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Mandela Initiative Action Dialogue

Workshop on Job-Creating Skills Development

Held at Goedgedacht 29 September – 2 October 2016

Summary of Workshop Report

I. Background

a. Aim and Description of the Workshop

The Job-Creating Skills Development Workshop was the sixth Mandela Initiative Action

Dialogue Workshop on strategies to overcome poverty and inequality in South Africa.

The aim of the Workshop was to examine ways in which poverty caused by unemployment

could be reduced by means of skills development. In order to do so 16 people who were

actively involved in skills development were invited along with two highly knowledgeable

academics. All the participants were given the opportunity to share what they and their

organisations were doing to contribute to skills development and job creation.

b. Poverty, Unemployment, and Job Creation by means of Skills Development

Poverty is extensive in South Africa. In 2011 Statistics South Africa determined that 20 per

cent of the population, that is over 10 million people, lived below the food poverty level

which is ‘the level of consumption below which individuals are unable to purchase sufficient

food to provide them with an adequate diet’, while 46 per cent lived below the upper bound

poverty level which is the income level that enables people to ‘purchase both adequate

food and non-food items’. Other detailed studies have placed the poverty levels much

higher.

The main causes of poverty is unemployment. The unemployment rate in South Africa is

extremely high, and it has been so for decades. Currently, the extended unemployment

rate, which includes discouraged workers who have stopped looking for employment, is 32

per cent, that is almost one in three members of the labour force. Youth unemployment is

much higher. The official unemployment rate (which excludes discouraged workers) of

youth between the ages of 15 and 24 years is 50 per cent. Thus one-half of young

workseekers cannot find employment.

There is thus an urgent and overwhelming need for job creation in South Africa. There is

consensus that labour-absorbing economic growth creates jobs. The National Development

Plan has calculated that the economy would have to grow at a rate of 5.4 per cent per year

to reduce unemployment to 6 per cent by 2030. But the economy grew a mere 0.7 per cent

in 2016 and is forecast to grow less than 1.0 per cent in 2017. So we have to find alternative

ways of creating jobs. A viable alternative that has the potential to create thousands of jobs

is through skills development. There are numerous vacancies in the economy for suitably

skilled labour. Furthermore, a shortage of skills often prevents enterprises from investing

and growing that could result in employing yet more people.

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Hence the aim of the 6th Mandela Initiative Workshop was to find additional ways to create

jobs by means of skills development.

II. The Workshop

The Workshop had six major themes. They were:

1) Role of national and provincial government in job-creating skills development;

2) German contribution to job-creating skills development in South Africa;

3) Entrepreneurship and job creation;

4) Accelerating youth employment;

5) Job-creating skills development in the Eastern Cape;

6) Role of trade unions and bargaining councils in job creation and skills development.

After all the presentations, participants workshopped ways in which job creation by means

of skills development could be enhanced and accelerated. In the process it identified

institutional and procedural shortcomings and blockages that needed to be addressed.

These are presented below in Section III by means of two diagrams.

The salient points made during each of the six themes are presented next followed by a

summary of action that could be taken to increase job creation in South Africa.

1) Role of national and provincial governments in job-creating skills

development

Dr Florus Prinsloo, Manager of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in the

Department of the Premier in the Western Cape Government; formerly Technical Advisor on

Artisan Training in the National Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), and

Elizabeth Walters, Deputy Director of Skills Development in the Department of Economic

Development and Tourism (DEDAT), Western Cape Government, provided material and

input on this theme.

The National Department of Higher Education and Training is strongly committed to TVET.

There is extensive institutional infrastructure to achieve this aim: 6 public Universities of

Technology, 50 public TVET Colleges, 52 Community Colleges (pending), 446 Technical High

Schools and 470 ‘Schools of Skill’. The programmes on offer are wide-ranging including 125

different apprenticeships and about 800 learnerships. The systemic weaknesses are the

confusing complexity of the system, weak links to industry, and a high proportion of low

quality teachers working with inadequate and outdated technology.

The Western Cape Provincial Government has introduced a Skills Game Changer. Its goal is

to provide sufficient appropriately qualified technical and vocationally skilled people to

meet the needs of prioritised economic growth sectors in the Western Cape. In line with this

objective, the Work and Skills Programme of the Western Cape Provincial Government has

created learning and work placement opportunities for unemployed youth in order to

improve the future employment prospects of participants who are between the ages of 18-

34 years. By June 2016 over 7,000 placements had been made across five regions of the

Western Cape.

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2) German contribution to job-creating skills development in South Africa

Mr Matthias Boddenberg, Chief Executive, Southern African-German Chamber of Commerce

and Industry (SAGCCI), gave a presentation on the role that German firms in South Africa

have played in promoting and providing skills development.

SAGCCI established the South African-German Training Services (SAGTS). Its main objective

is to ensure the effective operation of two training divisions, the Commercial Advancement

Training Scheme (CATS) and the Builders Training Centre (BTC) in Soweto. CATS has been

operating in South Africa since 1985. Its programme was adapted from the German Dual

Education and Training System. Its two-year vocational training program leads to

certification of competency in Business Administration that is accepted and recognised by

the European Union. CATS has produced more than 2000 graduates. BTC in Soweto is a one-

year training project that has been operating successfully since 1992. It has trained 4000

people thus far.

Representatives of two global German firms operating in South Africa that provide extensive

skills training programs made presentations at the Workshop.

Mercedes Benz South Africa (MBSA), East London

Ms Kim Smallie, Learning and Development Specialist at the Learning Academy of MBSA,

revealed that MBSA started training employees in its East London assembly plant as early as

July 1981. In August 2014 MBSA commenced constructing a Learning Academy that ended

up costing R130 million. The Jobs Fund of the South African Treasury, contributed a total of

R80 million on condition that MBSA also trains workers in related industries in the region

and ensure that they obtain placements thereafter.

Another obligation placed on MBSA Learning Academy by the Jobs Fund was to train and

place 500 unemployed shopfloor learners on a three-year cycle as well as about 120

apprentices per annum. In September 2016 the Learning Academy was training 216

shopfloor trainees per year and taking on 50 apprentices every year for 3-4 year overall

training. The number of apprentices at the Academy was 200. In advanced technologies and

robotics 520 people had been trained since August 2014 of which 420 had been placed, a

placement rate of 81%.

Festo Didactic, Isando

Chris Oliver, Area Manager, Learning Systems of Festo Didactic, showed what the company

invents, produces, and makes available for skills training, not only in South Africa, but world-

wide. The learning systems of Festo Didactic are used worldwide by schools and universities

as well as industry-wide institutions and companies to train specialists. It has customers

from no less than 45,000 educational institutions throughout the world and around 42,000

people take part in its seminars and training courses every year. In terms of content, it

covers a wide spectrum including electro-pneumatics, electro-hydraulics, electronics,

robotics, CNC technology, as well as mechatronics. Festo offers courses in these fields in

Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban at frequent intervals.

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MERSETA (Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services SETA)

The SETA that services MBSA and Festo is MERSETA. Ms Helen Brown, MERSETA Senior

Manager: Strategy and Research, provided Workshop participants with valuable insights on

aspects of MERSETA’s contribution to skills development.

3) Entrepreneurship and job creation

Michael Bagraim, Practising Managing Partner of Bagraims Attorneys, Member of

Parliament, and former President of the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry, gave a

stimulating talk on the job-creating potential of entrepreneurship and small businesses. Mr

Bagraim contended that it is small businesses that create jobs, but that the state places

numerous obstacles by means of regulations and labour law in the way of job creation. He

metaphorically described the problem as ‘the handbrake of the law’ and the challenge is to

get the handbrake released.

Steve Reid, False Bay TVET College, Westlake Campus, presented what he was achieving in

training and engaging young learners in entrepreneurship. False Bay College is the only

College that has established a Centre for Entrepreneurship (CFE). It opened its doors in

March 2015 and launched a Rapid Incubator Project in November 2016. The Rapid

Incubation Hub has two mini-factories flanking an innovation hub. They are a mini factory in

engineering (inclusive of metal fabrication) and furniture making in wood. The challenge

facing the CFE is that the mindset of most students is that of a job seeker, rather than that

of a job creator. An inordinate amount of energy, innovative thinking and commitment is

therefore required to help shift students’ mindset towards seeing entrepreneurship as

desirable.

Gill Connellan is a social entrepreneur with wide-ranging work experience in organisations

linked to skills development and job creation. She is CEO of a small enterprise, Eclipse

Skillmatters which is situated in the Western Cape, but has associates in most of the

provinces in SA. She is also Chairperson of the Association for Skills Development in South

Africa (ASDSA) since 2003.

Ms Connellan’s wide-ranging work experience has included management of learnership

projects, especially community projects in the New Venture Creation project. The New

Venture Creation Learnership is a 12 month practical and theoretical training programme.

Its purpose is to provide aspiring entrepreneurs in the small, medium and micro enterprise

(SMME) sector with the technical, business, managerial and personal skills to create and

sustain a business.

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4) Accelerating youth employment

Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator

Tammy Chetty, Harambee Executive, Western Cape, provided the Workshop with an

overview of what Harambee does.

Harambee has offices in Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, but works all

over the country. It has connections with 300 employers and helps them to find jobs for first

time work seekers. Many of the employers are corporates with brand names such as Pick n

Pay, McDonalds, KFC, Tsogo Sun, Sasol, King Pie, Woolworths, Nedbank, Spier, CAT, Group

Five, and many others.

The process that is followed in finding work seekers usually goes through the following

stages.

1. It is demand-led in terms of finding out what it is that employers want. Harambee goes

through a diagnostic process with the employer.

2. Harambee then sets about sourcing the people by finding access to a new labour pool the

employer has not tapped before. It conducts its search in disadvantaged communities,

looking for first time job seekers.

3. Matching prospective employees with the employer takes place next. Harambee assesses

the potential of each person, exploring the behavioural attributes and competence of each

one as it is important to match the person with the demands of the job.

4 The next step is to ‘bridge’ the selected work seekers. This process involves making sure

that they are fit for purpose and ready for work by building up their competence and

behavioural attributes.

By September 2016 Harambee had helped place over 30,000 work seekers in jobs. It had

also worked personally with over 250,000 young people.

Chrysalis Academy, Tokai, Cape Town

Lucille Meyer, Chrysalis Academy CEO, provided an overview of the work that Chrysalis

Academy does. Chrysalis helps to prepare young people holistically to put them on a path to

employment and a career.

The Chrysalis Academy (CA) was set up in 1999 by the Western Cape Provincial Cabinet as a

Social Crime Prevention Programme. Its programme is aimed at youth between the ages of

18 and 25 with a minimum Grade 9 certification with no criminal record and are neither in

employment, education nor training. Its strategy is to assist youth to develop physically,

mentally, emotionally and spiritually through a three month residential programme.

Since the year 2000, more than 8,000 youth have graduated with large numbers

subsequently in employment, studying or doing socially responsive work in their

communities.

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International Perspective

Professor Andre Kraak from the Researching Education and Labour (REAL) Centre, University

of the Witwatersrand, provided an international perspective on how young first-time

workseekers have been enabled to obtain and retain employment. He did so by looking at

international best practice, drawing mainly on the United States of America (USA).

In America Local Workforce Investment Boards (LWIBs) set up under the Workforce

Investment Act of 1998 provide a good example of global best practice. There are over 600

LWIBs set up in all 50 states which provide a range of employment and social services.

LWIBs do not train. What they do provide is labour market information and outreach by

brokering relationships that create job opportunities for young first-time workseekers.

During the fiscal year 2004 the LWIBs serviced 1,180,000 people of which 31% were youth

and dislocated workers. Overall 71% of people who received programmed services managed

to enter employment afterwards.

Generally LWIBs and other institutions that facilitate youth employment are referred to

intermediaries. However, Harambee calls itself a Youth Employment Accelerator while

Chrysalis is an Academy. In this report all institutions that primarily facilitate or broker youth

employment are referred to as youth employment accelerators.

5) Job-creating skills development in the Eastern Cape

Three very diverse organisations explained their contribution to job creation through skills

development in the Eastern Cape, the second poorest province in the country with very high

unemployment levels and a dysfunctional basic education system. The organisations are the

Grahamstown Diocese of the Anglican Church, Lovedale TVET College in Alice, and the

Production Management Institute (PMI) in Port Elizabeth.

Anglican Diocese of Grahamstown Development Fund

Reverend Bubele Mfenyana, Executive Trustee of Development Fund, provided a summary

of the origins and role of the Trust in creating jobs through skills development. In 2013 the

Anglican Bishop’s Synod took a Resolution which set education as a pastoral priority. To this

end it established the Diocese of Grahamstown Development Trust.

In exploring opportunities the Development Trust discovered that the Health and Welfare

SETA (HWSETA) was catering for some of the needs of the church. The Trust registered with

the SETA as a Skills Development Facilitator. After meeting numerous other bureaucratic

requirement it was awarded 34 Further Education and Training Certificates (FETC)

learnerships as well as 33 TVET learnerships in September 2015. The 33 learners were

placed in different sections of the Department of Rural Development which indicated that

they had earmarked about 10 of the learners for possible employment.

In addition to these achievements the Development Trust applied for placements for 800

youths to the National Skills Fund and 274 were accepted. The categories for which they

were accepted were as TVET learners up to N6 level (196), as undergraduate students at

universities of technology (33), universities (23) and as professionals (22). The Trust

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managed to find employers for all 274 candidates. The total value of the awards amounts to

R21.4million.

Lovedale TVET College

Luvuyo Ngubelanga, Principal of Lovedale TVET College, commenced with a brief history of

Lovedale before providing an exposition of the role and initiatives taking place at the

College.

Lovedale started as a mission station in 1824, on the Tyume River in Alice. It concentrated

on “industrial” training at first, namely agriculture, masonry, carpentry, blacksmithing, and

wagon making. In 1861 the trade of printing and bookmaking was also introduced,

becoming the forerunner to the well-known Lovedale Press.

Some of the better known figures who studied at Lovedale were former president of South

Africa, Thabo Mbeki, Rev. Tiyo Soga, well known for his Xhosa hymns and the translation of

the Bible into Xhosa, Steve Biko, political activist and leader of the Black Consciousness

Movement, as well as Chris Hani, former leader of the South African Communist Party.

In 1955 it became a state institution under the Bantu Education Act of 1952. It continued as

an educational institution under various government education departments. It was closed

in 1979 by the former Ciskei Government, but was reopened again. In 2002 it became a

TVET College.

Under Mr Ngubelanga as principal, Lovedale TVET College has struggled to obtain adequate

funds to run the College properly. To deal with the shortage of funds Mr Ngubelanga has

established partnerships, inter alia with the Department of Rural Development and Land

Reform and the ETDP SETA to train 50 disabled learners, some of whom are blind or deaf. It

is also engaged in a project with the BANKSETA for an International Accounting Technician

qualification, a New Venture Partnership with a Business School through the Services SETA,

and a partnership with the DTI to support SMMEs as well as numerous municipalities and

the Office of the Premier of the Eastern Cape.

The Production Management Institute (PMI) in the Eastern Cape

Caron Foster, Lead Facilitator and Project Manager, provided an overview of the PMI and

the role it is playing in the Eastern Cape.

PMI provides strategic skills development that impacts positively on the productivity of its

clients leading to clear returns on investment. It is registered as a Private Higher Education

Institution with the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) and accredited by

the Council on Higher Education (CHE).

It has delivery capacity in all major centres in most provinces across South Africa as well as

training in many African countries as far north as Sierra Leone. It offers a range of services,

including Higher Education and Training, FET and GET Learnerships, Mining, Engineering and

Construction Training, as well as Work Readiness by means of job simulation training.

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In the Eastern Cape PMI promotes job creation through skills development. It has a number

of projects running. These are:

- Animal production with BKB;

- Crop production with Humansdorp Co-operative;

- Aquaculture by partnering with an abalone farm;

- New Venture Creation with Services SETA targeting unemployed youth living in rural

Eastern Cape. The SETA had funded learnerships for 300 youths.

There is a potential for a synergistic relationship between these three institutions in the

Eastern Cape.

6) Role of trade unions and bargaining councils in job creation and skills

development

Zenzeleni: The clothing factory started by a trade union

Johann Maree, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Cape Town, gave an account

of the job-creating role that SACTWU, the South African Clothing and Textile Workers’

Union, has played in creating jobs, a task that also required the training of the workers they

employed.

In the early 1980s the Frame Group was intent on closing down one of its textile plants in

New Germany, Durban that employed 300 workers. It had to negotiate the closure with the

National Union of Textile Workers (NUTW) which subsequently merged with other unions to

become SACTWU. The union proposed that the plant be converted into a clothing factory

making overalls for workers. Frame refused, but negotiated an agreement that the NUTW

would purchase the plant and produce clothes, which it did. The union called the factory,

Zenzeleni, which means ‘we do it ourselves’.

The union struggled to run the factory as it was on a sharp learning curve and had to deal

with the unusual situation that it owned the factory where its members were working. It

even had to deal with a strike by the workers. Nevertheless, 30 years later Zenzeleni

survived and has opened another plant in Hammersdale. It now employs 450 workers.

In addition to Zenzeleni, HCI whose main shareholder is the SACTWU Investment Group, the

investment company of SACTWU, rescued Seardel in 2008. In so doing, they saved

thousands of jobs in the clothing industry.

SACTWU Investment Group also provides benefits for its members and scholarships for their

children in order to receive a sound education and improve their lives.

National Bargaining Council for Clothing Manufacturing Industry (NBCCMI)

Steady Mukondiwa, Director of Bargaining Council’s Productivity and Training Institute, gave

a presentation on the innovative role that the NBCCMI is playing in preserving jobs in the

clothing industry by striving to enhance clothing firms’ productivity and the skills of its

employees.

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Since late 1990s after the dissolution of the Clothing Industry Training Board (CITB), there

had been growing demand to establish an institute to focus on training and productivity in

the industry. In the 2011/2012 negotiations, the parties (i.e. labour and employers) agreed

to establish the Productivity and Training Institute (PTI) owing to growing number of

factories closing and facing survival threatening challenges. The chosen operating model for

the Productivity Institute is to work with the existing service providers, training institutions,

institution of higher learning, developmental oriented non-governmental organisations and

key government departments to improve overall clothing industry productivity. The Institute

started operating mid-April 2016.

College of Cape Town

One of the institutions of higher learning that the Bargaining Councils Productivity and

Training Institute could make use of is the College of Cape Town (CCT), a TVET College which

has eight campuses spread around Cape Town’s suburbs.

Louis van Niekerk, Principal, College of Cape Town, provided an overview of the services

provided by the CCT and reflected with Workshop participants on ways in which it could

play a more pro-active role in creating jobs.

After everyone presented what they and their organisations were doing to develop skills

that result in job creation the discussion switched to what action could be taken to enhance

job creation through skills development.

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III. Action Dialogue: How can job-creating skills development be advanced?

Notes: ESDA stands for Employment and Skills Development Agency (ESDA). It is an

organisation or company that, through written agreement with an employer,

employs learners and oversees the placement of the learners with host employers

for on the job training and assessment and approved training institutions for off the

job training to complete a regulated training program learnership or apprenticeship.

ECD – Early Childhood Development HEI – Higher Education Institution

UoT – University of Technology DBE – Department of Basic Education

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An overall conceptualisation of the challenges faced in job creation after receiving an

education was presented by Dr Florus Prinsloo. He did so by means of two flow diagrams

reproduced here. The first diagram indicates how an effective and efficient system operates.

It represents a vision to strive for.

The second diagram shows where deficiencies exist in the South African school to work

process and potential measures that could be taken to help overcome these weaknesses.It

shows where ‘plasters’ and ‘bridges’ are required to uplift and upgrade the existing system

in South Africa. These ‘plasters’ and ‘bridges’ came up during the presentation as well as

during the action dialogue.

In addition Emeritus Professor Hennie Snyman, retired Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Port

Elizabeth Technikon, and Emeritus Professor of Physics, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan

University, gave a presentation recommending action that could be taken based on the

presentations and discussions at the Workshop as well as his own insights and experience.

His proposals included the following steps that could be taken:

Promote artisanship & technical training by the destigmatisation of technical &

vocational occupations;

Simplify the pathways and upward articulation in our educational system & be

vigilant about gatekeeping practices;

Promote entrepreneurship & remove bureaucratic obstacles towards start-ups &

enterprise development. Establish business incubators;

Accept the challenges of the brave new world of artificial intelligence (AI) & robotics.

This is a net creator of jobs (Pew Research Centre: 2014). Prepare our TVET colleges

for this. Relook the curriculum;

Emphasise, everywhere, the importance of maths, science, literacy &

communication skills (start in the home & Grade1);

Build the quality, status & dignity of all teachers.

Destigmatisation of Technical & Vocational Education and Training (TVET) is essential. Steps

towards achieving this include:

Promote it through changing the mindsets of parents, teachers and the community

Provide appropriate career guidance: advice at schools & in the post-school system

Clarify & simplify pathways to trades and occupations

Upgrade TVET colleges: campuses and facilities to be attractive, modern and student

friendly

Improve the status and qualifications of college teachers

Promote knowledge retention: re-engage pensioners and technical experts as

mentors at Colleges and in the workplace.

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Finally, the Workshop identified seven priority terrains of action:

1. Youth Employment Acceleration

2. Developing a Broad South African Dual System

3. Driving Entrepreneurship

4. Networking

5. Promoting Partnerships

6. Raising status of Technical and Vocational Education, Work and Training

7. Upgrading Skills of TVET Managers, Teachers and Trainers

Johann Maree

Emeritus Professor of Sociology

University of Cape Town.

johann.maree@uct.ac.za

Workshop Organiser