Sector education and training authorities (Setas) will now be required to enter into service level agreements with the Department of Labour to ensure that they perform optimally.
Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana will also have powers to intervene and take necessary steps if he thinks the Setas are not up to standard.
These are some of the changes that will be brought about by the Skills Development Amendment Bill.
Earlier this year, after the Cabinet lekgotla, President Thabo Mbeki highlighted the need for South Africans to acquire skills in various sectors of the economy, such as finance, as crucial to the development of the country.
Mdladlana was among the first to accept that the much-vaunted skills revolution has not taken off as spectacularly as was anticipated. It was therefore inevitable that things were not going to remain the same for long.
The Setas are tasked with implementing skills development in various sectors of the economy including education, finance and science.
A total of 2,3-million workers went through such programmes last year. But both Mdladlana and his Director General Rams Ramashia have been dissatisfied with the performance of some of the Setas.
‘The amendments give me the right to fix the problems that have arisen, so that the skills revolution can accelerate apace without being drawn back by the negative publicity that the bad apples inevitably attract,” Mdladlana said at the tabling of the Bill in Parliament last month.
The amended law requires Setas to conclude service level agreements with the labour department director general. The Bill will increase the minister’s powers and to clarify the Setas’ financial management obligations.
This means that the minister will be able take the steps that he deems necessary if a Seta is not performing to standards it bound itself to in the agreement.
Regarding the Setas’ financial management obligations, the new law will empower the minister to set a limit on the funds that the Setas can use for administrative purposes.
‘You will see in these amendments a new obligation on all Setas to enter into service level agreements with the Department of Labour that set out performance outcomes, with a course of action that must be taken by the minister should any Seta fail to meet its obligations in terms of these agreements.
‘For example, I shall have the power to instruct Setas to remedy a problem, and if they fail to do so, then this will itself constitute grounds for the takeover of their administration,” Mdladlana said.
The new Bill proposes that powers be given to the director general to deregister and close private employment agencies who act unscrupulously, and the introduction of an intermediate agency to oversee learnerships.
Beyond changing how Setas operate, Mdladlana said in August that the Bill was meant to have a greater social impact.
‘Skills development and employment equity can be seen as the cornerstones of good human resource practice in South Africa today and together they contribute to enhanced performance of enterprises and improvements in the quality of working life.
‘Throughout the world, education and training and equitable working practices are recognised as essential ingredients to compete successfully and to ensure what the International Labour Organisation has referred to as high performance working practices,” Mdladlana added.
‘For those who were denied access to skills and opportunities in the past, and continue to suffer the ramifications of such discriminatory practises, the Employment Equity Act is aimed at ensuring that their full potential is developed and realised. We therefore must ensure that opportunities open up for them to participate fully in our economy,” he said.
The minister said Setas had done well but could perform even better. ‘In the five years that have passed since this law was passed [the Skills Development Act], literally millions of people have been trained under its banner. With the training they have received we believe that the productivity and competitiveness of their workplaces has been improved as well as their own employment security and prospects.
‘In addition, hundreds of thousands of unemployed people have also been trained to find work in the formal labour market, to create their own income generating opportunity.
‘The amendments set out to remedy the challenges that have had to be faced in the process of implementation. While many of the achievements are the product of hard work on the part of many of the Setas, it is a matter of public record that some of the Setas have not worked well.”
Highlighting the problems, Ramashia told the portfolio committee on labour why the legislation is necessary.
‘The department has been facing challenges with regard to some Setas, as some did not achieve their 2002/03 targets as per their business plans, isolated instances of fraud and corruption and not all Seta boards playing an optimal strategic and oversight role,” said Ramashia.
The Bill is aimed at strengthening provisions of the Skills Development Act of 1998. That legislation was enacted with the aim of providing an institutional framework to devise and implement national, sector and workplace strategies to develop and improve the skills of the South African workforce.
The 1998 law was also established to integrate those strategies within the National Qualifications Framework. This framework is itself a component of the South African Qualifications Authority Act of 1995, which provides for learnerships that lead to recognised occupational qualifications.
The Skills Development Amendment Bill and the Unemployment Insurance Amendment Bill were unanimously passed by the National Assembly in September. The Bills will now be referred to the National Council of Provinces for concurrence.
They will come into operation once the president has signed them into law and they have been published in the Government Gazette.