Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister Dr Blade Nzimande on March 4 said all 21 sector education and training authorities (Setas) have committed to achieving the skills development interventions planned for the 2022/23 financial year, especially those interventions aimed at enabling government's Economic Recovery and Reconstruction Plan (ERRP).

"There is agreement and commitment by Setas to the need to significantly expand the participation of young people in skills development programmes and workplace-based learning opportunities and this is given practical effect in each of their 2022/23 performance plans. The artisans produced are urgently needed to implement the ERRP," he noted during a media briefing following his engagements with the Setas.

The skills development and training intervention also seeks to strengthen and support the district development model aimed at improving the provision of services and socioeconomic development in each of the 44 districts and metros, he added.

COMMUNITY COLLEGES

Further, all Setas committed to using part of their discretionary grants to support the offering of some of their programmes through community education and training sites, most of which are former adult education centres.

"The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) will host a national summit on March 8 and 9 for the community education and training sector to engage strategic partners on using community education and learning centres to massify skills development programme provision," said Nzimande.

The summit would identify priorities for dedicated community education and training infrastructure, accreditation of programmes, lecturer capacity, partnerships and the information management systems for proper monitoring and reporting, he said.

"We are transforming the former adult education centres to community education and learning colleges focusing on a broader range of skills in addition to adult education.

"For example, the Education, Training and Development Practices (ETDP) Seta will offer some of their early childhood development programmes in the colleges, and will also assist through capacity building for the colleges.

"The Finance and Accounting Services SETA will offer financial literacy and entrepreneurial development in some of the colleges," he illustrated.

Further, the DHET is also working to improve lecturer qualifications by offering advanced diplomas in adult and community education and training as part of capacity building. This is being driven by the ETDP Seta and offered by the Durban University of Technology.

"To facilitate this transition from learning to working, we continue to establish partnerships domestically and internationally, as we are doing with the German government, to improve our capacity to train," Nzimande noted.

The DHET and the Setas have committed to ensuring that the South African skills development system will offer more than 100 000 education and training opportunities during the 2022/23 financial year through learnerships, apprenticeships and internships, besides other opportunities, Nzimande said.

Further, the DHET has begun the process of crafting a national skills masterplan to gain a complete picture of the skills the country has and needs and what interventions are necessary to address the gap between them. The process will also promote the development of more efficient and effective mechanisms for country-wide skills planning.

WORKPLACE-BASED BENEFIT

Meanwhile, each of the Setas have committed to place between 500 and 1 500 unemployed technical and vocational education and training (TVET) college graduates within their sectors at workplaces from April 1.

Nzimande said the DHET and the Setas were working to surpass this number, as set out by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his State of the Nation Address, but emphasised that each Seta had to prioritise placing TVET graduates to complete their training and, thereby, facilitate the "all important transition fr...