The Future of Skills Development in South Africa
Recent comments by the Minister for Higher Education and Training about the possible scrapping of SETAs has sent ripples through the L&D community in South Africa. We can look at this from 2 perspectives – the one is very scary for South Africa and the industry, while the second can be be quite liberating.
The first perspective is that business has become so limited in their their thinking around L&D. It is seen primarily as a cost to the business with little or no tangible ROI. The SETAs, and particularly the option of learnerships, provides a very tangible ROI to companies, which complies with the mentality of most financial managers and directors. Note: I mentioned financial people, not HR or training managers.
This is because the final decision is always a financial one, meaning that training providers and anyone else in the L&D community need to jump through many hoops in order to become a vendor or provider to large corporates. Should the SETAs disappear, then the scary thought of an even more unskilled labour force could become a distinct reality unless business also starts to think about L&D in a very different way.
The second possible outcome is potentially quite liberating, provided we can overcome the issues of poor quality “providers” and companies lacking all knowledge of basic pedagogic knowledge and learning theory flooding the market. This approach could very well result in training managers and, dare i say it, financial managers looking at the corporate learning line item on the balance sheet as more than just an expense, but rather as an investment in employees, the future of the company and the future of the South African economy.
The second possible outcome is potentially quite liberating, provided we can overcome the issues of poor quality “providers” and companies lacking all knowledge of basic pedagogic knowledge and learning theory flooding the market. This approach could very well result in training managers and, dare i say it, financial managers looking at the corporate learning line item on the balance sheet as more than just an expense, but rather as an investment in employees, the future of the company and the future of the South African economy. More companies will conduct proper training needs anaylses rather than relying on the broader Sector Skills Plan of a particular SETA, which at times negates individual and more specific needs that cut across sectors. It could very well force businesses to be more proactive in the L&D process and to forge true partnerships with training providers rather than see them as a bottomless hole to dump their required skills spend.
Qhuconsult has worked exceptionally well with many of the SETAs and we were privileged to be a part of an employer/provider forum yesterday hosted by the MERSETA. Having experienced the good and the bad firsthand, I would personally wish for a balanced approach between the two. The SETAs and the concept of the SETAs, in my eyes, are an exceptionally valuable development in the L&D landscape. The management of the SETAs at various levels, however, has ranged from excellent to absolutely abysmal. The lack of consistency between SETAs has also been exceptionally detrimental to businesses and providers alike. Ideally we need to keep the structures of the SETAs, have them run like businesses, not failing parastatals, and at the same time generate the interest and impetus in L&D at the corporate level that has been lacking. Once this happens (and I know I am being idealistic here) we will begin to look like we are on a good wicket.