NN38, February 2007
Technical and Vocational Skills Development
PRIORITY SKILLS IN SOUTH AFRICA?
By Simon McGrath, University of Nottingham and Salim Akoojee, Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria
KeywordsSouth Africa, Post-basic education and training, Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa
Summary
This article examines the education and training dimensions of South Africa?s new development strategy, the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative (AsgiSA), and highlights the considerable attention given to post-basic education and training (PBET) in this document. Further, it examines some of the challenges South Africa faces in meeting the PBET goals of the AsgiSA.
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In July 2005, President Mbeki announced the launch of the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA), a new development strategy designed to help the South African state meet the ANC?s 2004 election pledges, namely, to:
* halve unemployment;
* halve poverty;
* accelerate employment equity; and
* improve broad-based black economic empowerment.
AsgiSA outlines a very different development path from the current orthodoxy of the Millennium Development Goals and Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers in spite of the common commitment to halving poverty. This difference in approach encompasses the education and skills sector, where post-basic provision is given considerable attention.
AsgiSA has 6 objectives:
1. Infrastructure programmes
2. Sector investment (or industrial) strategies
3. Skills and education initiatives
4. Second economy interventions
5. Macroeconomic issues
6. Public administration issues
The summary document for AsgiSA argued the following about the centrality of education and training to growth:
For both the public infrastructure and the private investment programmes [AsgiSA priorities 1 and 2], the single greatest impediment is shortage of skills?including professional skills such as engineers and scientists; managers such as financial, personnel and project managers; and skilled technical employees such as artisans and IT technicians. (Republic of South Africa, 2006, p. 9)
The AsgiSA plan also introduced a new structure to drive this process: the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA). JIPSA brings together ministers, business leaders, trade unionists and educationalists to identify urgent skills needs and quick and effective solutions. In her speech at the launch of JIPSA, Deputy President Mlambo-Ngcuka identified the following as the key areas of skills shortage to be targeted:
* high level engineering and planning skills for infrastructure development;
* city, urban and regional planning and engineering skills for local and provincial governments;
* artisans and technicians, especially for infrastructure development;
* management and planning skills in the social sectors and for local government;
* teacher training for maths, science and English;
* skills for the priority sectors, especially in project management, general management and finance; and
* skills for local economic development (Mlambo-Ngcuka, 2006).
JIPSA is intended to build on more than a decade of policy and institutional development in education and training. Key elements of this include:
* Curriculum reform throughout the education system, centred on a shift to an outcomes-based model and the introduction of a National Qualifications Framework.
* Higher education reorganisation featuring a ??new institutional landscape?? characterised by mergers and upgrading of technikons to become universities of science and technology, and also a stronger quality assurance system, managed by the Council on Higher Education.
* Further education and training transformation, also featuring institutional mergers but, more recently, focusing on curriculum reform and a recapitalisation programme.
* A new skills development system, driven by two National Skills Development Strategies and featuring a new vocational qualification (the learnership), a levy-grant mechanism and new sector education and training authorities (SETAs).
* Adult basic education and training expansion, with new qualifications and delivery mechanisms and a commitment to the recognition of prior learning.
* An overarching human resources development strategy designed to coordinate the work of the two line departments and other national and provincial departments.
AsgiSA, is well-located in the national context. There are highly plausible, multiple reasons for the South African state?s decision to follow this particular development path with its stress on the centrality of post-basic education and skills and of the state?s leadership role. Without higher growth, and better economic structure and infrastructure, South Africa will not reach its stated goals for poverty and unemployment.
Nonetheless, the challenge of meeting these ambitious goals will not be easy. As far as post-basic education and training are concerned, three particular challenges stand out:
1. how to build robust institutions (including finances and staffing) that can deliver efficiently on education and skills, including public vocational providers and sectoral bodies;
2. how to ensure that provision is relevant to both economic and social needs rather than a reflection of the institutional interests of particular departments; and
3. how to build the skills and culture of the public service rapidly whilst also delivering services.
Of course, it can be argued that it is these kinds of weaknesses that JIPSA and AsgiSA are committed to addressing. However, the point here is to highlight the very serious obstacles that need to be overcome in order for these strategies to succeed.
It is unclear whether the concentration of power over development policy in the hands of the Deputy President will be sufficient to overcome such obstacles. If it is true, as she states, that failure in the human resource and skills development sphere will mean that AsgiSA fails, then the prospects are far from clear.
Whatever the outcome, there are strong reasons for other African countries and development cooperation agencies to follow the South African experiment closely as a valuable new perspective on how to support the internationally accepted goal of halving poverty through interventions in education and training.
[This is an abridged version of a paper to be published in the International Journal of Education and Development during 2007 and already available online from the IJED website (under ?articles in press?).]
References
Mlambo-Ngcuka, P. (2006) Address delivered by the Deputy President, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, at the launch of the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA), Presidential Guest House: Pretoria.
Republic of South Africa (2006) The Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa: a Summary. Government Printer: Pretoria.
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