Posted on September 21, 2009
Uthando
Much has been said and written about the learnerships funded and administered by the Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) across the various sectors and industries. It is difficult not to acknowledge the huge strides that have been made by some SETAs in addressing the skills shortage in their sectors. And yet, one cannot also ignore the challenges that remain in addressing the skills training needs in all sectors of our economy. All SETAs operate in support of the National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS II). The NSDS is a nationally adopted framework for skills development that provides five year targets for all statutory skills development agencies to achieve. Phrased as a series of objectives, each one has a numerical target and a success indicator attached. Each SETA commits to meeting a share of these targets on an annual basis through a service level agreement with the Department of Labour (which will now be with the Department of Higher Education and Training once the transition process has been completed).
In the Heritage sector there are two learnerships being offered by various service providers accredited by the MAPPP-SETA, Heritage Practice (at NQF Level 4) and Heritage Resource Management (at NQF Level 5). A few hundred students have already completed the Heritage Practice Learnerships across the country. The Heritage Resource Management Learnership, being a recently registered qualification with the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA), has recently admitted the first cohort of students. Many of these students are currently not working and are not based at heritage institutions. How are they then expected to learn how to manage heritage resources? Museums and other heritage institutions have clearly not come to the party and are often reluctant to take on students on a work-based learning basis citing the drain on time, capacity and resources. Can we blame them when there is really no adequate support and/or funding from the responsible government agencies? The MAPPP-SETA has its hands full trying to ensure that appropriate learning materials are being developed with effective and complaint standards, correct assessment mechanisms and evaluation processes. This results in it being stretched thin in terms of capacity, making it even more challenging for the MAPPP-SETA to track the adequately the post-learnership fortunes of its students. Anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that very few students gain employment after the learnerships and only a handful of exceptional students go on to greater heights within the sector.
A large majority of the training providers for the Heritage Practice Learnerships, and the only accredited training provider for the Heritage Management Learnerships, are based in Gauteng. This presents a daunting challenge as it increases the costs attached to training students in remote parts of the country where it's sorely needed. Even potential students in urban areas do not have many opportunities to enroll in these learnerships as there is not enough support from government agencies and heritage institutions. Practitioners in the sector often say they don't want to deal with the SETAs as the prevailing perception is that they are ineffectual and 'take up too much time with their never ending surveys and skills audits'. This might be true but have we really given the SETAs and our own MAPPP-SETA a fair hearing? It is true that the MAPPP-SETA has experienced some internal problems that have necessitated an external auditor to be brought in but I also think that there has not been enough buy in from the different sectors that the MAPPP-SETA serves. Too many sectors were lumped together under the MAPPP-SETA umbrella. This has made its difficult for the MAPPP-SETA to be effective across all the various sectors (media, advertising and visual arts, film and electronic media, cultural heritage, publishing, printing and packaging sectors) that it serves. Some sectors have been more organised when it comes to skills training and the learnerships. The heritage sector has lagged far behind. Only a handful of heritage institutions are accredited to be training providers, only one local municipality and the rest a disparate bunch of one-man (or woman) shows, small and medium-sized outfits.
How can we then say that we are taking education and training seriously in the sector, especially with the 2010 World Cup on the horizon? It seems training has, as far as the World Cup is concerned, primarily focused on training tourism and hospitality workers in order to the prepare for the influx of tourists that are expected next year. Heritage institutions have to take the lead in making sure that their lower skilled staff, those that have not trained at a institution of higher learning, have training beyond the tour guide certificates. There are also many workers in heritage institutions that have years of experience working in different capacities but have had no formal training. How do we recognize their prior learning in the heritage sector when it has proved extremely difficult to develop adequate mechanisms to implement the Recognition of Prior Learning in other sectors and at public higher education institutions? These workers also often view these learnerships with skepticism and often feel that their positions are being threatened by these students as they have no formal training which result in them being reticent and being barriers to the training of these students. The SETA are required to promote lifelong learning but how is this possible where highest level at which the learnerships are pegged is NQF Level 5. How are we then supposed to encourage and facilitate specialised training that is accredited and certified and is often required in the sector?
I would argue that we cannot just leave it up to the MAPPP-SETA, in the case of the heritage sector, to take the lead in the developing of training interventions. All stakeholders need to be involved in the development of learning materials, the generation of standards, assessment and evaluation processes. The development of curricula has to also take cognisance of the ever evolving heritage landscape and be responsive to the skills needs of the sector. It is of course hoped that with establishment of the new Department of Higher Education and Training, which will see the SETAs moving from the Department on Labour to join the new Department, there will be a better alignment of the skills strategy of government. This is also evidenced by the move of the Further Education and Training Colleges in the old Department of Education to the new Department, which target vocational and occupational learning pathways for unemployed youth. Much then depends of this better alignment of government's skills strategy, as it will be then that we can truly assess if - through more research, data collection and analysis - training interventions in the SETAs are filling the gaps presented by the skills shortages in our economy. What is required is greater co-operation, collaboration and partnerships amongst stakeholders to ensure that we begin to address this huge impediment to our development as a country.
Uthando Baduza, Research Fellow (Policy and Development Support) at the Department of Higher Education and Training and a PhD Candidate (Arts Education & Management) at the Wits School of Arts, writes in his personal capacity.