South Africa is in need of increased high-level integration of the country’s multiple programmes, policies and strategies to better align skills development initiatives with workplace demand, Production Management Institute (PMI) executive director for strategy John Botha said on Thursday.

Botha, who was commenting on Higher Education and Training Minister Dr Blade Nzimande’s Green Paper for post school education and training, released last month, said integration was critical, as all  government programmes fed into the national development goals in some way.

Programmes such as the National Skills Development Strategy 3, the Human Resource Development Strategy for South Africa, the New Growth Path, the National Development Plan, the Artisan Development Technical Task Team and others already have their own targets, and all these should be aligned and incorporated into one comprehensive plan.

“Workplace demand and closer links between government and business are essential if skills development and job creation projects in South Africa are to have an impact.”

Botha said there was a widely held perception that a matric certificate is the definitive school-leaving qualification, and when combined with a degree, guaranteed an individual a job.

“This is highly erroneous. The misperception around ‘matric plus degree’ as the ultimate qualification is not only out of sync with what business and industry so desperately needs from South Africa’s education system, it is also simply not sustainable,” he said.

While Botha commended the spirit of the Green Paper in its bid to address significant policy and systemic flaws within the post-school education and training system, Botha said that there was an absence in the document of clear policy around demand-driven skills development.

“We urgently need an integrated national human capital plan for South Africa, which would serve as a considered, strategic intervention to achieve an education and training system closely aligned to the real demands of the economy.

“The plan should address the full cycle of the human capital value chain, comprising early childhood development, general education and training, further education and training, higher education and training, including programmes for semiskilled workers (employed or unemployed), skilled/technical staff, skilled junior management, middle management, senior management, and top management,” Botha said.

Another critical element of such an integrated plan would be to set quantitative yearly targets across all levels to measure the progress.

He said the demand-driven strategy, coupled with appropriate funding mechanisms, would result in a number of benefits, such as reduced vulnerability to unemployment, more experiential employment and career development opportunities being created,greater domestic demand and more competitive exports being achieved.

“Resultant economic growth and therefore a decrease in poverty and inequality would naturally follow on,” Botha affirmed.

Meanwhile, Botha emphasised the urgency of fast-tracking initiatives that could take place in the short term. He said the process ‘from Green Paper to policy’ would no doubt be protracted.

“We urgently need to see the release of funds from the Sector Education and Training Authorities (Setas) and the National Skills Fund so that public and private providers can start with their work. Minister Nzimande acknowledged in the Green Paper that the levy-grant institutions, such as the Setas, are poorly coordinated and that ‘very little of the skills-levy funding has been used to pay for education in the public universities and colleges’,” Botha said.

He added that youngsters needed clear and accurate information about the different learning options they could pursue when entering the Further Education and Training (FET) band of education at the end of grade 9. “A lot more work needs to be done to market FET colleges as institutions of choice,” he concluded.