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We the social partners representative of the Post-School Education and
Training System, gathered at Irene on 9th and 10th September, commit to
achieving the Presidential outcome of a skilled and capable workforce to
support an inclusive growth path.
1. Noting that:
1.1. Since 1994, we have made some progress in the development of skills
to meet the aspirations of our people and the needs for skills for social
and economic development.
1.2. The creation of a single Department of Higher Education and Training
provides a firm basis for addressing the challenges of education and
training in a way which integrates education and training.
1.3. Skills shortages exist in a number of occupations and economic
sectors. Importantly, this fact co-exists with a relatively high level of
unemployment. It is clear that there is a mismatch between the supply of and
demand for skills in the South African labour market as well as an urgent
need to expand employment opportunities.
1.4. Many South African learners are ill-prepared to undertake further
learning when they leave school and cannot access post-school education and
training opportunities.
1.5. A low-skill, low-productivity, low-wage economy is unsustainable in
the long term and is incompatible with poverty reduction. This is the
vicious circle of inadequate education, poor training, low productivity and
poor quality jobs and low wages that traps the working poor and excludes
workers without relevant skills from participating in economic growth and
social development in the context of globalization.
1.6. A large number of youth and adults are not in employment, education
or training with poor educational foundation. These South Africans are
overwhelmingly black and from the poor and working class.
1.7. As a member of the ILO we are committed to upholding all conventions
to which we are a signatory.
1.8. Education, vocational training and lifelong learning are central
pillars of employability, employment of workers and sustainable enterprise
development within the Decent Work Agenda, and thus contribute to achieving
the Millennium Development Goals to reduce poverty.

2. Believing that:
2.1. Our development agenda remains the central focus of public policy and
forms the basis of collective endeavour in all spheres of our society.
Intractable and urgent challenges remain. These include:
2.1.1. Poverty;
2.1.2. Unemployment;
2.1.3. Income inequality;
2.1.4. Threats to social cohesion;
2.1.5. Ongoing demographic inequities (race, gender, disability, age,
class and geographic);
2.1.6. The impact of globalization; and
2.1.7. The impact of HIV and AIDS.
2.2. The human being is at the centre of all development activities; and
that human resources are an essential means of achieving economic, social
and development goals. Interventions in human resource development therefore
represent an essential contribution to promoting the country's development
agenda.
2.3. Skills development is an essential factor for achieving the objective
of decent work both by increasing the productivity and sustainability of the
enterprise and for improving working conditions and the employability of
workers. Effective skills development requires a holistic approach. This
approach encompasses the following features:
2.3.1. continuous and seamless pathways of learning that start with
pre-school and primary education that adequately prepares young people for
secondary and higher education and vocational training; that provide career
guidance, labour market information, and counseling as young women and men
move into the labour market; and that offer workers and entrepreneurs
opportunities for continuous learning to upgrade their competencies and
learn new skills throughout their lives;
2.3.2. development of core skills - including literacy, numeracy,
communication skills, teamwork and problem-solving and other relevant skills
- and learning ability - as well as awareness of workers' rights and an
understanding of entrepreneurship as the building blocks for lifelong
learning and capability to adapt to change;
2.3.3. development of higher level skills - professional, technical and
human resource skills to capitalize on or create opportunities for
high-quality or high-wage jobs;
2.3.4. portability of skills is based firstly on core skills to enable
workers to apply knowledge and experience to new occupations or industries
and secondly on systems that codify, standardize, assess and certify skills
so that levels of competence can be easily recognized by social partners in
different labour sectors across national, regional or international labour
markets; and
2.3.5. employability (for wage work or self employment) results from
all these factors - a foundation of core skills, access to education,
availability of training opportunities, motivation, ability and support to
take advantage of opportunities for continuous learning, and recognition of
acquired skills - and is critical for enabling workers to attain decent work
and manage change and for enabling enterprises to adopt new technologies and
enter new markets.
2.4. The development of our human resources is a collective responsibility
of government, organised business, organised labour, community
representatives, professional bodies, research, education and training
institutions and skills development intermediaries.
2.5. Educational inequality is a fundamental component of social and
economic inequality. Education and Training opportunities must therefore
reduce rather than exacerbate the inequalities in our society.
2.6. We have an opportune moment to institute significant changes which
will lay the foundation of the new system of delivering a post-school
education and training system.
2.7. We must produce the skills which are adapted to our particular
industrial development trajectory and technology platform needs. We need a
more effective alignment of a differentiated skills development strategy and
industrial policy, guided by the sectoral conditions with strong
articulation and progression.
2.8. We need to transform learning provision for young people and adults
by providing broader, more flexible options matched by enhanced support and
guidance with a wider choice of options to make sure that their choices give
them the skills they need to access and progress.
2.9. The post-school education and training system must be supported by an
institutional base that is both diverse and differentiated and responsive to
communities as well as being conceptualized as an integrated and coherent
whole in which meaningful learning pathways are developed across
institutional and workplace education and training forms, including
recognition of prior learning.
3. We therefore as government and our social partners in organised
business, organized labour, community representatives, professional bodies,
research, education and training institutions and skills development
intermediaries resolve to work together to build a "skilled and capable
workforce to support an inclusive growth path" by
3.1. The establishment of a credible institutional mechanism for skills
planning that will take place via the development of frameworks for
standardization and cooperation and the Development of systems and system
interfaces;
3.2. Increasing access to programmes leading to intermediate and high
level learning, by:
3.2.1. Providing young people and adults with foundational learning
qualifications;
3.2.2. Increasing ABET level 4 entrants;
3.2.3. Improving NC(V) success rates;
3.2.4. Creating "second-chance" bridging programmes (leading to a
matric equivalent) for the youth who do not hold a senior certificate; and
3.2.5. Providing a range of learning options to meet the demand of
those adults and youth with matric but do not meet requirements for
university entrance.
3.3. Increasing access to occupationally-directed programmes for adults
and youth in needed areas and thereby expand the availability of
intermediate level skills (with a special focus on artisan skills) through:
3.3.1. Increasing artisan production in line with industry needs and
the needs of our development state;
3.3.2. Putting in place measures to improve the trade test pass rate in
line with industry needs and the needs of our development state;
3.3.3. Increasing the number of learners on artisanal and other
immediate programmes;
3.3.4. Establishing a system to distinguish between learnerships up to
and including level 5, and level 6 and above;
3.3.5. Increasing the number of unemployed people, especially young
people, entering learnerships; and
3.3.6. Increasing the number of workplace learning opportunities for
those who have completed vocational programmes, such as the ‘N' or NCV
programmes, through the provision of appropriately restructured
learnerships, internships or apprenticeships.
3.4. Increasing access to high level occupationally-directed programmes
for adults and youth in needed areas in order to increase graduate
production in all scarce skills areas and in particular the areas of:
3.4.1. Engineering Sciences;
3.4.2. Animal Health;
3.4.3. Human Health;
3.4.4. Natural and Physical Sciences; and
3.4.5. Teacher Education.
3.5. Increasing research and innovation in human development for a growing
knowledge economy by:
3.5.1. Increasing the output of:
3.5.1.1. Honours graduates;
3.5.1.2. Research Masters;
3.5.1.3. Doctoral graduates; and
3.5.1.4. Post-doctoral students.
3.5.2. Providing increased support to industry-university partnerships;
and
3.5.3. Increasing investment in research and development, especially in
the science, engineering and technology sector.
3.6. Increasing access to education and training of the those with
disabilities, and increasing access of women and of South Africans from the
poor, the unemployed and the working class;
3.7. Addressing the scourge of HIV and AIDS in all of our interventions in
education and training; and
3.8. Through a differentiated system which values equally all parts of the
system.

SIGNED:

DR B Nzimande Minister HET
______________________________________________________

ADULT LEARNING NETWORK
______________________________________________________

ASSOCIATION OF PRIVATE PRIVIDERS OF EDUCATION TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

____________________________________________________________________________
__

BUSINESS UNITY SOUTH AFRICA
__________________________________________________

COMMUNITY________________________________________________________________

COSATU ___________________________________________________________________

COUNCIL FOR HIGHER
EDUCATION_________________________________________________

DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY______________________________________

FEDUSA____________________________________________________________________

FET COLLEGES EMPLOYERS
ORGANISATION___________________________________________

HIGHER EDUCATION SOUTH
AFRICA________________________________________________

NACTU ____________________________________________________________________

NATIONAL RESEARCH FOUNDATION
________________________________________________

NATIONAL SKILLS AUTHORITY
____________________________________________________

QUALITY COUNCIL FOR TRADES AND OCCUPATIONS
___________________________________

SETA CEO FORUM _____________________________________________________________

SOLIDARITY
__________________________________________________________________

SOUTH AFRICAN COLLEGES PRINCIPALS ORGANISATION
________________________________

SOUTH AFRICAN TECHNOLOGY NETWORK____________________________________________

SOUTH AFRICAN QUALIFICATIONS AUTHORITY
________________________________________

UMALUSI __________________________________________________________________