Date: 17/10/2006
Source: Department of Education
Title: Pandor: Introduction of Further Education and Training Colleges Bill, NCOP
Address by the Minister of Education, Naledi Pandor, MP, introducing the Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges Bill in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), Cape Town
The FET College Bill that the house will hopefully approve today is one of the most significant pieces of legislation in the area of skills development and vocational education.
It is our hope that through this Bill we will lay the basis for South Africa to develop a skills profile that signals a greater correspondence between economic development and human capital.
A few examples indicate the lack of correspondence at the moment. Recent estimates indicate that over the next three years we will be unable to fill 113 000 vacancies in the information technology (IT) networking field alone. In the area of advanced networking technology (internet protocol telephony, security and wireless) around 60 000 posts will be vacant.
South Africa lacks artisans in many sectors. The shortage is growing due to the successful growth of our country's economy. Also noteworthy is the fact that the average age of artisans in South Africa is 54.
The shortage of critical skills has resulted in much poaching as well as very expensive employees.
Government plans to boost petrochemical industries and power generation. This means new skills requirements. The recent boom in commodity prices and other developments all imply an industrial expansion that urgently requires institutions that train individuals with the appropriate skills and in the numbers required by industry and other sectors.
The Bill has to be understood against this backdrop and in relation to the skills training regime we have in South Africa today. There is a plethora of institutions, organisations, businesses and individuals all involved in training. Generally none of the systems work in a co-ordinated and coherent fashion. This is the reason why despite the many excellent efforts skills gaps remain and trainees fail to secure jobs in sectors that critically need skilled practitioners.
The FET Colleges Bill provides the legislative framework to strengthen responsiveness, co-ordination and quality.
In the past six years an important process of restructuring of colleges has been underway but it has not been consolidated in law. It is the aim of the Bill to achieve this goal.
It is important to stress that all countries with successful vocational training programmes have specific legislation for colleges.
The Bill removes ambiguities that have been associated with the 1998 FET Act.
The FET Act of 1998 did not differentiate colleges from high schools offering FET level programmes.
The Bill differentiates schools from colleges.
We have redesigned the college sector so that from next year they will be able to offer intermediate and high-level skills to students from the age of 16 to mature adults. They will be able to give effect to our long held ideal of providing lifelong learning. To fulfil this goal colleges have to be a different type of institution to the FET schools.
To those who fear that we are deviating from our promise to create different types of focus high schools, I confirm today that this objective remains part of our planning.
The 1998 law limits the colleges in a range of ways.
First, currently college staffs are employed under the Employment of Educators Act, the same Act that determines the employment of school-based educators. One of the negative effects of this is that a college has to draw from school vacancy lists as a first source of staff. Thus even if a college is in need of a skilled technical person, it may be required to employ a language educator who is on the vacancy list.
The Bill addresses the situation and places the employment of college lecturers on a sound and secure footing.
Second, colleges are currently obliged to employ educators with educational qualifications. Even where the specific need is for an expert in the field of banking or tool making, colleges have to prefer an expert with an education qualification.
The Bill addresses the situation and makes it possible for colleges to engage the best teachers for the task.
Third, currently FET colleges are designed to teach teenagers and not adults. Colleges keep school time.
The Bill addresses this mischief. Colleges need to be able to offer classes in the evening or on weekends and in facilities that are adult friendly. The Bill addresses the situation so that colleges do not keep school time or terms and are available to both teenagers and adults.
The Bill also establishes the possibility of greater articulation and mobility between colleges and universities.
In the coming period there can be little doubt that the shape and functions of higher education institutions and in particular the universities of technology, will be influenced by the maturing FET college sector with the progressive introduction of responsive and modernised programme offerings.
The Bill creates a platform for colleges to respond more adequately to the skills needs of South Africa. It introduces flexibility and focus into the sector. Colleges will become far more effective in addressing our massive skills needs.
It is important to state that the Bill protects educators employed in the college sector.
The Bill proposes that management staff will be appointed by the MEC while all other staff will be employed by the college.
There has been some concern about the employment provisions of the Bill.
The objections have been taken into account in the parliamentary process and I thank the legislatures and this house for the extensive consultation process they have led.
As a result the Bill has been revised to emphasise the protection that all employees have under current labour legislation. Lecturers will continue to be represented in the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) and unions will decide themselves whether to establish a separate bargaining council.
The Bill is not only important to set up a specific statutory platform for colleges. It is also important because our current skills shortage poses the biggest threat to our infrastructure programme.
The Bill lays down the legislative framework for the skills revolution that is underway in our country.
All indicators of economic growth and development in South Africa point to the critical need for skilled artisans in a range of economic sectors. The college sector is the sector that is best placed to teach these skills.
The time for the college sector has come.
Now is the time for employers to look to the college sector for those critical skills they need in the immediate future.
The major development in the college sector in the next three years will be the teaching of modernised programmes.
The new programmes have been developed in consultation with all stakeholders and have won broad support. These new programmes are grouped in to 13 fields and comprise 52 core subjects and many additional specialisations or electives. These can be extended where there is a need.
Colleges have been funded through the FET college recapitalisation fund to upgrade lecturer skills, equipment, infrastructure and IT connectivity.
They have been helped to develop strategic plans and operational plans that align with the local, regional and national priorities. Not all colleges will offer the same range of programmes. They will be expected to respond to local needs (economic and social), but to do so within a framework of national skills development.
What we will see with the passage of this Bill into law is a new beginning for vocational education in South Africa.
The Bill will position colleges to teach the skills that are clearly recognised and identified in the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) and Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA). Colleges will now be in a position to develop as a sector that has its own specific role, function and identity.
The Bill, moreover, creates the space for the development of other institutional forms (referred to in the Act 98 of 1998 but constrained by the limitations of that Act). Thus should the need arise and the objective be clearly defined, there is space for the development of community colleges or workers colleges.
Although there are 50 colleges there are approximately 260 college sites or facilities. Not all of these are viable. Colleges are expected to develop these facilities where there is a need or to relocate the facility where there is no longer a need. This is also part of the benefit of allocating greater responsibility and authority to the college councils and management.
The Bill is designed to enable college councils and management to make colleges a sought after and attractive choice for school leavers and for adult learners.
In closing let me simply say, colleges are a critical part of the nation's response to the challenges of addressing unemployment and poverty. Issued by: Department of Education
17 October 2006
Source: Department of Education
Title: Pandor: Introduction of Further Education and Training Colleges Bill, NCOP
Address by the Minister of Education, Naledi Pandor, MP, introducing the Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges Bill in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), Cape Town
The FET College Bill that the house will hopefully approve today is one of the most significant pieces of legislation in the area of skills development and vocational education.
It is our hope that through this Bill we will lay the basis for South Africa to develop a skills profile that signals a greater correspondence between economic development and human capital.
A few examples indicate the lack of correspondence at the moment. Recent estimates indicate that over the next three years we will be unable to fill 113 000 vacancies in the information technology (IT) networking field alone. In the area of advanced networking technology (internet protocol telephony, security and wireless) around 60 000 posts will be vacant.
South Africa lacks artisans in many sectors. The shortage is growing due to the successful growth of our country's economy. Also noteworthy is the fact that the average age of artisans in South Africa is 54.
The shortage of critical skills has resulted in much poaching as well as very expensive employees.
Government plans to boost petrochemical industries and power generation. This means new skills requirements. The recent boom in commodity prices and other developments all imply an industrial expansion that urgently requires institutions that train individuals with the appropriate skills and in the numbers required by industry and other sectors.
The Bill has to be understood against this backdrop and in relation to the skills training regime we have in South Africa today. There is a plethora of institutions, organisations, businesses and individuals all involved in training. Generally none of the systems work in a co-ordinated and coherent fashion. This is the reason why despite the many excellent efforts skills gaps remain and trainees fail to secure jobs in sectors that critically need skilled practitioners.
The FET Colleges Bill provides the legislative framework to strengthen responsiveness, co-ordination and quality.
In the past six years an important process of restructuring of colleges has been underway but it has not been consolidated in law. It is the aim of the Bill to achieve this goal.
It is important to stress that all countries with successful vocational training programmes have specific legislation for colleges.
The Bill removes ambiguities that have been associated with the 1998 FET Act.
The FET Act of 1998 did not differentiate colleges from high schools offering FET level programmes.
The Bill differentiates schools from colleges.
We have redesigned the college sector so that from next year they will be able to offer intermediate and high-level skills to students from the age of 16 to mature adults. They will be able to give effect to our long held ideal of providing lifelong learning. To fulfil this goal colleges have to be a different type of institution to the FET schools.
To those who fear that we are deviating from our promise to create different types of focus high schools, I confirm today that this objective remains part of our planning.
The 1998 law limits the colleges in a range of ways.
First, currently college staffs are employed under the Employment of Educators Act, the same Act that determines the employment of school-based educators. One of the negative effects of this is that a college has to draw from school vacancy lists as a first source of staff. Thus even if a college is in need of a skilled technical person, it may be required to employ a language educator who is on the vacancy list.
The Bill addresses the situation and places the employment of college lecturers on a sound and secure footing.
Second, colleges are currently obliged to employ educators with educational qualifications. Even where the specific need is for an expert in the field of banking or tool making, colleges have to prefer an expert with an education qualification.
The Bill addresses the situation and makes it possible for colleges to engage the best teachers for the task.
Third, currently FET colleges are designed to teach teenagers and not adults. Colleges keep school time.
The Bill addresses this mischief. Colleges need to be able to offer classes in the evening or on weekends and in facilities that are adult friendly. The Bill addresses the situation so that colleges do not keep school time or terms and are available to both teenagers and adults.
The Bill also establishes the possibility of greater articulation and mobility between colleges and universities.
In the coming period there can be little doubt that the shape and functions of higher education institutions and in particular the universities of technology, will be influenced by the maturing FET college sector with the progressive introduction of responsive and modernised programme offerings.
The Bill creates a platform for colleges to respond more adequately to the skills needs of South Africa. It introduces flexibility and focus into the sector. Colleges will become far more effective in addressing our massive skills needs.
It is important to state that the Bill protects educators employed in the college sector.
The Bill proposes that management staff will be appointed by the MEC while all other staff will be employed by the college.
There has been some concern about the employment provisions of the Bill.
The objections have been taken into account in the parliamentary process and I thank the legislatures and this house for the extensive consultation process they have led.
As a result the Bill has been revised to emphasise the protection that all employees have under current labour legislation. Lecturers will continue to be represented in the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) and unions will decide themselves whether to establish a separate bargaining council.
The Bill is not only important to set up a specific statutory platform for colleges. It is also important because our current skills shortage poses the biggest threat to our infrastructure programme.
The Bill lays down the legislative framework for the skills revolution that is underway in our country.
All indicators of economic growth and development in South Africa point to the critical need for skilled artisans in a range of economic sectors. The college sector is the sector that is best placed to teach these skills.
The time for the college sector has come.
Now is the time for employers to look to the college sector for those critical skills they need in the immediate future.
The major development in the college sector in the next three years will be the teaching of modernised programmes.
The new programmes have been developed in consultation with all stakeholders and have won broad support. These new programmes are grouped in to 13 fields and comprise 52 core subjects and many additional specialisations or electives. These can be extended where there is a need.
Colleges have been funded through the FET college recapitalisation fund to upgrade lecturer skills, equipment, infrastructure and IT connectivity.
They have been helped to develop strategic plans and operational plans that align with the local, regional and national priorities. Not all colleges will offer the same range of programmes. They will be expected to respond to local needs (economic and social), but to do so within a framework of national skills development.
What we will see with the passage of this Bill into law is a new beginning for vocational education in South Africa.
The Bill will position colleges to teach the skills that are clearly recognised and identified in the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) and Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA). Colleges will now be in a position to develop as a sector that has its own specific role, function and identity.
The Bill, moreover, creates the space for the development of other institutional forms (referred to in the Act 98 of 1998 but constrained by the limitations of that Act). Thus should the need arise and the objective be clearly defined, there is space for the development of community colleges or workers colleges.
Although there are 50 colleges there are approximately 260 college sites or facilities. Not all of these are viable. Colleges are expected to develop these facilities where there is a need or to relocate the facility where there is no longer a need. This is also part of the benefit of allocating greater responsibility and authority to the college councils and management.
The Bill is designed to enable college councils and management to make colleges a sought after and attractive choice for school leavers and for adult learners.
In closing let me simply say, colleges are a critical part of the nation's response to the challenges of addressing unemployment and poverty. Issued by: Department of Education
17 October 2006
Advertisement
EMAIL THIS ARTICLE SAVE THIS ARTICLE FEEDBACK
To subscribe email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or click here
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here
