We read often about the skills revolution initiated by the democratic government in South Africa since 1994. And, 13 years into democracy, it is important to revisit the notion and see where and whether the revolution has taken place.
Careful analysis of South Africa’s human resource development strategy shows that in many respects it is one of the most ambitious and best of any country in the world.
There are a number of elements of the strategy that are path-breaking. The establishment of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) under the aegis of the South African Qualifications Authority (Saqa) was a revolution in educational thinking in 1995. The promulgation of the Skills Development Act and the Employment Equity Act between 1998 and 2000 was pioneering.
The policy framework gives the potential to create a learning pathway for every individual in the country, regardless of historical background. But revolutionary as the framework was, in many aspects it was ahead of its time in its intent to create an integrated qualification system. It is only now, 10 years later, that the full structure required to give it substance is being put in place.
There is no doubt it has been difficult to implement the laws. Though there are many reasons for this, there is one powerful contributing mindset that we carry: as a nation we have not accepted or understood the intellectual parity between academic knowledge and learning, and workplace knowledge and learning.
Head of Saqa Sam Isaacs talks of the “parity of esteem” that should exist between various qualification frameworks, notably between academic qualifications and occupationally directed qualifications.
Although this is something we might reach in time, in the minds of most people a university degree, regardless of its content, has far more value than experiential learning or workplace-based learning.
Companies reportedly recognise an institution-based qualification, such as matric or a degree, far more readily than a learnership qualification developed through sector education and training authorities (Setas).
To understand the reasons behind the policy framework, we need to recognise that knowledge is produced in many different environments and is no longer limited to the higher academic echelons of research in universities.
The imminent establishment of the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations is recognition by government of the shortcomings in human resource development.
The council challenges the intellectual control of institutionalised education by developing qualifications from NQF level one to NQF level 10 in a structure other than within the department of education. Now it will be possible to create qualifications that link to occupations directly. The council will report to the department of labour.
The implication of this is that it will be possible to establish the intellectual equivalence between occupationally directed qualifications and learning and those in formal institutions of education.
Scarce and critical skills
Scarce and critical skills are buzzÂwords in South Africa today. It is safe to say that these will be addressed only in environments where those skills can be codified, defined and placed in qualifications that lead to their amelioration.
At the same time it is a fact that recognition of prior learning, which has struggled to gain a foothold in South African educational thinking, is addressed far more readily within an occupationally directed qualifications framework.
It is in this environment of actually doing the job that people have learned and developed the kinds of skills that make them employable.
There has been robust debate under way on the future of Setas, touching on the possible reduction in number, their viability and their relevance. Setas are responsible for the codification of the knowledge base in their sectors. The quality council is the vehicle they have lacked to give intellectual impetus and recognition to their work.
It is up to the Setas now to establish their real authority as the intellectual powerhouses of workplace-based or occupationally directed qualifications frameworks.
That implies immediately that their boards need to be properly prepared, inducted and audited and their chief executives need to have the intellectual status afforded by qualifications in the arenas in which they preside and that all staff should be placed in suitably designed qualifications and learnerships.
If that is done — efficiently, effectively and rapidly — we can begin to realise the wonderful potential wrapped up too long in this vibrant society that is South Africa.
Professor Merlyn Mehl is executive chairperson of Triple L Academy