Posted on July 26, 2011
The need to build capacity and human resources in the heritage sector has long been a cause for concern. While various attempts have been made to do this over the last decade, few have succeeded, or effected meaningful change. In this piece, I consider the proposals outlined in the Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) Heritage Sector Human Resources Development Strategy 2015, in light of earlier initiatives and activities within the Media, Advertising, Publishing, Printing and Packaging Sector education and Training Authority (MAPPP-SETA).
The DAC's Heritage Sector Human Resources Development (HHRD) Strategy 2015 was prepared by Khensani Heritage Consulting and presented at a national consultative workshop on the 14th of July, 2011. This was reportedly a culmination of a heritage skills audit and headcount of professionals in the sector that was undertaken by the Department of Arts and Culture in 2008 and 2009. The HHRD 2015, according to its vision, was designed to develop a highly skilled and competitive workforce capable of contributing to socio-economic change through heritage management and development in South Africa. The consultative workshop attracted participation from the various stakeholders, including government officials from the Department of Science and Technology who have been making inroads in terms of investing in the technical aspects of the sector, through the establishment of a centre for excellence with research chairs. The broadness of the participation was indicative of the awareness by the department of the overlaps that persist between the heritage sector and other sectors.
The 2008/2009 study that the strategy served to address was conducted by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) and was designed to contribute to government's overall commitment to addressing skills deficits in the various sectors of the South African economy. The PWC study entailed the participation of museums, private collections, state agencies, university collections, professional bodies, councils and institutes of scientific research, heritage sites and exhibitions. One of the criticisms leveled at the study was the limited scope in terms of participation, as it was said that the individuals considered for participation did not necessarily represent the sector in its entirety. The results thus provide only a limited view of the scarce and critical skills , as well as priority and current skills for the sector.
The main objectives of the PWC study were to develop a profile of the sector, provide an inventory of the current training, identify, critical, scarce and priority skills in the heritage sector; and to engage strategic role players. The idea then was to devise a strategy to address the challenges; this would be in the form of a Human Resource Development Strategy (HRDS) with clear targets and time frames. The timeframes were to be articulated with skills development legislation, through the National Skills development Strategy (NSDS).
Khensani Heritage Consultants were thus tasked with this function, however, the link between the HRD plan with appropriate Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) and the National Qualifications Framework (NQF), which is essential for the formalisation of training and the recognition of non-academic learning, remains elusive. This could be a result of the changed SETA landscape and also the establishment of the new Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO) that will take over some of the functions of the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA).
At the same time as the PWC study, the Media, Advertising, Publishing, Printing and Packaging Sector education and Training Authority (MAPPP-SETA), faced with disestablishment, opted to conduct research that entailed the development of separate Sector Skills Plans (SSPs) for each of the sub-sectors that the SETA represented. These sub-sectors were Cultural Heritage; Performing Arts; Visual Arts and Advertising; Film and Electronic Media and Printing and Packaging. In terms of Cultural Heritage (which excluded Performing and Visual arts), challenges identified by the MAPPSETA research were obtained from focus group interviews. Focus groups were considered over and above the Sector Skills Planning (SSP) route that requires collection of data from Workplace Skills Plans (WSP) that are submitted by employers to their respective SETAs.
Administrative requirements (such as the WSPs) that are essential for compliance with national legislation are, at times, not effective means for data collection in industries such as the Cultural Heritage sector, which operates on largely informal systems. As a result, a large amount of information from such industries is not considered by the SETAs because their operations fall outside the organised employer/organised labour template that is recognised by the Skills Development Act, in the case of human resource development.
It should be noted here that it is not only in terms of human resources development or skills development that administrative requirements become a challenge for the heritage sectors. This challenge is also evident in terms of the funding landscape, and it could be said that one of the causes of this challenge is the lack of organisation and co-ordination within the sector. There is a persistent lack of scope that defines the sector, the boundaries are often fluid, with sub-sectors, such as the archives, for example, often excluded or overlapping with other sectors.
The scope of Cultural Heritage, according to the MAPPP-SETA focus group, was argued to be inclusive of research institutions (both academic and private organisations) that play a key role in gathering and recording information. The vastness of the scope according to this debate means that cultural heritage falls within a wide range of disciplines, such as archeology, paleontology, anthropology, meteorology and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS). In addition to this, Cultural Tourism was to be also be included in the scope, and this is in the form of rock art, crafts, archaeological heritage, built heritage (architectural), musical heritage, audio-visual heritage, textiles and clothing, natural heritage and reserves, fauna and flora, tangible natural and cultural heritage and museums, exhibitions and cultural centres.
Other related and cross cutting activities that were identified are libraries and archives, manufactured products, administration of locations and places, advertising, publications, the printing industry, tourism, transportation, lodging, restaurants, craft sales, heritage auctions and stores. In conclusion it was said that heritage is specifically used as a mechanism to attract tourists, which is another overlying sub-sector of the industry which needs to form part of the heritage feedback loop.
The PWC skills audit and the headcount, together with the MAPPP-SETA research, thus provided the empirical basis for the current DAC HHRD strategy as presented by Khensani Heritage Consultants. The strategy is therefore aimed at prescribing a package of formal interventions that will serve to address the identified challenges in a timeframe of five years, and this will be aligned to the current National Skills Development Strategy III (NSDSIII) which ends in 2016. The strategy is also to provide a framework for continuous assessment and review of the human resources situation in the sector in the long term, and in this regard, the focus was on:
- Governance;
- Leadership and coordination;
- Training and capacity building; and
- Strengthening institutional capacity for HR planning.
Some of the interventions identified were in the form of bursaries that were to be given to high school graduates, graduates and post-graduates in the sectors. It was announced during the consultative workshop that the department has already started giving out bursaries in support of the sector. Recognition of prior learning (RPL) and engagements with learnerships and apprenticeships were identified as being critical, however, accreditation of training providers was considered a major impediment in this regard. In addition to this, the limited number of qualifications and unit standards were also regarded as being problematic. It was thus recommended by the strategy that the Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) or the National Heritage Council (NHC) takes on the responsibility of standards setting and accreditation of training provision.
It is very unlikely that the Department of Arts and Culture will have the capacity to operate as a quality-assuring body or even serve as a professional body on behalf of its sectors, in their broadest sense. The sectors that the DAC is responsible for have now been split, with the disestablishment of the MAPPP-SETA. Cultural Heritage, Performing Arts and Visual Arts have since joined the Tourism and Hospitality sectors to form CATHSSETA. Film is with Information Technology, that has now become ICTSETA, and the rest with the new Manufacturing SETA that includes Printing and Textiles, among others. This means that the sectors are more fragmented than ever before in terms of the SETA landscape. SETAs are responsible for standard setting and are accredited as ETQAs (Education and Training Quality Assurance) entities. It is also unlikely that the DAC or the NHC will be in a position to take on this function of SETAs that requires accreditation of DAC by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA).
In terms of the new skills development landscape that saw the establishment of the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO), professional bodies will assume a more prominent role in driving skills priorities, in addition to organised labour and organised business. Is this perhaps what the department will seek to pursue - will the DAC opt to serve as a professional body for its sectors, rather than play a role in facilitating the co-ordination and organisation of its sectors? The commissions that were set up during the consultative workshop sought to address some of these questions. Even though the commissions were set up to address the issue of institutionalisation of training, funding for training and also the means to attract and retain skills in the sector, the issue of lobbying and formation of partnerships and organization was also raised.
With respect to the education and training landscape, the standard industrial classification (SIC) code is the most critical point of departure in terms of organisation of sectors into clusters. The SIC codes are allocated to each SETA on establishment or certification of a SETA by the minister of Higher Education and Training. The heritage sector shows many overlapping sub-sectors: in terms of intangible heritage, which is used to promote the tangible aspects contributing to cultural heritage. The SIC codes for Archives, for example, are with the Education and Training Development SETA, while activities related to traditional healing reside with the Health and Welfare SETA, and conservation of the built environment is with the Construction SETA. To change the status quo would certainly require a lot of negotiation and a possible amendment of many constitutions. For this to happen, lobbying is required, however, how does a sector that is so fragmented even begin to imagine itself applying such pressure?
Xolelwa Kashe-Katiya is the Deputy Director of the Archival Platform