Date: 14/10/2003
Source: Department of Labour
Title: Mdladlana: National Skills Development Conference
OPENING SPEECH BY MINISTER OF LABOUR, MMS MDLADLANA, AT THE NATIONAL SKILLS DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE, 14 October 2003
Programme Director, honourable Members of Parliament, members of the diplomatic corps, representatives of employers, trade unions, community and training provider organisations, members of the NSA, professional bodies, government officials, may I add my word of welcome to you all to this, our third National Skills Conference.
At the first National Skills Conference back in February 2001, I launched the first ever National Skills Development Strategy. Last year we met at the Second National Skills Conference to consider the strides we had made in the first year. Today we are here to review our progress. We are now half way through - we are in a position to look back on the first two years, and look ahead to the remaining two years (of which six months have already passed) during which we must stretch to reach our final targets set for March 2005.
I am interested in the progress report on how well we are doing and not only to celebrate our successes, but also to trigger interventions in those areas where we are in danger of falling behind. And of course, with a short 18 months to go before we must begin implementing the next National Skills Development Strategy, I am extremely keen to hear what our social partners think should be included in our Strategy next time round. I am pleased to hear, Dr. Baloyi, that plans to secure this input are so well advanced. I plan to launch the next Strategy at next year's Conference, so it is important that I receive the National Skills Authority's advice on this matter in good time.
In your Conference bags you will find the 2002-2003 National Skills Development Strategy Implementation Report, which gives as accurate a picture as we are able to provide on the progress we have collectively made so far.
It appears that - two years ahead of schedule - we have already achieved or exceeded four of our targets- three outputs targets and the fourth being the impact target in the social development area. This is a tremendous vindication of our Skills Strategy and a boost for skills in our country - and the SETAs and the provincial offices of the Department of Labour can justifiably be proud of their achievements in this regard. Well done.
In a further four areas we are well on track with the output side of the target and are seeing exceptional progress on the figures reported last year - with every indication that if we carry on at the rate we are going we will at least achieve, and in some cases even exceed, our targets.
We are less than half way in only two areas - in the areas of ABET and learnerships for young, unemployed people - and even here we have made enormous strides since last year, and with some extra effort from us all, these targets too may be within reach.
Overall, we are not just 'on track' my friends, we are doing exceedingly well!
And I would like to say that this report, more than anything else, vindicates the establishment of the SETAs and the National Skills Fund. Without these institutions and instruments we would most certainly not have been able to report such achievements. We can truly be Proudly South African in relation to our skills strategy!
I know that particularly our employer partners are anxious to see the outcome of studies to establish whether or not all our work is adding up to improvements in productivity and competitiveness and for our labour and community colleagues, whether there is an improvement in employment, conditions and security. We are no less concerned about these matters. Studies to secure an independent assessment of the impact of our work have already been commissioned by the Department, and will be reported next year. It was not possible to begin these studies any sooner - as the system had to bed down before any meaningful evaluation of its effectiveness could take place. Most of the studies will be concluded early next year and their findings can be fed into the consultation process you have planned for the National Skills Authority, Dr. Baloyi.
To our detractors out there, please don't judge us on what we did not set out to do. Remember all social partners agreed on these priorities and targets - I launched the Strategy as it was unanimously recommended to me from the National Skills Authority. If you don't agree with the targets now, why were they recommended to me then? And please don't judge us because there is too strong a focus on 'inputs' - when we launched this Strategy we were just getting started and the focus was appropriate. With the wisdom of experience, let's take the lessons learnt into the next Strategy. In any case, as I have just indicated, systematic steps have already been taken to begin the process of independent evaluation.
Let us spend a minute celebrating our successes:
* Firstly, our report shows that over two million workers have achieved structured learning and nearly a million of them have already completed their programmes, if you total the numbers for 2001 and 2002. We were only reaching for 1,3 million, and so we have overshot our target by over 700 000 already! Indeed we overshot it last year - in one year alone. And whilst we aimed to have some 700 000 complete their programmes, already over 900 000 have done so. The one shadow over this achievement is the equity profile of those who have been trained, but it underlines the importance of setting and monitoring such targets.
* Secondly, perhaps the most remarkable achievement of all is the rate at which medium sized firms employing between 50 and 150 workers are participating. We said we'd be happy if we reached 40% of these firms in our first Strategy, but we've done better than that - over 50% of those paying their levies are claiming back grants. And not only that - there are an extra 800 such firms in the system, against which this percentage has been achieved. These are the firms where the preparation of a Workplace Skills Plan is a stretch - and where making the effort can really pay off. I suspect that in no other category of firms has the Skills Development Strategy made such a difference!
* The fact that all sectors have already registered learnership programmes is also cause for celebration. I believe we now have some 540 new learnership programmes registered with the Department of Labour, although at the end of March this year the figure stood at 478. Again let me say how well SETAs have done in this regard - let us now work tirelessly to ensure that these learnerships are translated into real learning opportunities for the workers and unemployed people in our country.
The fourth area of achievement is in relation to the placement rate of learners in social development projects. We said we'd be happy if 70% of trainees were placed in employment, self-employment, social development projects or further training programmes - and an independent study has recently shown that more than 75% of trainees are being so placed. This is a remarkable improvement on a few years ago when we guessed that only 5% or so were being placed after training. This is a great turn-around and I salute the Employment Service Practitioners in the labour centres and provincial offices of the Department of Labour for the hard work that stands behind this achievement.
Source: Department of Labour
(http://www.labour.gov.za)
Source: Department of Labour
Title: Mdladlana: National Skills Development Conference
OPENING SPEECH BY MINISTER OF LABOUR, MMS MDLADLANA, AT THE NATIONAL SKILLS DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE, 14 October 2003
Programme Director, honourable Members of Parliament, members of the diplomatic corps, representatives of employers, trade unions, community and training provider organisations, members of the NSA, professional bodies, government officials, may I add my word of welcome to you all to this, our third National Skills Conference.
At the first National Skills Conference back in February 2001, I launched the first ever National Skills Development Strategy. Last year we met at the Second National Skills Conference to consider the strides we had made in the first year. Today we are here to review our progress. We are now half way through - we are in a position to look back on the first two years, and look ahead to the remaining two years (of which six months have already passed) during which we must stretch to reach our final targets set for March 2005.
I am interested in the progress report on how well we are doing and not only to celebrate our successes, but also to trigger interventions in those areas where we are in danger of falling behind. And of course, with a short 18 months to go before we must begin implementing the next National Skills Development Strategy, I am extremely keen to hear what our social partners think should be included in our Strategy next time round. I am pleased to hear, Dr. Baloyi, that plans to secure this input are so well advanced. I plan to launch the next Strategy at next year's Conference, so it is important that I receive the National Skills Authority's advice on this matter in good time.
In your Conference bags you will find the 2002-2003 National Skills Development Strategy Implementation Report, which gives as accurate a picture as we are able to provide on the progress we have collectively made so far.
It appears that - two years ahead of schedule - we have already achieved or exceeded four of our targets- three outputs targets and the fourth being the impact target in the social development area. This is a tremendous vindication of our Skills Strategy and a boost for skills in our country - and the SETAs and the provincial offices of the Department of Labour can justifiably be proud of their achievements in this regard. Well done.
In a further four areas we are well on track with the output side of the target and are seeing exceptional progress on the figures reported last year - with every indication that if we carry on at the rate we are going we will at least achieve, and in some cases even exceed, our targets.
We are less than half way in only two areas - in the areas of ABET and learnerships for young, unemployed people - and even here we have made enormous strides since last year, and with some extra effort from us all, these targets too may be within reach.
Overall, we are not just 'on track' my friends, we are doing exceedingly well!
And I would like to say that this report, more than anything else, vindicates the establishment of the SETAs and the National Skills Fund. Without these institutions and instruments we would most certainly not have been able to report such achievements. We can truly be Proudly South African in relation to our skills strategy!
I know that particularly our employer partners are anxious to see the outcome of studies to establish whether or not all our work is adding up to improvements in productivity and competitiveness and for our labour and community colleagues, whether there is an improvement in employment, conditions and security. We are no less concerned about these matters. Studies to secure an independent assessment of the impact of our work have already been commissioned by the Department, and will be reported next year. It was not possible to begin these studies any sooner - as the system had to bed down before any meaningful evaluation of its effectiveness could take place. Most of the studies will be concluded early next year and their findings can be fed into the consultation process you have planned for the National Skills Authority, Dr. Baloyi.
To our detractors out there, please don't judge us on what we did not set out to do. Remember all social partners agreed on these priorities and targets - I launched the Strategy as it was unanimously recommended to me from the National Skills Authority. If you don't agree with the targets now, why were they recommended to me then? And please don't judge us because there is too strong a focus on 'inputs' - when we launched this Strategy we were just getting started and the focus was appropriate. With the wisdom of experience, let's take the lessons learnt into the next Strategy. In any case, as I have just indicated, systematic steps have already been taken to begin the process of independent evaluation.
Let us spend a minute celebrating our successes:
* Firstly, our report shows that over two million workers have achieved structured learning and nearly a million of them have already completed their programmes, if you total the numbers for 2001 and 2002. We were only reaching for 1,3 million, and so we have overshot our target by over 700 000 already! Indeed we overshot it last year - in one year alone. And whilst we aimed to have some 700 000 complete their programmes, already over 900 000 have done so. The one shadow over this achievement is the equity profile of those who have been trained, but it underlines the importance of setting and monitoring such targets.
* Secondly, perhaps the most remarkable achievement of all is the rate at which medium sized firms employing between 50 and 150 workers are participating. We said we'd be happy if we reached 40% of these firms in our first Strategy, but we've done better than that - over 50% of those paying their levies are claiming back grants. And not only that - there are an extra 800 such firms in the system, against which this percentage has been achieved. These are the firms where the preparation of a Workplace Skills Plan is a stretch - and where making the effort can really pay off. I suspect that in no other category of firms has the Skills Development Strategy made such a difference!
* The fact that all sectors have already registered learnership programmes is also cause for celebration. I believe we now have some 540 new learnership programmes registered with the Department of Labour, although at the end of March this year the figure stood at 478. Again let me say how well SETAs have done in this regard - let us now work tirelessly to ensure that these learnerships are translated into real learning opportunities for the workers and unemployed people in our country.
The fourth area of achievement is in relation to the placement rate of learners in social development projects. We said we'd be happy if 70% of trainees were placed in employment, self-employment, social development projects or further training programmes - and an independent study has recently shown that more than 75% of trainees are being so placed. This is a remarkable improvement on a few years ago when we guessed that only 5% or so were being placed after training. This is a great turn-around and I salute the Employment Service Practitioners in the labour centres and provincial offices of the Department of Labour for the hard work that stands behind this achievement.
Source: Department of Labour
(http://www.labour.gov.za)
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