South Africa emerged from colonial-style rule a short ten years ago, in April 1994. The conquest began in earnest with the discovery of gold and diamonds in the mid 1860s. And for over a century the country's economy depended on the export of these commodities, particularly gold. This form of production depended on the existence of a small cadre of highly skilled engineers and other professionals, some skilled craft workers and a large number of people with elementary skills engaged in underground mining. Both professional and craft work were reserved for ‘white' workers (colonial descendents), and the elementary work was essentially forced labour of indigenous people (‘black' workers), kept in place through severe forms of labour control – called apartheid. Underpinning this labour market segmentation was a divided higher education and schooling system with compulsory, quality education for white children and poor quality schooling and little higher education for black children. Industrialisation began in earnest once the political boundaries of the country had been settled in 1910 between competing colonial powers. Skills and jobs continued to be allocated along racial lines and black and white inequalities deepened
When the first democratically elected government came to power in April 1994 its key challenge was to stimulate economic and employment growth and facilitate social development – particularly for the impoverished black majority. It was always recognised that skills had a vital role to play in such a strategy. During the period 1994 to 2001 the government implemented a range of policies to remedy inherited problems within each discrete part of the economic and social fabric of the country, including within the various components of the human resources development system (schooling, higher education, training and research).
In relation to the schooling and the higher education and training system, the focus of the first period was on overcoming past racial divisions: compulsory schooling for black students was introduced; black and white post-school institutions have been merged and rationalised; and there has been a strong focus on improving the quality of provision at all levels. A National Qualification Framework has been introduced to underpin this focus on quality and introduce crosscutting core skills at all levels.
After an extensive period of negotiation between all social partners, a new skills development system was introduced for those directly entering or already in the labour market. The Skills Development Act (1998) has introduced three sets of institutions: the National Skills Authority; twenty-five Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) and restructured employment offices of the Department of Labour. In addition the Skills Development Levies Act (1999) introduced a 1% payroll levy on all private sector firms to resource a new set of training incentives.
The National Skills Authority provides policy and strategy advice to the Minister of Labour. It consists of representatives drawn from organised employers, trade union federations, community organisations, key government departments as well as from post-school education and training providers (both pubic and private).
Built on the ashes of the old apprenticeship institutional architecture, twenty-five new economic sector-based institutions, called Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs), have been introduced, covering the full spread of the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors. These are managed by boards consisting of organised employers and trade unions within the sector as well as government officials from relevant government departments. For example, the Department of Transport is represented on the Transport Education and Training Authority. SETAs are financed from an 80% share of a new 1% national payroll-based training levy – each SETA manages the levies from and grants to employers within its sector within national guidelines.
The remaining 20% share of the levy collected is placed in a National Skills Fund, managed by the Department of Labour, although its spending is influenced by advice from the National Skills Authority. Spending from this National Skills Fund is used to finance training in support of national priorities as well as training for those outside of the formal economy. One third of the Fund is disbursed through the employment centres to communities for training on projects which support sustainable livelihoods.
This system of institutions and incentives is steered by a set of national priorities determined by the Minister of Labour, after receiving advice from the National Skills Authority. He launched the country's first National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS) in February 2001. This NSDS was for the period 2001 to 2005 (see Annex 1)
The NSDS is essentially a statement of five priority beneficiary groups, from five labour market segments: (1) previously disadvantaged workers (requiring general education which they did not receive when young); (2) employers in the formal economy (both private and government); (3) small firms; (4) community and unemployed people; and finally, (5) young new entrants to the labour market. Each group has a set of defined benefits they are intended to enjoy as a result of the strategy, each with measurable indicators against which both monitoring and evaluation can take place. Arriving at this set of objectives and success indicators was a process of intense social negotiation between the different representatives on the National Skills Authority, informed by some research as well as government influence through its representatives on the National Skills Authority.
The performance of all of the SETAs as well as the Department of Labour's own employment offices is managed through the measurement of each agency's annually agreed contribution to the overall NSDS priorities and targets. This process has recently been incorporated into the Skills Development Act itself. Challenges inevitably persist, but significant gains have certainly been made in the first period.
The process of preparing a new National Skills Development Strategy, 2005 – 2009, is well underway. The National Skills Authority has prepared a ‘NSDS II Consultation Draft' on which wide-ranging consultations are currently taking place in each sector of the economy and each province of the country. In addition to being a consultation, it is also an education and mobilisation process. The principal challenge facing the new NSDS is to strengthen its complimentarity with government's broader economic and employment growth and social development strategies. A system of formal agreements between individual SETAs and relevant government departments is planned to meet this challenge, as is direct National Skills Fund funding of training embedded in government's key growth and development programmes.