By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister, Blade Nzimande, has commended the crucial role played by the Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) in the country’s skills development.
Nzimande was speaking at the SETA Skills Summit in Boksburg.
The two-day summit takes place on 23 – 24 April 2024 at the Birchwood Hotel and Conference Centre where rigorous dialogue will unfold to strengthen, promote, and showcase the integrated work of SETAs within the skills development sector.
Under the theme “Together, Skilling the Nation, “the Summit aims to:
- Foster strong partnerships and collaboration among all SETAs.
- Integrate SETA communication to disseminate uniform messages to the broader South African community.
- Facilitate impactful collaboration of SETA operations on significant programs and projects.
- Identify key trends across economic sectors to support stakeholders through skills migration and forecasting the SETA role beyond 2030.
The outcomes of the Summit will also contribute towards solidifying the High Impact projects that will ensure significant transformation in the high unemployment rate faced by our country.
Nzimande said through their sector-specific focus and experts, SETAs contribute significantly to addressing skills gaps, skills mismatches, promoting employment and enhancing productivity within their respective industries.
“Our SETAs also play a crucial role in aligning training and development efforts with the needs of employers and the labour market, thus ensuring the development of a skilled and capable workforce that can become a catalyst for economic growth and development.
“The policy context for the work that is done by our various SETAs derives from such critical policy instruments as our country’s Master Skills Plan, the White Paper for Post School Education and Training, the National Skills Development Plan, and the National Development Plan 2030,” Nzimande said.
The Minister reiterated that the policy instruments are not only critical for enabling the country to articulate and implement a coherent human resource development plan, but it also ensures that “we embrace a skills development approach that is collaborative and sustainable, as opposed to a piecemeal and competition-driven approach”.
Nzimande said the collaborative approach is important, considering the unacceptably high number of unemployed young people in the country, and the urgent challenge of people who are ‘Not in any formal Education, Employment, or Training (NEET)’.
“It is estimated that more than 3.3 million young people in our country between the ages of 15-24 are not in employment, education, and training and unemployed. This is something that must concern all of us.
“It is therefore understood that a collaborative approach will ensure a coordinated and targeted approach to skills planning, funding, quality assurance, and monitoring, resulting in a skilled and competitive workforce that contributes to economic growth and social development,” Nzimande said.
The Minister also encouraged SETAs to focus on high impact areas, including infrastructure development for the provision of service delivery; significant reduction in unemployment including graduates; sustainable entrepreneurship and cooperatives which promote elf employment; and fundamental rural development.
He also urged them to focus on digitisation and the advancement of technological infrastructure and development to benefit the country, and effective and efficient shared services on information and communications technology.
Meanwhile Nzimande pointed out on Sunday that Trinity International Bible University is not a registered university and therefore has no authority to offer qualifications to anyone.
The institution – honoured award winning actor Sello Maake kaNcube, actress Elizabeth Serunye and singer Winnie Mashaba – has since received a warning to cease all illegal activities and to regularise its operations.
The Department of Higher Education and Training also said that it has requested guidance from the Council on Higher Education (CHE) on how honorary doctorate qualifications should be offered and by who.