The Minister welcomed all distinguished guests to the FET Summit. He expressed his sincere appreciation to the FET Steering Committee led by the DG for the excellent work they have done over the past four months in preparing for the FET Summit. He highlighted that the Summit has the challenge to critically examine the issues and recommendations presented by the Steering Committee which would lead to the stabilisation of the college sector in the short term and the creation of a sound platform for the development of the colleges as pillars of skills development across the nation. The Minister indicated that the key focus areas of this government in respect of colleges include but are not limited to: . The shift of the function of managing the college system from provincial to national government. . Quality improvements including increased success and throughput. . Increased enrolment of youth and adults. . Closer alignment with skills development strategies and funding including training partnerships and work placement. . Increasing apprenticeship and learnerships. . The production of quality artisans as one of the key goals of the FET college sector. The Minister went on to state that the President's 2010 State of the Nation Address reiterated these themes with particular emphasis on the expansion of access in the context of the need to develop a skilled and capable workforce to support growth and job creation. A key challenge is for the sector to grow as rapidly as possible to be accessible to both young people and adults, but to drive that growth on a firm basis together with increasing quality in provision. Of the 2.8 million South Africans between the ages of 18 and 24 who were (in 2007) not in employment, education or training, two million (71%) had not achieved Grade 12. Of these 0.5m (18%) had not progressed beyond primary school. Dr Nzimande further added that the college community therefore, must expand its horizons and see the world beyond individual institutions and campuses, whilst at the same time not losing sight of building each institution as a centre of excellence. He indicated that the Summit should focus on strengthening the relationship between FET colleges and employers, both in the public and private sectors. The question of facilitating work placement for college students and graduates must be at the heart of the sector's skills development strategies. Dr Nzimande referred to the difficulties that the FET sector has experienced over the past few years, which include but are not limited to: . Loss of lecturers from colleges, low morale and a high vacancy rate. . Poor learner performances, with low pass rates and high drop-out rates. . Increasing reliance on private sector for skills training, coupled with a growing loss of confidence in public sector provision. . Institutional instability and labour instability. . Severe financial difficulties. Dr Nzimande was of the view that these challenges and complexities must not lead to further lamentations; instead they should make the sector to focus on practical and concrete solutions to these problems. The principal task is that of growing a quality FET college sector; and this is a non- negotiable. Key activities over the next five years to improve responsiveness to the needs of the economy will therefore include the following: . Significant expansion of the FET college sector. . Programme offerings will be expanded, not only strengthening the NCV programmes, but also expanding the N type programmes, especially to absorb matriculants without university endorsement. . Training partnerships with industry will be funded through SETAs. . Partnerships with employers will be established. . A work placement programme for graduates of FET colleges will be established. The Minister stated that the post-summit processes will be critical. The Department will inform all colleges of the recommendations of the Summit, and of the Ministers subsequent decisions, and will work intensively with provinces and prioritised colleges and programmes to provide support for their operational planning for 2011 and for the implementation in the longer term of the summit outcomes. The outcomes of this summit will ultimately inform a Green Paper which will survey the post-school education and training landscape and set out the policy and legislative changes needed to support our strategic objectives. 4. Higher Education South Africa's (HESA) Perspective on the Post School Education (PSE) System Prof D Malaza: CEO, HESA led the presentation which highlighted the following key issues: . The challenges in the new post school education system includes the development of a PSE system to deliver on a skilled and capable workforce to support an inclusive growth path and to coordinate subsystems in HE, FET and SETAs and to deliver on credible institutional mechanisms for skills planning and access to intermediate and high level learning. . HESA's strategic commitments includes, achieving high levels of responsiveness and relevance, promoting a dynamic evolution of a differentiated HE system and advocating for funding arrangements that facilitate institutional differentiation. . The HESA Task Team on the PSE system is expected to develop a sector position paper on a PSE system appropriate for the national development agenda, which will outline the nature of the interface between HE and the FET sector. . Priority issues identified by the HESA Task Team for further engagements include, curriculum for the FET college sector (how it links to HE), funding of post school education and training systems and strategies for increasing post school educational opportunities. . HESA will form a Task Team on the PSE workshop on 8 October 2010. . A capacity development project is in place through a partnership between the United States of America and South Africa targeting 12 FET colleges.