South African Mining Summit

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South African Mining Summit September 2008 LIVHU
NENGOVHELA CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

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LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK

• Established in terms of the Mine Health Safety
  Act
• The MQA is a SETA in terms of the Skills
  Development Act
• Public Entity in terms of the PFMA
• ETQA in terms of the SAQA Act
• The objective is to execute its legislative
  mandate as a SETA in terms of the SDA, Levies
  Act, SAQA, MHSA, MPRDA, PFMA
• Parliament, SARS, Auditor General.
• Its Major Drivers are the Mining Charter and the
  National Skills Development Strategy

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Governance Structure

• Tripartite Board and Committees
• The Chief Inspector of Mines as Chairperson
• All Other Members Appointed by the Minister
• 4 x Representatives from State
• 5 x Employers
• 5 x Labour
• Board has Five Committees Sector Skills
  Planning, Standards Generating, Quality
  Assurance, Learnerships and Finance/Levies.
• The MQA uses 28 Stakeholder driven Technical
  Reference Groups (TRGs) to Develop Unit
  Standards and Qualifications.

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FINANCE

• Income in terms of SDL Act
• - 1 collected by SARS
• - SETA gets 80 of levies
• - NSF gets 20 of levies
• - SETA admin costs is 10
• - Mandatory grants comprise of 50
• Income increased by R32 million from R346 in
  2005/06 to R378 million in 2006/07, and to R447
  million in 2007/8
• Mandatory Grants represent 50 of our income in
  terms of legislation and must be paid back to the
  company upon submission of WSP/ATR.

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WHAT ARE THE SCARCE AND CRITICAL SKILLS?

• SCARCE SKILLS
• Scarce skills refers to occupational categories
  for which employers cannot find suitably
  qualified and/or experienced candidates. Scarcity
  can arise as a result of factors such as
  geographical location, employment equity
  consideration and an overall shortage of a
  particular skill in the labour market.
• CRITICAL SKILLS
• Critical skills on the other hand refers to the
  qualitative shortcomings (gaps) in the skills of
  employees, which usually relate specifically to a
  particular job and are often the result of
  insufficient training, technology, upgrades,
  legislative changes and promotions.

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RESEARCH ON SCARCE AND CRITICAL SKILLS

• MQA Released a Research on Scarce and Critical
  Skills in September 2006
• The Research was conducted by firstly analysing
  the Workplace Skills Plan (WSP) submitted to the
  MQA by June 2006
• Secondly by conducting a survey sample of
  Companies in the MMS that pay levies to the MQA
  but do not submit WSP.
• The combined data set contained was from 300
  companies.
• Hard to Fill Vacancies were
• Professionals
• Technicians
• Machine Operators Drivers

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SPECIFIC POSITIONS THAT COMPANIES HAD DIFFICULTY
FILLING

• MANAGERS
• Production/operations/mine manager 216
• Environmental Manager 93
• PROFESSIONALS
• Mine Engineer 760
• Mechanical Engineer 476
• Engineering professional (unspecified) 290
• Surveyor 240
• Metallurgist/Metallurgical Engineer 233
• Geologist 205
• Electrical Engineer 119

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SPECIFIC POSITIONS THAT COMPANIES HAD DIFFICULTY
FILLING

• TECHNICIANS AND TRADE WORKERS
• Mechanical Engineering Technician 1833
• Mine Deputy/Mining Technician 1682
• Team Leader/ Supervisor 450
• Electrician 322
• Electronic Instrument Trade Worker 172
• Fitter and Turner 169
• Boiler Maker 136
• MACHINERY OPERATORS AND DRIVERS
• Miner 1625
• Driller 269
• Crane/hoist/lift operator 266
• Truck Driver 138

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TOTAL NUMBER OF WSPs APPROVED BY SUBSECTOR
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EMPLOYEES REPRESENTED BY WSPs
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GENERAL FINDINGS OF THE RESEARCH

• 23 companies found it difficult to obtain
  suitable candidates for vacant positions
• 12 422 positions (2.6 of total sector
  employment) could not be filled mainly because of
  a lack of appropriately qualified and experienced
  candidates
• Gold mining reported the most and PGM Mining and
  Jewellery the lowest number of scarce skills in
  the sector
• Smaller companies ( 150 employees) were more
  affected by skills shortages than bigger
  companiesReleased in September 2006

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REASONS FOR SKILLS SHORTAGES

• High level of illiteracy in the Industry
• Apartheid job reservations
• General decline in production (1980 2000)
• Employees Leaving the Industry and Country
• Good Commodity Prices

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MQA INTERVENTIONS

• Unit Standards and Qualifications Development
• 54 Skills Programmes
• 84 Learnerships
• 989 Learning Materials
• 80 Accredited Training Providers

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INDUSTRY INCENTIVES

• ABET Grants
• Learnerships and Apprenticeship Grants
• Bursary In Scarce Skills Area
• Graduate Development Programme
• Practical Training
• Incentives and Capacity Building for Providers
• Tax Rebate

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CONCLUSION

• The MQA has made the Budget available to Support
  the Industry
• There is a further funding For Artisan
  Development from the National Skill Fund to train
  1000 Artisans

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• THANK YOU
• www.mqa.org.za
• 011 630 3500
• MQA DIGGING WITH KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS