4199 INSETA - Insider Newsletter Feb 2014 2

Recommendations

Info

Prioritising the expansion of the college sector The White Paper outlines South Africa’s vision for higher education, sets out our main priorities and strategies to achieve these. It sets out an ambitious plan and hopefully begins to address the skills development challenges some of which are: Envisaged increase in enrolments in Colleges • the fragmented and uncoordinated system and organisations responsible for Higher Education, and the weak FET system; • poor career guidance for learners; • workplaces which are not integrated into the higher education system; • inadequate provision for people with disabilities; • socio economic conditions including lack of funds and access for rural learners When Zuma became president he announced the splitting of education into two distinct departments, that of Basic Education and Higher Education. This decision allowed for a dedicated focus to address the unique challenges faced by both systems at the time. A positive change was immediately evident especially in public higher education provision. SETAs, universities and FET colleges started working together, dispensing with both fictional barriers of hierarchies and stature, and the very real barrier of bureaucracy that had plagued integration prior to President Zuma’s announcement. Strengthening and expanding the public college sector The strengthening and expansion of the public college sector to turn them into institutions of choice, has been identified as the highest priority in the White Paper. We will see the college sector become central to the provision of post school education and training and enrolments are expected to increase from 650 000 currently to 1 million by 2015 and 2.5 million by 2030. Already we have seen a 53% increase in FET enrolments from 2010 (345 566) to 2013 (650 000). This expansion has been made possible by dedicated funding by government and the provision of bursaries for learners. Bursary funding to public colleges in 2013 increased to R 1.988 billion. The programmes and qualifications in the college sector will be undergoing a review and employers have been identified as one of the key stakeholders who will be involved in the review process. This is in line with the emphasis in the White Paper on strengthening partnerships between employers and colleges both at a system level and at a college level. Ideally a college should have partnerships with employers in the area it serves allowing for learners to be placed in industry to get valuable workplace experience. Employers can reciprocate by influencing curriculum design to meet workplace needs and also participate in college lecturing in areas of expertise. Hopefully this will allow for workplace technological advances to be taught in the colleges at a similar pace to that at which these advances happen. Another positive development expected from the curriculum review is that the qualifications will be as far as possible designed so that learners can articulate from college to university and other institutions. SETAs and Public Colleges The role of the SETAs will be narrowed to developing the skills of people in sector workplaces and the development of a pipeline for the workplaces. SETAs will engage with stakeholders in the workplace, establish their needs and ensure that providers have the capacity to deliver on this. Colleges in terms of the White Paper will primarily provide training for the mid-level skills and are being renamed to technical and vocational education and training colleges (TVET). The SETAs are expected to fund learners in the public colleges especially for specific sector occupational programmes and short courses. The placement of college learners into workplaces has been slow but expected to start improving as specific programmes are rolled out.
Skills Development Facilitators code of Good Practice “A Quality Driven Learning Environment starts here” The Insurance sector Education and Training Authority (Inseta) Skills Planning Division has designed the following Code of Good Practice to fall in line with organisations’ policies and procedures in order to efficiently and effectively carry out training and development plans in the organisation. Employers will be required to ensure that the following is in place in order to become a Quality Learning Environment (QLE). • Ensure that organisational learning is in line with the scarce and critical skills needs of the Insurance and related services sector. • Ensure that the learning environment is conducive for learning prior to learner being sent on training internally and externally. It is essential that a logistics plan for classrooms and equipment be implemented by the Operations and/or Logistics Department. • Large and Medium employers (organisations with more than 50 employees) must ensure that a Training Committee (herein also known as “The Committee”), is in place. • The Committee must ensure the following: • A Primary and Secondary Skills Development Facilitator is appointed in the organisation, who is qualified (with a Skills Development facilitator Certificate), and who also can accurately complete the Workplace Skills Plan and Annual Training report, also the Pivotal Training plan and report. • A Provision must be for occasions when the Skills Development Facilitators or Administrators are not available to carry-out their role. In the logistics plan provision must be made for substitutes. • At least two Representatives from Large and Medium companies must be present at the <strong>INSETA</strong> Annual the Workplace Skills Plan (WSP) and Annual Training Report (ATR) Workshops to keep abreast of legislative changes that may occur. • The above Training Committee can form part of the Employment Equity Committee. • Meet at least quarterly, in order to discuss Skills Planning for Employees and Skills Audits. • Representatives to sign off on the Workplace Skills Plans and Annual Training Reports. • Records of Learning, Attendance Register (where possible), and Statement of Results, as well as Certificates of Attendance and Competency are kept for a period of 5 years. • Organisational Training and Development Policy is updated annually, version-controlled, and also consulted on. • Personal Development Plans (PDP) / Balance Scorecards (BS), or any other Performance Measurement Tools are aligned with the Organisation Training and Development Policy. • There should be representatives from Senior Management, Line Management and Employee and Union representatives (where an organisation has unionised employees), on the Training Committee. • All the Committee meetings are minuted and made available during the <strong>INSETA</strong> Skills Audit. • Skills Levies are paid within the Legislated Time Frames. • A minimum of 2% is spent on Internal Training and Development Initiatives, over and above the 1% of skills levies paid to the South African Revenue Services (SARS). • Training and development is fair to all employees and no employees must be discriminated against, in terms of race, gender, disability or any other criteria. • All employees are to be given opportunities to grow and learn as part of a learning organisation. Hosting of Career Days and partnering with your SETA at Career Fairs. • Provision of learning must be carried out by an Accredited Training Provider. • Ensure that the proper Information Technology (IT) systems are in place to track and record learning within the organisation. • Employers must ensure that the learner’ credits are loaded on to the relevant SETA Upload System on completion of the Programme. This arrangement should be made directly with all training providers within the agreement documents between the parties. • Employers to ensure that learners are briefed on the correct career pathing plans in line with their PDPs, and should a learner be studying towards a full qualification, that the qualification outline is printed from the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA – www.saqa. org.za ) website and rules of combination to achieve the qualification is monitored by the internal SDF. • Hosting Skills Development Best Practice Workshops where the SETA can give updates to the Communities of Skills Development Facilitators within the same Subsector. • The Workplace Plan and Annual Training Reports as well as Pivotal plans and reports are completed before the legislated Deadline Date, and consultation within the organisation ( at all levels, especially when it comes to planning for learning), before submission. • Recommendations: Boast the Successes of Organisational Achievers. Formal acknowledgement must be given to those learners who have been found competent. Those learners who have passed with distinction, must be given special acknowledgement, in the form of awards.
Page 1 and 2: FEBRUARY 2014 ISSUE 12: WORKING TOG
Page 3 and 4: CEO MESSAGE John Ruskin said that
Page 5 and 6: SAADP says farewell to Cyril Ramaph
Page 7: Liberty Holdings Learnership Class
Page 12: Physical Address Ground floor 37 Em

4199 INSETA - Insider Newsletter Feb 2014 2

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?