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Plan for Facilitation

PLAN AND PREPARE FOR FACILITATION

2.1 Sector and Workplace Skills Plans

The Skills Development Act (Act No. 97 of 1998) and the Skills Development Levies Act

 

(Act No. 9 of 1999) require SETAs to comply with the following:

Develop a sector skills plan
Implement the sector skills plan
Promote, develop and administer learner ships
Support the implementation of the NQF
Undertake quality assurance
Disburse levies collected from employers in their sector
Report to the Director General and to SAQA

 

These acts require employers to:

Register with the South African Revenue Service (SARS) to pay the Skills

Development Levy, equivalent to 1% of total annual remuneration

Register a Skills Development Facilitator (SDF) with the relevant SETA
Submit a Workplace Skills Plan (WSP) to the relevant SETA
Implement the Workplace Skills Plan (WSP)
Submit levy grant claims to the SETA as per the provisions of the Funding
Regulations to access a percentage of the skills development levy, which is intended to promote skills development.

PLAN AND PREPARE FOR FACILITATION

This legal framework and the National Skills Development Strategy are intended to encourage employers to comply with legislation and, by so doing:

Contribute to the development of a culture of learning,
Help to create a competitive and productive work environment, and
Stimulate growth and employment in a sustainable way.

 

Employers are also required to consult representative structures when compiling their Workplace Skills Plan. The process of consultation must include:

An allowance for trade unions to participate in and conduct audits and needs assessments for their members.
The disclosure of necessary information as may be requested by trade unions subject to the terms of the LRA.
Consultation in departments, sections, or at Labour Forum level before referral to central structures.

The purpose of a Workplace Skills Plan, therefore, is to provide employers with a structured plan which should help them to ensure that skills development is encouraged and takes place at enterprise level.

PLAN AND PREPARE FOR FACILITATION

Workplace Skills Plans also provide the SETA with critical quantitative and qualitative information that enables it:

To understand the profile and composition of the sector;
To determine skills requirements and priorities across the sector;
To develop a clear picture of areas where there is a high demand for skills development – pinpointing areas where Learner ship and Skills Programmes should be developed.

 

The Workplace Skills Plans submitted by enterprises across the sector therefore serve as one of the primary sources of statistical information and data available to the SETA in the development of its Sector Skill Plan.

Workplace Skills Plan in summary is:

A plan developed every year at enterprise level that describes an organisation’s training and skills development strategy that will help it to meet its overall objectives and targets;
A key source of information about the sector – in terms of demographics, existing qualifications, and training and development priorities for the forthcoming year;
A document that will inform the SETA’s strategic priorities in the development of its Sector Skills Plan

 

IN SUMMARY

NATIONAL SKILLS PLAN

(On Government level)

Retail Sector Skills Plan

Financial Sectors Skills Plan

Mining Sectors Skills Plan

Company 1

Workplace Skills Plan

Company 2

Workplace Skills Plan

Company 3

Workplace Skills Plan

Company 4

Workplace Skills Plan

Company 5

Workplace Skills Plan

Company 6

Workplace Skills Plan

2.2 OUTCOME BASED EDUCATION

What is outcome based education & training?

PLAN AND PREPARE FOR FACILITATION

The initial principle of OBET is that we should describe education and training programs in terms of measurable exit outcomes we want learners to attain. In HET (and other workplace orientated educational sectors) these outcomes would derive from:

Entry level professional expectations (specific knowledge, skills and attitudes needed for entry level into the world of work)
The Critical Cross Field Outcomes (the general knowledge, skills and attitudes needed for entry level into the world of work – see below for these)
Current and future trends in the world of work (e.g. globalisation with its need for flexibility and innovation in the workplace and society)
Institutional focus

These exit level outcomes are too large to be assessed ‘in one go’ so they are broken down into smaller, more measurable outcomes.

2.3 WHAT ARE OUTCOMES?

Outcomes are demonstrations of learning. They are general in that they either sum up a group of other outcomes or a group of tasks.

Outcomes can demonstrate very general life and work skills such as:

Solve problems

General occupational skills such as:

Sell products (retail management)
Relate engineering activity to environmental problems (engineering)

More focussed occupational or learning skills such as:

Approach customers and establish needs (retail management)
Relate a local environmental issue to a theoretical issue (engineering)

When we assess outcomes we must make sure that we assess applied competence and that we assess attitudes and values. Attitudes and values typically refer to willingness to work in a group and a hierarchy and to listen and respect the opinions of others, being willing and confident to do tasks, being willing to learn from mistakes and from others (rather than giving up), being culturally sensitive and being environmentally sensitive, amongst others. Many of these attitudes/values are reflected in the CCFOs.

The Critical Cross Field Outcomes
Solve problems
Collect, analyse and organise information
Plan and organise one’s own and other’s activities
Communicate effectively, including mathematically and graphically
Work with others in teams
Participate responsibly in communities
Use technology
Learn from experiences/learn to learn more effectively
Show responsibility to others and the environment
Develop entrepreneurial abilities
Be culturally sensitive

PLAN AND PREPARE FOR FACILITATION

2.4 STAKEHOLDERS INVOLVED IN THE WORKPLACE SKILLS PLAN PROCESS

Stakeholders are a group or individuals that are affected by and/or have an interest in the operations and objectives of the business. All the relevant stakeholders must be involved in the process in order to conduct a workplace skills plan within the organisation.

The importance of stakeholders is to support an organisation in achieving its strategic objectives by interpreting and influencing both the external and internal environments and by creating positive relationships with stakeholders through the appropriate management of their expectations and agreed objectives. Stakeholder Management is a process and control that must be planned and guided by underlying Principles.

Stakeholder Management, within business or projects, prepares a strategy utilising information (or intelligence) gathered during the following common processes:
Stakeholder Identification – Interested parties either internal or external to organisation/project. Stakeholder Analysis – Recognise and acknowledge stakeholder’s needs, concerns, wants, authority, common relationships, interfaces and align this information within the Stakeholder Matrix.
Stakeholder Matrix – Positioning stakeholders according to the level of influence, impact or enhancement they may provide to the business or its projects.
Stakeholder engagement – It is primarily focused at getting to know and understand each other, at the Executive level. Engagement is the opportunity to discuss and agree expectations of communication and, primarily, agree a set of Values and Principles that all stakeholders will abide by
Communicating Information – Expectations are established and agreed upon the manner in which communications are managed between stakeholders – who receives communications, when, how and to what level of detail. Protocols may be established including security and confidentiality classifications.)