Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition

1
Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition
The Construction Conference ICC Durban Glen
Fisher JIPSA Secretariat

• 31 October 2006

2
The Genesis of the Skills Shortage

• Structural shift in South African economy since
  1970 Characterised by a move away from primary
  production, towards greater emphasis on output in
  the services sector.
• Production Method Change Since 1970
  Characterised by increasing capital intensity and
  the shift to microelectronics in all sectors
• Outcome from Twin Changes Increased Preference
  for Skilled, Semi-Skilled Workers and Decline in
  Demand for Unskilled Workers
• Haroon Bhorat, DPRU

3
The Labour Supply-Side Problem

• Overall manifest in a skills mismatch, with
  characteristics of workers not meeting labour
  demand needs
• Within this, there are problems of
• Poor quality institutions of human capital
• Incorrect/inappropriate fields of study
• Malfunctioning labour market information system
• Inability to make transition from school to FETs,
  Universities or Technikons
• Insufficient communication between firms and
  Institutions of Human Capital

4
What is JIPSA?

• JIPSA is a high level, joint approach by
  government, business labour to address one of
  the binding constraints i.e. skills on the
  Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative for SA
  (ASGISA)
• JIPSA therefore is driven by the imperatives of
  accelerated and shared growth it is not an
  education and training initiative per se
• JIPSA is led and managed through
• A Joint Task Team, chaired by the Deputy
  President this includes Cabinet Ministers,
  senior business and labour leaders, education and
  training leaders etc
• A Technical Working Group, chaired by Mr Gwede
  Mantashe, which includes experts and stakeholders
  from relevant Departments (incl. Public Works),
  business etc
• A small, full time secretariat provided by the
  National Business Initiative and funded by the
  Business Trust

5
Where does JIPSA fit in?

• JIPSA is a targeted, short-term intervention,
  driven by the objectives of ASGISA it is not a
  new structure
• JIPSA is not an attempt to duplicate or take over
  the roles and responsibilities of existing
  institutions, government departments etc
• JIPSA works with existing institutions to
  identify priorities, address bottlenecks and
  constraints, and mobilise high-level leadership
  and resources to achieve key goals
• Initiatives to address specific target areas are
  driven by Advisory Groups of experts and
  role-players, and approved by the TWG and JTT

6
JIPSA Priority Areas

• JIPSA has identified five main areas for targeted
  intervention
• High level, world class engineering and planning
  skills for the network industries transport,
  communications, water, energy
• Town and regional planning skills
• Engineering and intermediate artisan and
  technical skills, with priority attention to
  infrastructure development
• Management and planning skills in the education
  and health systems
• Mathematics, science, ICT and language competence
  in public schooling
• In addition, JIPSA is concerned with
• The problem of unemployed graduates
• ICT skills priorities

7
A focused work-plan

• Given the importance of infrastructure investment
  and the Expanded Public Works programme, JIPSA in
  its first 5 months has given priority attention
  to
• Engineering professionals and technologists
• Artisans and technicians
• Work in these two areas has drawn on
• An analysis of the skills requirements for the
  infrastructure projects, undertaken by CIDB, with
  cooperation of DPW and the construction industry
• Analysis of skills needs by the SOEs
• Analysis of engineering requirements by ECSA
• Consultations with industry, government
  departments, higher and further education, the
  NSA and SETAs

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Engineering professionals

• Initial analysis suggests the key issues in terms
  of a skills pipeline are
• Improving throughput rates in engineering
  faculties
• Increasing outputs
• Increasing the proportion of engineering
  graduates who become registered professionals
• Mentoring of junior engineers
• Retention of experience within the engineering
  profession
• Re-hiring of retired engineers
• Importation of priority skills and expertise
• The goal is to increase throughputs and outputs
  by /- 1000 p.a. This is under discussion with
  DoE

9
Engineers current proposals

• Current proposals are focused on
• Increasing the yield of graduating engineers
  from Higher Education
• Strengthening the pathway from graduation to
  professional registration
• Importation of priority skills, with attention
  paid inter alia to
• DoHA processes
• Tax issues
• SAQA requirements
• Treatment of spouses
• Turn-around time for approvals

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Skills challenges - artisans

• The training of artisans has declined sharply
  over a number of years. This must be reversed
  especially as the average age of artisans is in
  the mid-50s, and the training pipeline for new
  artisans is unfocused and ineffectual. Some key
  challenges are
• Clarifying the learning pathways to artisan
  status how apprenticeships, learnerships and
  the new FET college curriculum lead to competent
  qualified artisan status
• Prioritising skills requirements
• Re-prioritising SETA NSF funding towards
  production of artisans
• Securing employer buy-in to training to the
  provision of workplace experience for trainees
• Ensuring government training budgets are
  effectively spent
• Re-activating dormant public sector, SOE
  private training facilities
• Streamlining and strengthening funding,
  accreditation quality assurance processes
• Improved measurement, monitoring reporting of
  skills supply and demand, improved data
  collection analysis, better coordination of
  data collection and analysis between departments,
  SETAs and other agencies

11
Artisan training trends
12
FET colleges a pool of trainees
13
Artisans current proposals

• Estimates are that we need to produce /- 50,000
  artisans over next 4 years (on current form we
  expect to qualify 20,000) major demands in both
  public private sectors
• A two-track approach is being followed
• Development of a business plan which will
  identify 16 -20 major trades, quantify demand for
  these skills, specify the training pathways for
  the training of qualified competent artisans. A
  project portfolio of training initiatives by
  public private sector employers will be
  identified supported.
• An analysis of systems blockages and weaknesses
  will be undertaken, discussed with key
  stakeholders role-players, and submitted to
  government for consideration.

14
Town regional planning

• Initial consultations suggest that, in broad
  terms, the challenges are three-fold
• Problems in the policy, legislative
  institutional environments these are not
  strictly a JIPSA concern, but impact on ASGISA
• Improving the professional skills of planners
  currently in employment
• Improvements in the quality, relevance, and
  quantity of training
• A proposal focused on strengthening the
  professional competence and professional
  registration of planning practitioners is
  currently being developed, in consultation with
  The Presidency and relevant Departments
• Discussions will be held with the relevant
  Councils, HE institutions and DoE re the training
  of planners

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Graduate initiatives

• JIPSA would like to engage key role-players on
  longer-term initiatives to address the challenge
  of graduate unemployment
• Development of a structured pathway leading UT
  students through experiential learning to
  graduation
• Programmes to re-skill graduates whose
  qualifications are not in demand, e.g. as
  teachers, managers etc
• Programmes to up-skill graduates whose
  qualifications are perceived as below par
• Work orientation programmes for current students
  and graduates focus on soft skills, and
  include work fairs where employers can showcase
  their firms and recruit
• A comprehensive strategy would include active
  leadership and participation by the HE sector,
  and a strong public private sector employer
  role, in career guidance, provision of
  internships and learnerships, identification of
  labour market, industry company specific needs,
  and recruitment

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Schooling the basics

• JIPSA recognises the importance of the
  foundations provided by the public school system
  high-level discussions are scheduled to address
• Planning and management capacity in the school
  system
• Maths, science, ICT and communications in schools

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Some overarching issues

• Finalisation of the National Qualifications
  Framework (NQF) Review
• Clarification of training pathways, and the place
  of apprenticeships, learnerships and FET college
  programmes within a coherent skills framework
• Governance, management, efficiency and
  performance of SETAs
• Availability and reliability of relevant
  statistics
• Quality issues, and high levels of wastage across
  all levels of the education and training system
• Coordination challenges for instance between
  government departments, SAQA and other QA bodies,
  the National Skills Authority and SETAs
• Size and shape of FET HE