide for the skills of the economy, which will be required in the next 10 years and beyond.
We also need, Mr Minister, a mixed bag of offerings which has learnerships, trade education, apprenticeships, artisanships and other recognised forms of experiential exposure. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Hon Deputy Speaker, hon members, if I were not in this House I would use the expression: "Awu ushayile mfanakithi." [You have done an excellent job, my brother.] [Applause.] But I can't say that because it may be ruled unparliamentary. I must say, "hon Minister". You said all the correct things but now the question is: What would then be separating me from you, from what you have said?
I think I know what separates me from you, hon Minister. It is this: it is implementation; it is implementation; it is implementation again. For instance, you talk of strategy I. I would have liked, Minister, to hear more on what fruits strategy I bore. I didn't here that, and now you are coming to strategy II. I will just wait to see what fruits strategy II will bear. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Deputy Speaker, skills development has been identified as a significant factor in reducing poverty and accelerating long-term economic growth. It is critical for government to effectively address the issues which have plagued this sector.
A single post-school education and training system promises an integrated, efficient system that will benefit learners. The incorporation of skills development into education is an important step and welcomed by the ACDP. Clearly, this new Department of Higher Education and Training will need to extend agreements as a temporary and transitional arrangement to ensure maximum momentum as concerns about Setas will necessitate intensive assessment. The ACDP is cautiously optimistic that the commitment of the Minister of Higher Education and Training and the new department to skills development is a serious one and that it will, in fact, deliver results. Thank you.
Hon Speaker and members, I wish to thank and commend the Minister, on behalf of the ruling ANC, for informing this House of the developments, the vision and intentions of the department on the way to better education for all.
These are all aimed at aiding our people and at developing everyone's potential to the full, as was just stressed, and it is quite impressive, hon Minister, to note that, in fact, all political parties supported the direction taken. In fact, some of them quoted from the ANC manifesto, if you look at it.
In talking about the skills intervention and the approaches to it, I would suggest to the DA, though, that it would not be the most appropriate thing to look at a complete scrapping of the Seta, because what we are seeing is that a new department is emerging, with a Minister. The creation of an integrated approach, in fact, indicates to us that the Minister now has 12 months to review, to make proper assessments, to look at the critical gaps in the Seta formation and then to come forward with suggested approaches. Therefore, I think, we must all become involved in that debate. I also believe - as the committee we looked at it - that it was the best thing to not, in fact, reclassify for five years, because that in a sense would have tied up a new administration for five years with the existing skills setup.
Minister, we also want to suggest with regard to integration, especially at local government level, provincial government level and then with the national economic development initiatives - that the three spheres need to be closely drawn in in the strategic approaches linked to skills development. This is because what we picked up in our oversight of Giyani was that there was a mismatch between what economic opportunities there are in Giyani, the district in that environment, and the FET interventions that are there.
That brings me then to the FET colleges in particular. It's heartening to hear the concern around the perceptions of FET colleges, because there are real, negative perceptions. Last week we had a meeting with Basic Education, and between the two committees we picked up that the FET throughput was quite low. This means, from some of the studies and analysis we have done, that teachers don't necessarily understand the strength of FET colleges at times - though most of them do - but we are seeing people being sent to FET colleges that are not necessarily being sent appropriately.
So, there are perception issues at the level of teachers or educators at times, and we are asking the Minister of Higher Education and Training to work closely with the Minister of Basic Education to reflect on this.
With regard to management information systems, neither the National Student Financial Aid Scheme nor Higher Education SA currently knows where all the students that have graduated are. Also, they don't know where the unemployed students or those that did not go through the system completely are. So we have asked that question.
I think what this management information system will do is to track where unemployed graduates are or where graduates actually are beyond their studies. This is so that we do not invest significant amounts of money in education, only to support, possibly, the health sector in Canada or the engineering sector in the UK.
Therefore, the link between the patriotic responsibilities of those institutions and the type of curriculum at FET colleges, as well as the curriculum at universities, should instil patriotism, pride, dignity and all of those elements. We believe that will support the retention strategy within South Africa.
The second last point I want to make is really around the issues of performance, governance and management. We totally agree about these issues. There are obviously sections to that. The Portfolio Committee on Labour recently dealt with the annual reports. What we have seen is that most of the Setas have unqualified audits, but we do know there is public judgment when it comes, for example, to some of those deliverables.
This is precisely because the audit will look at financial auditing and not necessarily at the performance assessments and the monitoring and the impact on communities. That is an area, I believe, we will be able to reflect on over the next 12 months.
In conclusion, as the ANC we are fully behind the Minister in his commitment to ensuring that the skills revolution is taking place in our country, that we need to get all spheres of society involved in this process, and we call on all political parties - and, more importantly, all community organisations and civic organisations - to participate in this debate. I thank you. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.