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Skills development practitioners, especially facilitators, face the most dramatic upheavals of their careers in the coming months. So says Gill Connellan of the Association for Skills Development Facilitation in SA ahead of the body’s upcoming annual conference.
SDFs should gear themselves for a rude awakening
By JIM FREEMAN
Skills development practitioners who think the third phase of the National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS3) will mean business as usual are in for an awfully rude surprise.
“Almost everything with which practitioners, particularly skills development facilitators (SDFs), have become familiar over the years is going to change enormously in the months ahead. Just about everybody in this business is going to need to completely reinvent themselves,” asserts Gill Connellan, chairperson of the Association for Skills Development Facilitation in South Africa.
“The draft guidelines for NSDS3, published by the Department for Higher Education and Training (DHET)earlier this year, and all subsequent communications, make it very clear that the clumsy, top-down approach taken to skills development since the NSDS was conceived is a thing of the past.
“Not only has the strategy been redesigned with impact rather than compliance with numerical targets in mind, the entire Seta (sector education and training authority) landscape is changing – perhaps more radically than we have thus far been led to believe – as is the legislative framework.”
In the past, she says, “SDFs had to be familiar with skills development legislation but only needed to demonstrate a passing knowledge of such laws as the Employment Equity and Basic Conditions of Employment Acts. Not any more: these laws will become much more important to them than the Skills Development and Skills Development Levies Acts.”
Connellan was speaking ahead of the ASDFSA’s annual conference, which takes place at the Sunnyside Park Hotel in Gauteng on September 7. The keynote address at the one-day event, which has “The future Seta landscape - impact on government, business and labour in South Africa” as its theme, will be delivered by the deputy director-general of the DHET, Ms Adrienne Bird.
During the first two phases of the NSDS, targets were set by the Department of Labour and Setas had to meet these by complying with a formula that was linked to their income from skills development levies, regardless of their applicability to the sector. For NSDS3, targets will be set by sector stakeholders and be referred through the Setas to the Human Resources Development Council’s expert working group, which comprises a much higher level of state, business and trade union representation than was ever previously the case.
Targets will be aligned with the objectives of the Medium Term Strategic Framework and other programmes designed to foster economic growth and social development.
One of these initiatives, says John Botha of the Confederation of Associations in the Private Employment Sector (Capes), is the International Labour Organisation’s Decent Work programme. Botha will address the conference on the implications for SDFs and associated professions of Decent Work – a current hobbyhorse of government – as well as proposed changes to labour legislation.
The most important, he says, pertain to temporary employment and employment equity.
“With employment equity, there are two main issues: the proposed penalties for non-compliant companies that will be levied as a percentage of turnover rather than a flat maximum amount, and requirements for being awarded government contracts.
“In future, you won’t be allowed to land a state contract without a certificate of compliance from the Department of Labour.”
Botha says there are procedural and substantive requirements for compliance. “Companies that don’t have the proper consultative forums or equity plans can attract huge fines similar to those that the Competitions Commission imposes on businesses that are found to be in collusion.
“On the substantive side, companies must set equity targets based on objective criteria. This will give huge teeth to watchdogs of the employment equity and skills development aspects of sectoral charters.”
The amendments also plug loopholes whereby employers cite a lack of suitably qualified black people for appointing whites. “These companies must show that they have taken reasonable steps to generate those skills.”
Also up for discussion will be the ASDFSA’s progress in scoping and developing curricula for a progression registered qualifications and vocational awards for the skills development professions. Till now there has been no legislated requirement that SDFs possess relevant training or qualifications – despite the fact that Setas have spent millions of Rands capacitating facilitators. There is no such thing as accredited SDF training because there are no registered qualifications.
Hand in hand with this, says recognition of prior learning (RPL) expert Karen Dellar, is the issue of how one determines if a person who has been working as an SDF several years can be deemed competent to practice without going through a whole learning programme.
“There’s the argument that, because the envisaged qualifications are new, nobody can undergo an RPL process. What nonsense!”
“Virtually all qualifications can be assessed on the basis of prior learning and experience for certification purposes. The process doesn’t have to be either expensive or time-consuming, no matter what some of the Setas say.”
Attendance of the conference is R1 350.00 for ASDFSA members and R1 600.00 for non-members. Anyone wanting further details can contact Nikki Wimmers on 021 – 6850451 or at info@asdfsa.co.za
