Lise Pretorius

Greater pressure on Setas

Companies to absorb more trainees

“We need the partnerships between employers, labour and FETs — we have enough money in the system to make a difference”

— BLADE NZIMANDE

Last month’s protests by hundreds of workers at the Medupi power station — which led to a two-week shutdown of construction at the crucial project — is a symptom of a serious affliction: a severe lack of skills.

The unrest was fuelled partly by anger about the number of foreign workers at the site. There should be South Africans in these jobs, the workers said.

The industrial action served only to threaten the completion of the plant on time. Because there is no quick-fix solution, other infrastructure developments could be similarly affected.

The reality is that the construction company Murray & Roberts had no other option but to import skills. Most of the foreign workers, who came from Thailand, were specialised welders. SA just doesn’t have enough people with the required specialist capabilities.

The shortage of skilled artisans has been highlighted by government and is an important area of focus for the department of higher education & training, led by Blade Nzimande

Government’s New Growth Path policy states that by 2015 SA should have 50000 new artisans. Nzimande says the target is likely to be met, and the aim is to train 25000 in 2011.

This year, 169000 students are enrolled in the national certificate (vocational) programme — the theoretical component of training, which has to be completed before practical apprenticeships can begin. The whole training process can take three to four years. However, artisans are just not coming through the system quickly enough.

There are two major stumbling blocks. They relate to the sector education & training authorities (Setas) and the link between the further education & training (FET) colleges and employers. Last year, over 20000 learners who completed theoretical training were unable to find apprenticeships with employers. This means they were not able to take the trade test, the final prerequisite for qualification.

“There’s a lack of commitment and partnership between the public and private sectors,” says Econometrix chief economist Azar Jammine

Part of the problem is that gaining access to the Seta funds is a bureaucratic nightmare. Companies have reported a discouraging amount of red tape and long waits for responses to applications. Nzimande is looking into the possibility of mismanagement of funds by Setas.

Generally, it seems money has been directed towards learnerships, to the detriment of apprenticeships. Learnerships aim to give a more broad-based and transferable qualification than apprenticeships, which provide focused training. Funds have been used mainly for short courses, most of which have been useless in providing the level of skills the industry demands, says Nzimande. (See Features May 20).

But Setas are as much a part of the solution as the problem, says Nzimande. “[They] are sitting on a lot of money that can be used to promote apprenticeships.”

Nzimande plans to restructure the training industry. “We need the partnerships between employers, labour and FETs. We have enough money in the system to make a difference.”

Major companies have now undertaken to identify where they can absorb trainee artisans. If employers honour these commitments, Nzimande says, SA could produce at least 15000 new artisans. Commitments have not yet been finalised, but they will be discussed at a meeting at the end of this month.

Another concern is that fewer than 40% of candidates succeed in obtaining the national certificate. FETs lack sufficiently skilled teachers and access to the newest technologies. Nzimande is working with the National Business Initiative and international business — in one case with Swiss companies — to provide workplace training. The aim is to make the same arrangements with German and Austrian businesses. Companies may be asked to assist with upgrading curricula and even part-time lecturing.

The shortage of artisans is part of a wider issue: that of structural unemployment. The education system is not producing enough graduates with skills that match the economy’s needs. According to Jammine, SA should be creating four times as many technical graduates as academic ones, but the current enrolment rates have almost a one-to-one ratio.

“It’s a perception among all races that you need a university qualification to get ahead,” he says. Rather, SA should be making technical jobs more attractive, and focusing on maths and science development.

The lack of training is due partly to trends in the industry. From 1970 to 2000, civil engineering activity halved, says SA Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors economist Henk Langenhoven At that stage, major power stations and other big projects had been completed, and there was a lull in the industry. The training of artisans declined as a result.

After 2000 the construction industry grew by 20%/year until 2008, according to Langenhoven. There was a mining boom, and large infrastructure projects were undertaken in that decade: the Gautrain, the start of Eskom’s Medupi and Kusile power stations, Durban’s new airport and new stadiums for the soccer World Cup. “It wasn’t possible to just snap your fingers and get trained people,” says Langenhoven.

This is when companies began to bring foreign workers to SA to fill the skills gap. “We had to complete these projects; there was no way we could replenish the skills pipeline without importing,” says Langenhoven.

In response to the need for artisans trade union Solidarity’s Sol-Tech training college was started in 2008. It produces 550 artisans a year. Instead of the traditional system of employers paying for training over two to three years, Sol-Tech does training to third-year level in 10 months. It then looks for employment for its students.

Sol-Tech executive director Paul van Deventer says the model takes the burden of payment away from the companies and transfers it to the students (often parents or family members, though bursaries are available), which should encourage employers to take on these learners.

Companies, too, are training workers. Murray & Roberts will produce 700 artisans at Medupi and 660 at Kusile. Sasol, Natref, Engen, PetroSA, and Chevron have to date trained 1450 artisans specifically to carry out maintenance during scheduled shutdowns.

However, Sasol general manager: global learning Merwe van Pletsen says the amount of training a company provides depends on the capacity it has for this. He says, though, that companies could be more creative in this regard. Also, “it’s one thing getting the training; getting the experience is something else,” he says.

But training local workers may not be the full answer to the problem of providing the skills needed to ensure SA completes its planned infrastructure projects on schedule. Langenhoven says SA should not necessarily use local people in very specialised work. “Even if this were achieved, in most cases such skilled workers would not be able to move with the company, but would be employed on a project basis. Often there would not be a demand for them after the major projects had been completed.”

Langenhoven says efforts should rather be made to train people up to intermediate level (for jobs such as electricians and diesel mechanics). Then there would be a more constant demand for their skills, he argues.

That aside, government and companies have to recognise that they have dropped the ball on skills development, as Cosatu’s general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi warned again last week. As well as leaving the country with a shortage of skilled workers, which could have helped grow the economy, it has left a generation without work.

Source: Financial Mail