Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition JIPSA

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Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition
(JIPSA)
Presentation to Service Delivery Learning Academy
By Xolile Caga

• 12 July 2006

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• If we fail in human resources and skills
  development sphere ASGI-SA fails The most fatal
  constraint to shared growth is skills.JIPSA is
  one of the interventions which seek to address
  skills challenge.
• Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka at the
  launch of JIPSA in March 2006.

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What is JIPSA?

• A high level initiative of government, business
  and labour, led by the Deputy President, to
  acquire the priority skills needed to achieve
  ASGISAs goal of accelerated and shared economic
  growth
• Joint Task Team 9 Cabinet Ministers, 5 private
  sector CEOs, 2 CEOs from the SOEs, 2 labour
  leaders, leaders from HE, FET and the research
  institutions
• Technical Working Group experts from
  government, industry, SAQA, the SETAs, labour,
  the research community
• Secretariat provided by NBI with funding from
  the Business Trust

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What JIPSA IS NOT

• JIPSA is not an institution
• JIPSA is not an attempt to fix the entire
  education and training system
• JIPSA is not replacing or a duplicating existing
  structures or institutional arrangements, or
  readily available research and data analysis
• JIPSA is not a numbers game it is not a tick-box
  approach to skills acquisition

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Terms of reference in summary

• To prioritise skills requirements to support
  ASGISA
• To seek solutions to practical coordination
  problems and system blockages and obstacles in
  the policy, regulatory, funding and institutional
  environments
• To facilitate the acquisition of priority skills
  and arrangements for skills transfer
• To facilitate quick win initiatives to boost
  skills acquisition and to publicise and build
  confidence in the priority skills agenda

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How JIPSA Works
Prioritizing Selecting initiatives
Plan
Nurture / Hand-over
Initiate
Facilitate Execution
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• Skills for ASGI-SA projects and initiatives
• Tourism
• ICT
• BPOs
• Biofuels etc

• Five high profile skills areas for immediate
  JIPSA engagement
• High level, world class engineering and planning
  skills for the network industries transport,
  communications, energy.
• City, urban and regional planning and engineering
  skills
• Artisanal and technical skills, with priority
  attention to infrastructure development, housing
  and energy
• Management and planning skills in education and
  health
• Mathematics, science, ICT and language competence
  in public schooling.

• Analysis of funding and systems issues and
  constraints
• SETA, NSF and government department funding for
  JIPSA-related initiatives
• NQF Review and determination of quality assurance
  mechanisms
• Composition and functioning of SETA Boards

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Overview of JIPSA Immediate Plans

• The immediate priority skills areas that JIPSA is
  focusing on are
• Artisans and Technicians (Intermediate Skills)
• Engineering
• ICT
• Research on unemployed graduates finalised in May
  2006
• Created contacts points for champions in 3
  priority areas
• Concretized challenges in skills pathways
• Commissioned study on Engineering costs and
  capacity in Universities (Univ. of Pretoria)
• Commissioned Study to verify ungraduated
  Technikon Students

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Intermediate and Engineering Skills

• Main champions SOEs, ECSA, Business and CIDB
• Main Skills Engineering related fields
• Skills Pathways Higher Education, FET,
  Apprenticeship and/ or Learnership
• Data analysis conducted and targets
• Increase output of engineers by 1000 per annum
  until 2009 (25 increase)
• Overall 20 skills identified by SOEs, and within
  this set, the priority or key skills have been
  identified.
• 5000 to 6000 artisans have to be trained to
  support infrastructure projects
• Artisan requirements in local government. Based
  on vacancies suggest a need for some 4000
  artisans.

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Ensuring Engineering Intermediate Skills
Acquisition

• Attention must focus on expansion and
  improvement of skills pipeline
• Standardise artisan training across economic
  sectors - Align vocational and occupational
  qualifications and ensure good facilities, staff
  and curriculum
• Expand capacity of Engineering faculties
• Mount a campaign to assist those who never
  finished their NDip (Eng) to complete.  This will
  include placing them in the workplace in order to
  achieve their practical training component
• Ensure all underutilized training facilities are
  upgraded with industry standard equipment and
  appropriately staffed

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Challenges Identified

• Shortage of registered practitioners in the
  engineering field
• SETA training of engineers at NQF 4 or lower
• Low throughput from schools and University intake
• Additional capacity needed by Higher Education
• Incomplete qualifications (40 Univ. of
  Technology students cannot secure internship)
• Need to ensure alignment of FETs 13 programmes
  with industry needs.

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ICT Skills

• Main champions DoC, ISETT, DST, Business and
  Meraka
• Main skills Lower levels of technicians (post
  matric) to ICT Engineers
• Skills Pathways Higher Education, FET,
  Customised industry courses, Apprenticeship
  and/or Learnership
• Based on ICT vacancies data produced by ISETT,
  there are 500,000 ICT skills required Highly
  questionable for absorption capacity training
  capacity at 7000 p.a.
• 316 369 IT technical support and Systems
  Development specialists
• 181 550 telecoms and electronic technical
  specialists
• 4 048 end-user computing specialists
• ISETT proposal on learnerships targeting
  ungraduated technikon students

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Initial Proposals/Solutions Placements
Programmes

• Placements at three levels
• Unemployed graduates
• University of Technology students seeking
  internship opportunities
• Practitioners who need skills enhancement
• Placement target pool
• People enlisted in credible database (SAGDA, UYF,
  DST)
• Practitioners (Municipalities)
• Demand and Supply numbers
• Deployment of professional expertise (including
  retirees)
• A number of enquiries from companies from
  companies willing to accept trainees
• Trainee numbers volunteered by individuals not
  institutions

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Unemployed Graduate Increase Skills Pipeline

• Explore learnership and internship placement to
  address lack of soft skills and workplace
  readiness
• Placement opportunities
• Bridging courses for students in more relevant
  fields
• Retooling in new areas through institutions
  such as business schools
• Secure placement/practical experiential
  interventions for 9000 University of Technology
  students who are unable to complete
  qualifications
• All placement initiatives e.g. international and
  in SA companies need to be brought closer to
  JIPSA
• Address issues of institutional origin
  especially in the case of private sector
  institutions, regulation of institutions
  quality assurance as well as lack of knowledge
  about course content, learner achievement/throughp
  ut
• Address wastage in the system (investigate degree
  qualifications that are not accredited by
  professional bodies e.g. ECSA, SAICA)

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Placements of Unemployed Graduates and
Ungraduated Technikon students

• 21 companies out of the 24, who pledged, have
  requested CVs from the JOBS database
• Demand of skills by Opportunity Providers (Scarce
  Skills)
• All fields of engineering (incl. mining,
  electrical, civil,
• instrumentation, power electrons,)
• Transport management
• Food Technology
• Profile of Graduate Absorption (1 being the most
  in demand)
• Bcom Accounting
• Civil Engineering (Degrees or Diplomas)
• Electrical Engineering
• ICT
• Agricultural Science
• Currently identifying ungraduated technikon
  students for placement in business, government
  etc.

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• CONTACT DETAILS 011 544 6000