. The committee remained extremely concerned with the level of commitment of AGRISETA and CTFLSETA towards skills development in KwaZulu-Natal. One of the reasons provided by the CTFLSETA was that the clothing and textile industry was experiencing a downward trend and most of the industries in the sector were closing down. AGRISETA indicated that farm workers required Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) just to be able to count money only. . A concern was raised with the contribution of the SETAs in training per learner. It was noted that most manufacturing industries were not keen in training learners due to the high costs involved in training of artisans. The department was requested to intervene in ensuring that more funding is allocated in the training of learners. . It was noted that the country was faced with the shortage of engineers and by 2020 research shows that there will be insufficient engineers in the country. A proposal was made that Technical High Schools should be fully supported to increase their output in scarce skills. MERSETA was requested to explain its plans to address the shortage of scarce skills. . It emerged that the three SETAs adequately supported centre's of excellence rather than emerging small medium enterprise. The committee was concerned that well established enterprises were benefiting from the SETAs while emerging service providers were being excluded. . It was noted that some service providers were not submitting their workplace skills plan annually to the SETAs. This often leads to less accountability to the discretionary grants allocated to service providers. The committee requested a report from the three SETAs on the issue. . It was highlighted that there is still a lot of work that needs to be done by SETAs in addressing the challenge of skills development. Insufficient funding is said to be the main backlog that hampers progress in skills development. The department is negotiating with the SETAs to reach a specific target annually in line with government priorities. It was noted that well established companies were benefiting from mandatory grants and the department was in a process of reviewing the allowances in line with the SETAs mandates. . The level of involvement in the training of artisans is indeed limited due to lack of funding. The training of artisans in some countries may cost up to R300 000 per year. Legislatively, the SETAs pay only 20% discretionary grants. The challenge is the need for government to look at international trends and become more involved in skills development since the training of artisans is very costly. . It is not possible to place all learners who participated in various programmes of the SETAs due to the lack of capacity in industry. Emerging service providers are supported by the SETAs. However, great emphasis is placed on the centre's of excellence due to their capacity.