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Transcript of Literature Review Paper
Contents Page
1 Introductionhelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip 2
2 The History on developing artisans The Apprenticeshipsrsquohelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip 4
3 The Skills Development Act The birth of Learnerships helliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip 8
4 The context of Learnerships helliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip 10
5 Learnerships in the construction industry to date helliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip 12
6 Constraints encountered within Learnerships helliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip 14
7 Attracting and recruiting the Youth in becoming Artisans helliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip 18
9 Conclusion helliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip 19
10 Bibliography helliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphelliphellip 20
1
Introduction
South Africa has received international acclaim and recognition for having successfully
dismantled the previous apartheid system and replaced it with a democratic order this was a
monumental task which our new government tackled with distinction (Kunene 2006) But
despite this progress low levels of skills among the majority of the formerly disadvantaged
population and high unemployment rates especially among youths (age 15-24) still remain the
countryrsquos most pressing concerns and greatest problem towards a better future for all
(Mummenthey 2008)
The learnership system which was introduced by the Skills Development Act in 1998 was
thought to be a creative vehicle (Davies et al 2004) to tackle these problems in two significant
ways first by enhancing skills levels in a workplace-oriented environment and second by
providing learners with employment during the phase of acquiring recognised occupational
training A research study conducted by Mummenthey (2008) found that since its actual
implementation in 2000 the system has not always been able to meet up to its expectations Low
enrolment rates and a slow employer take up characterize the system in most sectors This is
particularly true for the construction sector which is perceived as an escalator industry for skills
development by the government (Erasmus et al 2009) as the industry requires fairly basic and
intermediate skills Moreover the industry provides the necessary infrastructure for all other
economic sectors and is therefore critical for the countryrsquos future economic growth and
international competitiveness The low employer take-up in the sector seems to be persistent
despite the fact that the industry is currently experiencing huge constraints in terms of skills
most importantly in carrying out the infrastructural projects connected to the governmentrsquos
Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative (AsgiSA) This included R372 billion spending plan for
various kinds of general infrastructure for the preparation of the 2010 Soccer World Cup (cidb
2007) Due to the low involvement in training the industry faces a severe shortage of adequately
skilled staff particularly artisans across all major trades The shortage of artisans which is
considered to hamper infrastructure development both in the public and private sector is
projected to go beyond 2010
2
The construction sector which due to its labour intensive nature by using relatively elementary
skills is regarded as one of the key drivers for reducing unemployment and poverty (CETA
2007 cidb 2004) Providing employment to more than 700000 people and the largest
contributor to the GDP growth (CETA 2007) the construction sector is not only a direct means
for promoting social inclusion and future development but most importantly a means to an end
as it provides the necessary infrastructure to support economic growth and output in all other
economic sectors (CETA 2007)
Despite its important role in creating the countryrsquos future its participation in developing skills in
the sector is very low with only 1443 enterprises out of 23979 levy paying enterprises
submitting Workplace Skills Plans (CETA 2007) This indicates that the level of participation in
learnership training is low even though the industry currently faces severe skill constraints A
25-year period of significant decline ending in the year 2000 during which very little investment
was made in training has left this sector with a very low base of human capacity and a skilled
workforce which is mainly approaching retirement age (CIDB 2007) Since the low-point in
1999 the industry in the previous years has seen a steady increase in infrastructure development
and residential building which has already severely strained the existing skills force and has
challenged the industry to secure the required skills (CIDB 2006 2007)
There is strong consensus amongst employers and industry bodies that the rising demand for
construction is fast out-pacing the supply of appropriately trained and qualified people at all
levels (cidb 2007) therefore the lack of skilled labour is considered the primary constraint for
building operations followed by shortages in the availability of building material The primary
skills needs identified in this context by the cidb (2007) are highest at artisan level The cidb
(2007) states that the skill demand for key management is less than two hundred in most
categories whilst for skilled and semi-skilled artisans it is in the range of two to three thousand
over a five-year period with artisan shortages estimated to be at least in the range of 7 500 each
year over the next four years and growth is expected to go beyond
As the learnership system is regarded as one of the major means for developing artisan skills in
the industry it is imperative that an efficient and effective implementation of the system in the
3
industry be addressed urgently the general importance of a functioning learnership system in the
construction industry for reducing unemployment and ensuring overall future growth in South
Africa can thus not be overstated (Mummenthey 2008)
1 History on Developing Artisans Apprenticeship
In her study on Learnerships in the Construction Industry Mummenthey (2008) investigated the
history of Apprenticeship training and its eventual failure The subsequent text has been taken
from her thesis lsquoThe origins of learnerships can be traced back to the apprenticeship system of
the 1920s (Apprenticeship Act of 1922) which at the time was a racially defined training system
reserved purely for the white segment of the South African population Traditionally the
apprenticeship system was South Africarsquos major pathway for intermediate skills development
and thus the qualification of white artisans for all major industry sectors including the
construction industry Artisan apprentices were fully sponsored by an employer during their
apprenticeship which had an average duration of 3-5 years Apprentices studied in part-time
block release format at a technical college and were provided practical work experience under
the supervision of a senior artisan at their workplace The historically lsquowhitersquo system only
became inclusive and accessible to the African population with the reforms recommended by
three state commissions in the late 1970s ndash the Wiehahn Riekert and De Lange Commission
(1977-1981) The commissions which had been a reaction to the imminent skills shortage of this
era argued for a streamlining and rationalising of labour and training legislation as well as
improved access for Africans to formal schooling technical colleges and enterprise training
Based on these recommendations the statutory de-racialisation of the apprenticeship system
became effective formally with the enactment of the Manpower Training Act in 1981 (Akoojee
et al 2005) As a result of this new legislation the National Training Board (NTB) was
established in the same year and its primary function was to serve as a national consultant for
the development of policy strategies in the vocational education and training sector From the
mid-80s the system began to experience a substantial and continuous decline the first indication
of which was a significant drop in the number of qualified artisans (from 13500 in 1985 to 5145
in 1999) In addition there was a significant decrease in the number of newly indentured
4
apprentices (from 10758 in 1991 to a low of 3129 in 1999 signifying - 7091) For the building
industry the numbers dropped from 417 indentured apprentices in 1991 to 107 in 1999 a decline
of 7434 (Kraak 2007 pp 487-488) Secondly the system achieved very low placement rates
after training which was estimated between an average of 15 by the DoL (2001c p 32) and
336 by FET college graduates in 2001 Kraak (2003a pp 680-681) reported that 697 of
African and 242 of white qualified artisans remained unemployed The low placement rates
were due mainly to a social change in training conditions in the system over the years
With the introduction of the Manpower Training Act in 1981 and the years following the official
de-racialisation the racial distribution in the system became more and more inverted Ninety
percent of the students in technical colleges were now black and studied full-time mostly
without being able to obtain any employer participation (Kraak 2007) This clearly indicated
that even though the legal barriers for inclusion had been withdrawn the system still seemed
premised on the continued exclusion of Africans to equal employment opportunities Other
reasons apart from the de-racialisation process which may have supported the decline were
(Akoojee et al 2005)
1048707 the economic recession during the final phase of apartheid
1048707 rising costs of training fees (up to 80 of a skilled labourerrsquos wage)
1048707 reduction of subsidies and phasing out of tax concessions
1048707 poor image of FET colleges due to a lack of responsiveness to labour market requirements
Whatever the reasons for the decline were a report of the HSRC in 1984 (Investigation into the
Training of Artisans) leveled criticisms at and questioned the general quality of the training and
the system of control for apprenticeships The main concerns were related to the ability of the
system to meet current technological skills requirements and the low quality of the practical
workplace training This was often unsupervised and unstructured on-the-job training which did
not always expose the apprentice to the full range of the trade Moreover the report stressed a
lack of theoretical input and criticised the fact that the system attributed artisan status after 5
years irrespective of passing the trade test ie only by lsquoeffluxion of timersquo A general
5
dissatisfaction was further expressed with the time-based model as it did not take into account
the differing learning tempos of the apprentices Other critics were concerned with the narrow
confine of apprenticeships which did not cater for all age categories gender groups (highly male
dominated) skills levels (only artisans) and industrial sectors (Akoojee et al 2005)They thus
argued for a more responsive inclusive and flexible skills development system to meet the needs
of all (age race and gender dimensions as well as employment sectors)rsquo
Apprenticeships versus learnerships Characteristic features and differences
As the apprenticeship training programme under these conditions did not seem a realistic option
for a national skills solution the concept of learnerships was introduced The new system sought
to be more flexible provide for the needs of all and to address the criticisms leveled at the
declining apprenticeship system (DoL 2001e) The component elements and key features of the
two systems thus differed vastly To illustrate these major differences the key characteristics of
the apprenticeship and the learnership system are looked at in Table 1 The table has been based
on the views of Mummenthey (2008) as set out in her research
Table 1 Apprenticeships versus learnerships
Characteristics Apprenticeship Learnership
Offering principle Mainly supply-side driven Offered by providersindependently of an articulated demand by thelabour market limited to some industries
Offered in response to an articulated social oreconomic need for all sectors
Trained qualifications Only blue collar trades atintermediate skills levels (N1-N4)Mainly building construction workers ofdifferent designated trades at N2 level
All range of occupations in the NQFin which a work-based learning route is viable
Primary qualityassurance institution
Industry Training Board (ITB)BITB (Building Industry Training Board) andCivil Engineering Industry Training Board (CEITB)
Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA)Construction Education and Training Authority(CETA)
6
Addressedlearner group
Indentured learners under the age of 24
All types of learners (employed pre- andunemployed) with disparate levels of prior learningNo age restrictions
Underlying trainingprinciple
Time-based Input-orientedTime-based theoretical education combined withpractical less structured on-the-job learning for adhoc occupational application Focus on input ratherthan an active participation of the learner in thelearning process
Outcomes-based Learner oriented Integration of theoretical education and structured workplace training of a specified nature andduration including generic skills with a clear future orientation The learner stands at the centre of the process and takes an active role in learning
Training providers(TheoreticalPractical)
Technical colleges one employerBuilding Industries Federation of South Africa(BIFSA) training college accredited institutions
Accredited provider(s)Employergroup of employers(large medium small
Duration 3-5 years for qualifying artisans depending on thespecific tradePart-time studies in block release format
On average 12-18 months depending on the finalcredit value of the NQF qualification For artisanlevel several learnerships leading to NQF level 3-4Format according to needs not specified
Assessment Final central trade testConducted by BIFSA on behalf of BITB
Multiple individual assessments by accreditedassessors Evidence provided in portfolio (iePortfolio of Evidence)
Primary legislation Manpower Training Act of 1981
Skills Development Act of 1998
Funding Voluntary levy collected and determined by the responsible Industry Training Board(Manpower Training Amendment Act of 1990)15 levy collected by BITB
Mandatory and nationally fixed levy collected bySARS and disbursed to the SETA(Skills Development Levies Act of 1999)
7
3 The Skills Development Act The Birth of lsquoLearnershipsrsquo
As mentioned in the preceding literature one of the principal causes of the low level of skills in
South Africa is the lacklow education across all the sectors in the country which is influenced
by an a working environment that is ever changing in terms of the methods and skills required to
properly execute work tasks According to Bellis (2001) the fact that there is very little
evaluation of training done in our country has obscured the probability that much expenditure on
training has done little to improve competence and performance In his view the problem lies in
how training and development are undertaken than in how many training courses are run The
Skills Development Act (SDA) together with all the other related legislation (the South African
Qualifications Authority Act No 58 of 1995 encompassing the National Qualifications
Framework concept) aims to address and lessen the above mentioned training and education
deficit
For an understanding of the nature of learnerships it is important to understand the purpose and
function of the SDA and its integrated frameworks The purpose of the skills development Act
No 97 of 1998 is to
Develop the skills of the South African workforce
- to improve the quality of life of workers their prospects of work and labour mobility
- to improve productivity in the workplace and the competitiveness of employers
- to promote self-employment and
- to improve the delivery of social services
To increase the levels of investment in education and training in the labour market and to
improve the return on that investment
To encourage employers
- to use the workplace as an active learning environment
- to provide employees with the opportunities to acquire new skills
- to provide opportunities for new entrants to the labour market to gain work experience
8
- to employ persons who find it difficult to be employed
To improve the employment prospects-of persons previously disadvantaged by unfair
discrimination and to redress those disadvantages through training and education
To ensure the quality of education and training in and for the workplace
To assist
- work seekers to find work retrenched workers tore-enter the labour market employers
to find qualified employees and to provide and regulate employment services
The above purposes are to be achieved through institutional and financial frameworks made up
of
The National Skills Authority whose function is to advice the minister of labour liaise
with the SETArsquos conduct investigations and exercise any other of powers the Act
The National Skill Fund This will be created from funds collected from skill
development levies from parliament donations to the fund interest from investments
and money received from other sources
Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA)
Labour Centers Whose main function are to provide employment services for workers
employers and training providers especially in rural areas to register work seekers and to
register vacancies and work opportunities
The Skills Development Planning Unit This is a unit at the Department of Labour
(DoL) head office to address the national issues on policy and strategy such as the
National Skills Development Strategy I- IIII
One of the major structures for the achievement of the purposes of the SDA is that of the
SETAs (Bellis 2001) as they are the functioning lsquolimbsrsquo of the SDA They are also tasked
9
with implementing registering promoting and collecting amp distributing skills development
levies within their respective sectors (SDA 1998)
4 The Context of Learnerships
Babb et al (2005) points out the learnership system are one of the cornerstones of the new skills
development legislation The learnership system is seen as an intervention to redress the old
apprenticeship system and its problems and create a high quality dual system of learning
(Mukora 2008) Learnerships are defined and regulated by the Skills Development Act and
according to chapter 4 of the SDA learnerships require the following elements for their
establishment through a Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA)
consists of a structured learning component
includes practical work experience of a specified nature and duration
would lead to a qualification registered by the South African Qualifications Authority
and related to an occupation and
is registered with the Director-General in the prescribed manner
There are varying definitions of a Learnership but based on what is outlined in the SDA it can
be described as a path to a nationally recognised qualification that relates to an occupation and
consists of a structured learning component and practical work experience The Construction
Education and Training Authorityrsquos (CETA 2006) defines it as ldquoA learnership is a route to
acquiring a qualification in the National Qualification Framework (NQF) that offers both
theoretical and workplace experience in any chosen career hellip The learnership programme is a
qualification that is outcomes-based It allows learners to interact with the working environment
while gaining an understanding of the workplacerdquo Mummenthey (2008) in her research defines
it as providing a planned and appropriate combination of learning outcomes with a defined
purpose providing learners with applied competence and a basis for further learning comprising
three components ie fundamental core and elective unit standards entailing specified exit level
outcomes and generally achieving the required credits in a range of 30 to 70 of time spent at
the workplace
As stipulated by the SDA (RSA 1998) the learnership agreement is a legally binding agreement
that has to be concluded between the employer and the learner For a learnership to be legal
10
there needs to a signing of a learnership agreement between the three involved parties to a
learnership (the Employer the Learner and the Training provider) and the learnership needs to
registered with a SETA This agreement is in addition to a general contract of employment
signed by the learner
The contract of employment and the learnership agreement place clear obligations and rights on
all three parties to the learnership agreement The basic responsibilities according to the
learnership agreement are (Department of Labour 2001a)
Employer duties
to employ the learner for the defined period
to provide the learner with practical work experience
to allow the learner to attend off-the-job education and training measures
Learner duties
to work for the employer
to attend any educationtraining programmes specified
Provider duties
to provide the learner with the education and training as specified
to support the learner in the learning process
The contract of employment will stipulate the conditions of employment such as working hours
overtime and leave it will also indicate how much and learner will be paid The learner has to be
paid an allowance According to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act No 75 of 1997 (RSA
2001) this allowance is calculated as a percentage of the lsquoqualified wagersquo based on the credits
the learner has already achieved The lsquoqualified wagersquo is defined as the wage the employer
would pay the learner on obtaining the qualification for which the learnership is registered The
exact remuneration as well as its calculation (and the minimum allowance) are regulated by the
Act
11
Learnerships in the Construction Industry to date
CETA funds learnership but with a total of 8 365 levy-paying construction companies in the
sector only 56 learnerships had been registered with the CETA by mid 2003 (cidb 2004) Since
then there has been an innovative approach by industry and CETA that has enabled an
introduction of a system in which a number of companies can take on a shared commitment thus
providing some renewed impetus to skills development (cidb 2004) Government support to this
approach is reflected in amended regulations that cater for employer groups by the form of a tax
incentive The tax incentive is applicable at the beginning of and upon completion of the
learnership (DoL 2001) at the beginning of the learnership (for learners already employed by
the entity) once a Learnership agreement has been entered into and the agreement registered with
a SETA the employer is eligible for a deduction of 70 of the annual wages paid to that learner
up to a maximum of R20 000 during the relevant year of assessment and upon completion for
(unemployed learners) the employer is eligible for a deduction of 100 of the Learnership
allowance paid to that learner up to a maximum of R30 000 during the relevant year of
assessment To date CETA has 84 registered learnerships with 44 of them active 21 of them
replaced and 19 of them Active but to be extended in the future
The following is a list of registered learnerships for the year 2010(CETA 2010)
Registration Number NQF
Status
Learnership Title Qualification
Number
Status
05 Q 050048 18 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(carpentry)
24296 Active
05 Q 050047 16 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(carpeting)
24296 Active
05 Q 050049 20 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(vinyl)
24296 Active
05 Q 050034 41 120 1 1 Construction road worker(construction)
22977 Replaced by 24133
05 Q 050036 40 120 1 1 Construction road 22977 Replaced by
12
worker(maintenance) 24133
Registration Number NQF
Status
Learnership Title Qualification
Number
Status
05 Q 050073 21 123 2 2 Construction materials tester (bituminous)
49058 Active
05 Q 050074 22 139 2 2 Construction materials tester (concrete)
49058 Active
05 Q 050080 32 129 2 2 Construction crane operator
48961 Active
05Q05103261202 2 Construction foreman 49410 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction plasterer
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction masonry
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction painter
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction formworks
65409 Active
05Q050101351604 4 Plumber 58782 Active
05Q050064 241426 4 Surveyor(hydrographic) 20487 Active
05Q050087871764 4 Construction supervisor 23682 Replaced by 49053
05Q050063252715 5 Structural steel detailer 48636 Active
05Q050043312045 5 Manager Building Construction
23675 Active
05Q050044342675 5 Manager Civil Roadworkrsquos
23675 Active
05Q050089341405 5 Geographical information science operator
23675 Active
The CEO of CETA Mr Petrus Maoko reaffirmed their dedication to skills development by
saying ldquoCETA is prepared and able to answer the call to accelerate skills development within the
construction sector and is setting measures in place that will assist the organization worker faster
harder and smarter to meet the needs of the construction sector and accelerate the turn-around
13
time of internal processes rdquo and that CETA is ready to make the construction sector more
accessible to women young people people with disabilities and rural communities (Duma
2010)
Constraints encountered within Learnerships
In the book on Perspective in Learnerships Babb et al (2005) have highlighted the key elements
for an effective learnership programme The elements are the overall purpose aims and
objectives of the programme the governance of the programme the learning outcome expressed
as a qualification the selection of the learners the quality of the learning provision on the job
training and work placement the assessment process and ongoing evaluation of the programme
and the administration of the system
Overall purposes aims and objective It is clear that the purpose and objective of such a
programme is to address the national professional and organisational need for skilled artisan and
to redress the gap of inequality amongst the South African citizens
The governance of the system A learnership is a multi stakeholderrsquos (the DoL DoE SETAs
learners training providers etc) entity and the more diverse the stakeholders the more essential
the governance structures and processes need to be It is when all these stakeholders understand
their roles and responsibilities that an effective programme is created
Qualifications The learnership must lead to an accredited qualification which may be broad
based or occupation specific The curriculum must include broader skills requirements such as
interpersonal skills life skills problem solving skill and communication skills which are cited as
being critical to enable the learner to perform to their full potential and be adaptable to any
working environment
Selection of learners Although learnerships are open to any one within the designated age
limits there needs to be a balance between the numbers of learners accepted into them with their
14
best chances of succeeding To ensure this an assessment of potential learners to ensure their
basic ability to succeed is an essential component of selecting learners for the programme
Quality of learning provision For a learnership to be work effectively highly effective training
provider institutions with well qualified and capable teaching staff sound administration and
cutting edge equipment and facilities are required
On the job training and work placement Successful learnerships incorporate on the job training
coaching and assessment furthermore on the job training should be structured outcome based
and challenging By structured they should ensure that the necessary learning outcomes are
covered by outcome based they should ensure that the learning actually occurs and the
progression from one phase to the next without worrying about the time and it should be
challenging by ensuring that the learner is motivated to learn
The assessment and evaluation process The assessment process needs to be a multiple process
involving problem solving and the design of the process is critical and the capacity of the
assessors needs to be built and the appropriate tools developed Learnerships should also
evaluate their success that is their outcome such as if their learners have been employed if they
are contributing to their sector and how successful their outcome is instead of the number of
learners the programme has produced
Administration of the programme For a learnership to work the administrator who manages it
should ensure that the data required should be well maintained as it is needed for workplace
skills planning and reporting employment equity and sectoral charter reporting
All these above mentioned elements if properly implemented prove to deliver an effective and
successful learnership (Examples of such successes is the BAKSETA from the banking sector
(Dunn 2005)) so then the question arises why are most learnership not delivering what the
Skills development act had set out to achieve Based on various literature read the following are
the key problems thought to be the hindering factors to the success of learnership programme for
artisans in general and in the construction industry (MBA 2008 Mukora 2008 Mummenthey
2008 cidb 2004 CETA 2008 Babb et al 2005)
15
When the Setas were established the majority did not have appropriate systems and
procedures in place to deal with their core functions From a governance and oversight
point of view the situation was equally problematic as SETA boards were constituted
and sought to define their areas of responsibility
There was an underestimation of the scale of the task and the volume of the problems in
terms of implementing the SDA This then could have fed into a failure to sufficiently
factor in the extent to which the new system might become bureaucratized and hence its
resource intensity
There appeared to be a lack of understanding not only around the structure of the
economy but also the nature of work processes (especially in relation to artisans and the
role they played in the production process)
Those pushing for a new order did not have an appreciation for the artisan and there was
a sense that intermediate (artisan) skills are not important This was partly related to the
fact that the apprenticeship system had become so fundamentally linked with the
apartheid system (and hence had become discredited) and there was a real sense that
artisan skills would no longer be required as part of the skills base of the lsquonew economyrsquo
which was to emerge Hence the artisan became a devalued commodity
Research has revealed that learnerships until fairly recently have tended to be focused at
very low skills levels Where artisan-based learnerships have been introduced cynicism
emerged around quality It has been argued that this is partly a result of the fact that
learnerships were not ready to be implemented when they were but there was political
pressure to do so as opposed to continuing with the apprenticeship system
The people required to provide training do not possess the skills required for effective
coaching and training and in addition the administration burden associated with
16
learnerships and assessment results in trainers feeling that they are distracted from their
core responsibilities
The pipeline for the development of skilled personnel is partly a responsibility of
education and labour So it is not within the sole domain of Setas to deliver skills into the
economy The effectiveness of the educational system is critical in achieving this
objective This not only raises the question of the linkage between education and labour
and the lack of co-ordination between the two ministries but also highlights the fact that a
number of blockages have occurred some of which are systemic and have nothing to do
with the functioning of the Setas
Often the lack of an overall learning curriculum is indicative of poor workplace skills
planning (which must be submitted to the SETA by employers)
In many learnerships there is a significant divide between what learners are taught and
what occurs on the job What the learner learns in the classroom is unable to practice in
the work environment
The construction environment with increasingly temporary and casual employment does
not bode well for learnerships as these by definition have a long-term orientation
(duration of a minimum of one year) and require formal contractual arrangements The
duration of the training may thus be a concern
Another challenge is the labour-intensive nature of the work which requires the
employment of a large amount of relatively elementary skills about 40 percent of the
workforce is made up of general manual labour (who are unqualified or partly qualified)
African employees fill almost 90 percent of the elementary occupations The sector
employs the fourth highest number of people having no formal education which
challenges the implementation of learnerships even further as this industry is particularly
affected by the numeracy literacy and language related problems
17
Attracting and Recruiting the Youth as Artisans
Over the years various discussions have taken place on how to build the image of the artisan
(Mukora 2008) The Artisan Development Coordinating Committee has proposed during their
committees meeting in June 2007 a new definition of an artisan as follows lsquoldquoArtisanrdquo will mean
a person that has been certificated as competent by a relevant Education and Training Quality
Assurance body for a qualification registered on the National Qualifications Framework for a
Trade listed by the Minister of Labour in the Skills Development Act as amended which trade
has a designation at occupation level on the Organising Framework for Occupations and the
person is registered with the Registrar for Artisans as an Artisan for such a Tradersquo It is obvious
that in the past the artisan was considered a valued skill within the workplace but as the years
went by the artisan became less appreciated and respected
It is also apparent that young people would rather work with computers than to for engineering
and its associated professions because young people are afraid to get their hands dirty (Mukora
2008) If the country is to increase the supply of artisans some measures will have to be
implemented to encourage the youth to become artisans Catt et al (1997) established mechanism
or methods that can be employed in attracting and retaining younger people to what they
perceive lsquounsuitablersquo or lsquoundesirablersquo careers
Advertising a well written lsquocatchyrsquo advert placed in the newspaper magazines and played on
radio and TV outlining the benefits of being an artisan and how acquiring such skills would
empower the applicant would go a long way in changing the perception of the artisan and
attracting the youth
Open events the DoL DoE the SETAs and all the other contributing stakeholders could host a
series of lsquoopen daysrsquo in schools and communities
18
Introduction
South Africa has received international acclaim and recognition for having successfully
dismantled the previous apartheid system and replaced it with a democratic order this was a
monumental task which our new government tackled with distinction (Kunene 2006) But
despite this progress low levels of skills among the majority of the formerly disadvantaged
population and high unemployment rates especially among youths (age 15-24) still remain the
countryrsquos most pressing concerns and greatest problem towards a better future for all
(Mummenthey 2008)
The learnership system which was introduced by the Skills Development Act in 1998 was
thought to be a creative vehicle (Davies et al 2004) to tackle these problems in two significant
ways first by enhancing skills levels in a workplace-oriented environment and second by
providing learners with employment during the phase of acquiring recognised occupational
training A research study conducted by Mummenthey (2008) found that since its actual
implementation in 2000 the system has not always been able to meet up to its expectations Low
enrolment rates and a slow employer take up characterize the system in most sectors This is
particularly true for the construction sector which is perceived as an escalator industry for skills
development by the government (Erasmus et al 2009) as the industry requires fairly basic and
intermediate skills Moreover the industry provides the necessary infrastructure for all other
economic sectors and is therefore critical for the countryrsquos future economic growth and
international competitiveness The low employer take-up in the sector seems to be persistent
despite the fact that the industry is currently experiencing huge constraints in terms of skills
most importantly in carrying out the infrastructural projects connected to the governmentrsquos
Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative (AsgiSA) This included R372 billion spending plan for
various kinds of general infrastructure for the preparation of the 2010 Soccer World Cup (cidb
2007) Due to the low involvement in training the industry faces a severe shortage of adequately
skilled staff particularly artisans across all major trades The shortage of artisans which is
considered to hamper infrastructure development both in the public and private sector is
projected to go beyond 2010
2
The construction sector which due to its labour intensive nature by using relatively elementary
skills is regarded as one of the key drivers for reducing unemployment and poverty (CETA
2007 cidb 2004) Providing employment to more than 700000 people and the largest
contributor to the GDP growth (CETA 2007) the construction sector is not only a direct means
for promoting social inclusion and future development but most importantly a means to an end
as it provides the necessary infrastructure to support economic growth and output in all other
economic sectors (CETA 2007)
Despite its important role in creating the countryrsquos future its participation in developing skills in
the sector is very low with only 1443 enterprises out of 23979 levy paying enterprises
submitting Workplace Skills Plans (CETA 2007) This indicates that the level of participation in
learnership training is low even though the industry currently faces severe skill constraints A
25-year period of significant decline ending in the year 2000 during which very little investment
was made in training has left this sector with a very low base of human capacity and a skilled
workforce which is mainly approaching retirement age (CIDB 2007) Since the low-point in
1999 the industry in the previous years has seen a steady increase in infrastructure development
and residential building which has already severely strained the existing skills force and has
challenged the industry to secure the required skills (CIDB 2006 2007)
There is strong consensus amongst employers and industry bodies that the rising demand for
construction is fast out-pacing the supply of appropriately trained and qualified people at all
levels (cidb 2007) therefore the lack of skilled labour is considered the primary constraint for
building operations followed by shortages in the availability of building material The primary
skills needs identified in this context by the cidb (2007) are highest at artisan level The cidb
(2007) states that the skill demand for key management is less than two hundred in most
categories whilst for skilled and semi-skilled artisans it is in the range of two to three thousand
over a five-year period with artisan shortages estimated to be at least in the range of 7 500 each
year over the next four years and growth is expected to go beyond
As the learnership system is regarded as one of the major means for developing artisan skills in
the industry it is imperative that an efficient and effective implementation of the system in the
3
industry be addressed urgently the general importance of a functioning learnership system in the
construction industry for reducing unemployment and ensuring overall future growth in South
Africa can thus not be overstated (Mummenthey 2008)
1 History on Developing Artisans Apprenticeship
In her study on Learnerships in the Construction Industry Mummenthey (2008) investigated the
history of Apprenticeship training and its eventual failure The subsequent text has been taken
from her thesis lsquoThe origins of learnerships can be traced back to the apprenticeship system of
the 1920s (Apprenticeship Act of 1922) which at the time was a racially defined training system
reserved purely for the white segment of the South African population Traditionally the
apprenticeship system was South Africarsquos major pathway for intermediate skills development
and thus the qualification of white artisans for all major industry sectors including the
construction industry Artisan apprentices were fully sponsored by an employer during their
apprenticeship which had an average duration of 3-5 years Apprentices studied in part-time
block release format at a technical college and were provided practical work experience under
the supervision of a senior artisan at their workplace The historically lsquowhitersquo system only
became inclusive and accessible to the African population with the reforms recommended by
three state commissions in the late 1970s ndash the Wiehahn Riekert and De Lange Commission
(1977-1981) The commissions which had been a reaction to the imminent skills shortage of this
era argued for a streamlining and rationalising of labour and training legislation as well as
improved access for Africans to formal schooling technical colleges and enterprise training
Based on these recommendations the statutory de-racialisation of the apprenticeship system
became effective formally with the enactment of the Manpower Training Act in 1981 (Akoojee
et al 2005) As a result of this new legislation the National Training Board (NTB) was
established in the same year and its primary function was to serve as a national consultant for
the development of policy strategies in the vocational education and training sector From the
mid-80s the system began to experience a substantial and continuous decline the first indication
of which was a significant drop in the number of qualified artisans (from 13500 in 1985 to 5145
in 1999) In addition there was a significant decrease in the number of newly indentured
4
apprentices (from 10758 in 1991 to a low of 3129 in 1999 signifying - 7091) For the building
industry the numbers dropped from 417 indentured apprentices in 1991 to 107 in 1999 a decline
of 7434 (Kraak 2007 pp 487-488) Secondly the system achieved very low placement rates
after training which was estimated between an average of 15 by the DoL (2001c p 32) and
336 by FET college graduates in 2001 Kraak (2003a pp 680-681) reported that 697 of
African and 242 of white qualified artisans remained unemployed The low placement rates
were due mainly to a social change in training conditions in the system over the years
With the introduction of the Manpower Training Act in 1981 and the years following the official
de-racialisation the racial distribution in the system became more and more inverted Ninety
percent of the students in technical colleges were now black and studied full-time mostly
without being able to obtain any employer participation (Kraak 2007) This clearly indicated
that even though the legal barriers for inclusion had been withdrawn the system still seemed
premised on the continued exclusion of Africans to equal employment opportunities Other
reasons apart from the de-racialisation process which may have supported the decline were
(Akoojee et al 2005)
1048707 the economic recession during the final phase of apartheid
1048707 rising costs of training fees (up to 80 of a skilled labourerrsquos wage)
1048707 reduction of subsidies and phasing out of tax concessions
1048707 poor image of FET colleges due to a lack of responsiveness to labour market requirements
Whatever the reasons for the decline were a report of the HSRC in 1984 (Investigation into the
Training of Artisans) leveled criticisms at and questioned the general quality of the training and
the system of control for apprenticeships The main concerns were related to the ability of the
system to meet current technological skills requirements and the low quality of the practical
workplace training This was often unsupervised and unstructured on-the-job training which did
not always expose the apprentice to the full range of the trade Moreover the report stressed a
lack of theoretical input and criticised the fact that the system attributed artisan status after 5
years irrespective of passing the trade test ie only by lsquoeffluxion of timersquo A general
5
dissatisfaction was further expressed with the time-based model as it did not take into account
the differing learning tempos of the apprentices Other critics were concerned with the narrow
confine of apprenticeships which did not cater for all age categories gender groups (highly male
dominated) skills levels (only artisans) and industrial sectors (Akoojee et al 2005)They thus
argued for a more responsive inclusive and flexible skills development system to meet the needs
of all (age race and gender dimensions as well as employment sectors)rsquo
Apprenticeships versus learnerships Characteristic features and differences
As the apprenticeship training programme under these conditions did not seem a realistic option
for a national skills solution the concept of learnerships was introduced The new system sought
to be more flexible provide for the needs of all and to address the criticisms leveled at the
declining apprenticeship system (DoL 2001e) The component elements and key features of the
two systems thus differed vastly To illustrate these major differences the key characteristics of
the apprenticeship and the learnership system are looked at in Table 1 The table has been based
on the views of Mummenthey (2008) as set out in her research
Table 1 Apprenticeships versus learnerships
Characteristics Apprenticeship Learnership
Offering principle Mainly supply-side driven Offered by providersindependently of an articulated demand by thelabour market limited to some industries
Offered in response to an articulated social oreconomic need for all sectors
Trained qualifications Only blue collar trades atintermediate skills levels (N1-N4)Mainly building construction workers ofdifferent designated trades at N2 level
All range of occupations in the NQFin which a work-based learning route is viable
Primary qualityassurance institution
Industry Training Board (ITB)BITB (Building Industry Training Board) andCivil Engineering Industry Training Board (CEITB)
Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA)Construction Education and Training Authority(CETA)
6
Addressedlearner group
Indentured learners under the age of 24
All types of learners (employed pre- andunemployed) with disparate levels of prior learningNo age restrictions
Underlying trainingprinciple
Time-based Input-orientedTime-based theoretical education combined withpractical less structured on-the-job learning for adhoc occupational application Focus on input ratherthan an active participation of the learner in thelearning process
Outcomes-based Learner oriented Integration of theoretical education and structured workplace training of a specified nature andduration including generic skills with a clear future orientation The learner stands at the centre of the process and takes an active role in learning
Training providers(TheoreticalPractical)
Technical colleges one employerBuilding Industries Federation of South Africa(BIFSA) training college accredited institutions
Accredited provider(s)Employergroup of employers(large medium small
Duration 3-5 years for qualifying artisans depending on thespecific tradePart-time studies in block release format
On average 12-18 months depending on the finalcredit value of the NQF qualification For artisanlevel several learnerships leading to NQF level 3-4Format according to needs not specified
Assessment Final central trade testConducted by BIFSA on behalf of BITB
Multiple individual assessments by accreditedassessors Evidence provided in portfolio (iePortfolio of Evidence)
Primary legislation Manpower Training Act of 1981
Skills Development Act of 1998
Funding Voluntary levy collected and determined by the responsible Industry Training Board(Manpower Training Amendment Act of 1990)15 levy collected by BITB
Mandatory and nationally fixed levy collected bySARS and disbursed to the SETA(Skills Development Levies Act of 1999)
7
3 The Skills Development Act The Birth of lsquoLearnershipsrsquo
As mentioned in the preceding literature one of the principal causes of the low level of skills in
South Africa is the lacklow education across all the sectors in the country which is influenced
by an a working environment that is ever changing in terms of the methods and skills required to
properly execute work tasks According to Bellis (2001) the fact that there is very little
evaluation of training done in our country has obscured the probability that much expenditure on
training has done little to improve competence and performance In his view the problem lies in
how training and development are undertaken than in how many training courses are run The
Skills Development Act (SDA) together with all the other related legislation (the South African
Qualifications Authority Act No 58 of 1995 encompassing the National Qualifications
Framework concept) aims to address and lessen the above mentioned training and education
deficit
For an understanding of the nature of learnerships it is important to understand the purpose and
function of the SDA and its integrated frameworks The purpose of the skills development Act
No 97 of 1998 is to
Develop the skills of the South African workforce
- to improve the quality of life of workers their prospects of work and labour mobility
- to improve productivity in the workplace and the competitiveness of employers
- to promote self-employment and
- to improve the delivery of social services
To increase the levels of investment in education and training in the labour market and to
improve the return on that investment
To encourage employers
- to use the workplace as an active learning environment
- to provide employees with the opportunities to acquire new skills
- to provide opportunities for new entrants to the labour market to gain work experience
8
- to employ persons who find it difficult to be employed
To improve the employment prospects-of persons previously disadvantaged by unfair
discrimination and to redress those disadvantages through training and education
To ensure the quality of education and training in and for the workplace
To assist
- work seekers to find work retrenched workers tore-enter the labour market employers
to find qualified employees and to provide and regulate employment services
The above purposes are to be achieved through institutional and financial frameworks made up
of
The National Skills Authority whose function is to advice the minister of labour liaise
with the SETArsquos conduct investigations and exercise any other of powers the Act
The National Skill Fund This will be created from funds collected from skill
development levies from parliament donations to the fund interest from investments
and money received from other sources
Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA)
Labour Centers Whose main function are to provide employment services for workers
employers and training providers especially in rural areas to register work seekers and to
register vacancies and work opportunities
The Skills Development Planning Unit This is a unit at the Department of Labour
(DoL) head office to address the national issues on policy and strategy such as the
National Skills Development Strategy I- IIII
One of the major structures for the achievement of the purposes of the SDA is that of the
SETAs (Bellis 2001) as they are the functioning lsquolimbsrsquo of the SDA They are also tasked
9
with implementing registering promoting and collecting amp distributing skills development
levies within their respective sectors (SDA 1998)
4 The Context of Learnerships
Babb et al (2005) points out the learnership system are one of the cornerstones of the new skills
development legislation The learnership system is seen as an intervention to redress the old
apprenticeship system and its problems and create a high quality dual system of learning
(Mukora 2008) Learnerships are defined and regulated by the Skills Development Act and
according to chapter 4 of the SDA learnerships require the following elements for their
establishment through a Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA)
consists of a structured learning component
includes practical work experience of a specified nature and duration
would lead to a qualification registered by the South African Qualifications Authority
and related to an occupation and
is registered with the Director-General in the prescribed manner
There are varying definitions of a Learnership but based on what is outlined in the SDA it can
be described as a path to a nationally recognised qualification that relates to an occupation and
consists of a structured learning component and practical work experience The Construction
Education and Training Authorityrsquos (CETA 2006) defines it as ldquoA learnership is a route to
acquiring a qualification in the National Qualification Framework (NQF) that offers both
theoretical and workplace experience in any chosen career hellip The learnership programme is a
qualification that is outcomes-based It allows learners to interact with the working environment
while gaining an understanding of the workplacerdquo Mummenthey (2008) in her research defines
it as providing a planned and appropriate combination of learning outcomes with a defined
purpose providing learners with applied competence and a basis for further learning comprising
three components ie fundamental core and elective unit standards entailing specified exit level
outcomes and generally achieving the required credits in a range of 30 to 70 of time spent at
the workplace
As stipulated by the SDA (RSA 1998) the learnership agreement is a legally binding agreement
that has to be concluded between the employer and the learner For a learnership to be legal
10
there needs to a signing of a learnership agreement between the three involved parties to a
learnership (the Employer the Learner and the Training provider) and the learnership needs to
registered with a SETA This agreement is in addition to a general contract of employment
signed by the learner
The contract of employment and the learnership agreement place clear obligations and rights on
all three parties to the learnership agreement The basic responsibilities according to the
learnership agreement are (Department of Labour 2001a)
Employer duties
to employ the learner for the defined period
to provide the learner with practical work experience
to allow the learner to attend off-the-job education and training measures
Learner duties
to work for the employer
to attend any educationtraining programmes specified
Provider duties
to provide the learner with the education and training as specified
to support the learner in the learning process
The contract of employment will stipulate the conditions of employment such as working hours
overtime and leave it will also indicate how much and learner will be paid The learner has to be
paid an allowance According to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act No 75 of 1997 (RSA
2001) this allowance is calculated as a percentage of the lsquoqualified wagersquo based on the credits
the learner has already achieved The lsquoqualified wagersquo is defined as the wage the employer
would pay the learner on obtaining the qualification for which the learnership is registered The
exact remuneration as well as its calculation (and the minimum allowance) are regulated by the
Act
11
Learnerships in the Construction Industry to date
CETA funds learnership but with a total of 8 365 levy-paying construction companies in the
sector only 56 learnerships had been registered with the CETA by mid 2003 (cidb 2004) Since
then there has been an innovative approach by industry and CETA that has enabled an
introduction of a system in which a number of companies can take on a shared commitment thus
providing some renewed impetus to skills development (cidb 2004) Government support to this
approach is reflected in amended regulations that cater for employer groups by the form of a tax
incentive The tax incentive is applicable at the beginning of and upon completion of the
learnership (DoL 2001) at the beginning of the learnership (for learners already employed by
the entity) once a Learnership agreement has been entered into and the agreement registered with
a SETA the employer is eligible for a deduction of 70 of the annual wages paid to that learner
up to a maximum of R20 000 during the relevant year of assessment and upon completion for
(unemployed learners) the employer is eligible for a deduction of 100 of the Learnership
allowance paid to that learner up to a maximum of R30 000 during the relevant year of
assessment To date CETA has 84 registered learnerships with 44 of them active 21 of them
replaced and 19 of them Active but to be extended in the future
The following is a list of registered learnerships for the year 2010(CETA 2010)
Registration Number NQF
Status
Learnership Title Qualification
Number
Status
05 Q 050048 18 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(carpentry)
24296 Active
05 Q 050047 16 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(carpeting)
24296 Active
05 Q 050049 20 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(vinyl)
24296 Active
05 Q 050034 41 120 1 1 Construction road worker(construction)
22977 Replaced by 24133
05 Q 050036 40 120 1 1 Construction road 22977 Replaced by
12
worker(maintenance) 24133
Registration Number NQF
Status
Learnership Title Qualification
Number
Status
05 Q 050073 21 123 2 2 Construction materials tester (bituminous)
49058 Active
05 Q 050074 22 139 2 2 Construction materials tester (concrete)
49058 Active
05 Q 050080 32 129 2 2 Construction crane operator
48961 Active
05Q05103261202 2 Construction foreman 49410 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction plasterer
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction masonry
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction painter
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction formworks
65409 Active
05Q050101351604 4 Plumber 58782 Active
05Q050064 241426 4 Surveyor(hydrographic) 20487 Active
05Q050087871764 4 Construction supervisor 23682 Replaced by 49053
05Q050063252715 5 Structural steel detailer 48636 Active
05Q050043312045 5 Manager Building Construction
23675 Active
05Q050044342675 5 Manager Civil Roadworkrsquos
23675 Active
05Q050089341405 5 Geographical information science operator
23675 Active
The CEO of CETA Mr Petrus Maoko reaffirmed their dedication to skills development by
saying ldquoCETA is prepared and able to answer the call to accelerate skills development within the
construction sector and is setting measures in place that will assist the organization worker faster
harder and smarter to meet the needs of the construction sector and accelerate the turn-around
13
time of internal processes rdquo and that CETA is ready to make the construction sector more
accessible to women young people people with disabilities and rural communities (Duma
2010)
Constraints encountered within Learnerships
In the book on Perspective in Learnerships Babb et al (2005) have highlighted the key elements
for an effective learnership programme The elements are the overall purpose aims and
objectives of the programme the governance of the programme the learning outcome expressed
as a qualification the selection of the learners the quality of the learning provision on the job
training and work placement the assessment process and ongoing evaluation of the programme
and the administration of the system
Overall purposes aims and objective It is clear that the purpose and objective of such a
programme is to address the national professional and organisational need for skilled artisan and
to redress the gap of inequality amongst the South African citizens
The governance of the system A learnership is a multi stakeholderrsquos (the DoL DoE SETAs
learners training providers etc) entity and the more diverse the stakeholders the more essential
the governance structures and processes need to be It is when all these stakeholders understand
their roles and responsibilities that an effective programme is created
Qualifications The learnership must lead to an accredited qualification which may be broad
based or occupation specific The curriculum must include broader skills requirements such as
interpersonal skills life skills problem solving skill and communication skills which are cited as
being critical to enable the learner to perform to their full potential and be adaptable to any
working environment
Selection of learners Although learnerships are open to any one within the designated age
limits there needs to be a balance between the numbers of learners accepted into them with their
14
best chances of succeeding To ensure this an assessment of potential learners to ensure their
basic ability to succeed is an essential component of selecting learners for the programme
Quality of learning provision For a learnership to be work effectively highly effective training
provider institutions with well qualified and capable teaching staff sound administration and
cutting edge equipment and facilities are required
On the job training and work placement Successful learnerships incorporate on the job training
coaching and assessment furthermore on the job training should be structured outcome based
and challenging By structured they should ensure that the necessary learning outcomes are
covered by outcome based they should ensure that the learning actually occurs and the
progression from one phase to the next without worrying about the time and it should be
challenging by ensuring that the learner is motivated to learn
The assessment and evaluation process The assessment process needs to be a multiple process
involving problem solving and the design of the process is critical and the capacity of the
assessors needs to be built and the appropriate tools developed Learnerships should also
evaluate their success that is their outcome such as if their learners have been employed if they
are contributing to their sector and how successful their outcome is instead of the number of
learners the programme has produced
Administration of the programme For a learnership to work the administrator who manages it
should ensure that the data required should be well maintained as it is needed for workplace
skills planning and reporting employment equity and sectoral charter reporting
All these above mentioned elements if properly implemented prove to deliver an effective and
successful learnership (Examples of such successes is the BAKSETA from the banking sector
(Dunn 2005)) so then the question arises why are most learnership not delivering what the
Skills development act had set out to achieve Based on various literature read the following are
the key problems thought to be the hindering factors to the success of learnership programme for
artisans in general and in the construction industry (MBA 2008 Mukora 2008 Mummenthey
2008 cidb 2004 CETA 2008 Babb et al 2005)
15
When the Setas were established the majority did not have appropriate systems and
procedures in place to deal with their core functions From a governance and oversight
point of view the situation was equally problematic as SETA boards were constituted
and sought to define their areas of responsibility
There was an underestimation of the scale of the task and the volume of the problems in
terms of implementing the SDA This then could have fed into a failure to sufficiently
factor in the extent to which the new system might become bureaucratized and hence its
resource intensity
There appeared to be a lack of understanding not only around the structure of the
economy but also the nature of work processes (especially in relation to artisans and the
role they played in the production process)
Those pushing for a new order did not have an appreciation for the artisan and there was
a sense that intermediate (artisan) skills are not important This was partly related to the
fact that the apprenticeship system had become so fundamentally linked with the
apartheid system (and hence had become discredited) and there was a real sense that
artisan skills would no longer be required as part of the skills base of the lsquonew economyrsquo
which was to emerge Hence the artisan became a devalued commodity
Research has revealed that learnerships until fairly recently have tended to be focused at
very low skills levels Where artisan-based learnerships have been introduced cynicism
emerged around quality It has been argued that this is partly a result of the fact that
learnerships were not ready to be implemented when they were but there was political
pressure to do so as opposed to continuing with the apprenticeship system
The people required to provide training do not possess the skills required for effective
coaching and training and in addition the administration burden associated with
16
learnerships and assessment results in trainers feeling that they are distracted from their
core responsibilities
The pipeline for the development of skilled personnel is partly a responsibility of
education and labour So it is not within the sole domain of Setas to deliver skills into the
economy The effectiveness of the educational system is critical in achieving this
objective This not only raises the question of the linkage between education and labour
and the lack of co-ordination between the two ministries but also highlights the fact that a
number of blockages have occurred some of which are systemic and have nothing to do
with the functioning of the Setas
Often the lack of an overall learning curriculum is indicative of poor workplace skills
planning (which must be submitted to the SETA by employers)
In many learnerships there is a significant divide between what learners are taught and
what occurs on the job What the learner learns in the classroom is unable to practice in
the work environment
The construction environment with increasingly temporary and casual employment does
not bode well for learnerships as these by definition have a long-term orientation
(duration of a minimum of one year) and require formal contractual arrangements The
duration of the training may thus be a concern
Another challenge is the labour-intensive nature of the work which requires the
employment of a large amount of relatively elementary skills about 40 percent of the
workforce is made up of general manual labour (who are unqualified or partly qualified)
African employees fill almost 90 percent of the elementary occupations The sector
employs the fourth highest number of people having no formal education which
challenges the implementation of learnerships even further as this industry is particularly
affected by the numeracy literacy and language related problems
17
Attracting and Recruiting the Youth as Artisans
Over the years various discussions have taken place on how to build the image of the artisan
(Mukora 2008) The Artisan Development Coordinating Committee has proposed during their
committees meeting in June 2007 a new definition of an artisan as follows lsquoldquoArtisanrdquo will mean
a person that has been certificated as competent by a relevant Education and Training Quality
Assurance body for a qualification registered on the National Qualifications Framework for a
Trade listed by the Minister of Labour in the Skills Development Act as amended which trade
has a designation at occupation level on the Organising Framework for Occupations and the
person is registered with the Registrar for Artisans as an Artisan for such a Tradersquo It is obvious
that in the past the artisan was considered a valued skill within the workplace but as the years
went by the artisan became less appreciated and respected
It is also apparent that young people would rather work with computers than to for engineering
and its associated professions because young people are afraid to get their hands dirty (Mukora
2008) If the country is to increase the supply of artisans some measures will have to be
implemented to encourage the youth to become artisans Catt et al (1997) established mechanism
or methods that can be employed in attracting and retaining younger people to what they
perceive lsquounsuitablersquo or lsquoundesirablersquo careers
Advertising a well written lsquocatchyrsquo advert placed in the newspaper magazines and played on
radio and TV outlining the benefits of being an artisan and how acquiring such skills would
empower the applicant would go a long way in changing the perception of the artisan and
attracting the youth
Open events the DoL DoE the SETAs and all the other contributing stakeholders could host a
series of lsquoopen daysrsquo in schools and communities
18
The construction sector which due to its labour intensive nature by using relatively elementary
skills is regarded as one of the key drivers for reducing unemployment and poverty (CETA
2007 cidb 2004) Providing employment to more than 700000 people and the largest
contributor to the GDP growth (CETA 2007) the construction sector is not only a direct means
for promoting social inclusion and future development but most importantly a means to an end
as it provides the necessary infrastructure to support economic growth and output in all other
economic sectors (CETA 2007)
Despite its important role in creating the countryrsquos future its participation in developing skills in
the sector is very low with only 1443 enterprises out of 23979 levy paying enterprises
submitting Workplace Skills Plans (CETA 2007) This indicates that the level of participation in
learnership training is low even though the industry currently faces severe skill constraints A
25-year period of significant decline ending in the year 2000 during which very little investment
was made in training has left this sector with a very low base of human capacity and a skilled
workforce which is mainly approaching retirement age (CIDB 2007) Since the low-point in
1999 the industry in the previous years has seen a steady increase in infrastructure development
and residential building which has already severely strained the existing skills force and has
challenged the industry to secure the required skills (CIDB 2006 2007)
There is strong consensus amongst employers and industry bodies that the rising demand for
construction is fast out-pacing the supply of appropriately trained and qualified people at all
levels (cidb 2007) therefore the lack of skilled labour is considered the primary constraint for
building operations followed by shortages in the availability of building material The primary
skills needs identified in this context by the cidb (2007) are highest at artisan level The cidb
(2007) states that the skill demand for key management is less than two hundred in most
categories whilst for skilled and semi-skilled artisans it is in the range of two to three thousand
over a five-year period with artisan shortages estimated to be at least in the range of 7 500 each
year over the next four years and growth is expected to go beyond
As the learnership system is regarded as one of the major means for developing artisan skills in
the industry it is imperative that an efficient and effective implementation of the system in the
3
industry be addressed urgently the general importance of a functioning learnership system in the
construction industry for reducing unemployment and ensuring overall future growth in South
Africa can thus not be overstated (Mummenthey 2008)
1 History on Developing Artisans Apprenticeship
In her study on Learnerships in the Construction Industry Mummenthey (2008) investigated the
history of Apprenticeship training and its eventual failure The subsequent text has been taken
from her thesis lsquoThe origins of learnerships can be traced back to the apprenticeship system of
the 1920s (Apprenticeship Act of 1922) which at the time was a racially defined training system
reserved purely for the white segment of the South African population Traditionally the
apprenticeship system was South Africarsquos major pathway for intermediate skills development
and thus the qualification of white artisans for all major industry sectors including the
construction industry Artisan apprentices were fully sponsored by an employer during their
apprenticeship which had an average duration of 3-5 years Apprentices studied in part-time
block release format at a technical college and were provided practical work experience under
the supervision of a senior artisan at their workplace The historically lsquowhitersquo system only
became inclusive and accessible to the African population with the reforms recommended by
three state commissions in the late 1970s ndash the Wiehahn Riekert and De Lange Commission
(1977-1981) The commissions which had been a reaction to the imminent skills shortage of this
era argued for a streamlining and rationalising of labour and training legislation as well as
improved access for Africans to formal schooling technical colleges and enterprise training
Based on these recommendations the statutory de-racialisation of the apprenticeship system
became effective formally with the enactment of the Manpower Training Act in 1981 (Akoojee
et al 2005) As a result of this new legislation the National Training Board (NTB) was
established in the same year and its primary function was to serve as a national consultant for
the development of policy strategies in the vocational education and training sector From the
mid-80s the system began to experience a substantial and continuous decline the first indication
of which was a significant drop in the number of qualified artisans (from 13500 in 1985 to 5145
in 1999) In addition there was a significant decrease in the number of newly indentured
4
apprentices (from 10758 in 1991 to a low of 3129 in 1999 signifying - 7091) For the building
industry the numbers dropped from 417 indentured apprentices in 1991 to 107 in 1999 a decline
of 7434 (Kraak 2007 pp 487-488) Secondly the system achieved very low placement rates
after training which was estimated between an average of 15 by the DoL (2001c p 32) and
336 by FET college graduates in 2001 Kraak (2003a pp 680-681) reported that 697 of
African and 242 of white qualified artisans remained unemployed The low placement rates
were due mainly to a social change in training conditions in the system over the years
With the introduction of the Manpower Training Act in 1981 and the years following the official
de-racialisation the racial distribution in the system became more and more inverted Ninety
percent of the students in technical colleges were now black and studied full-time mostly
without being able to obtain any employer participation (Kraak 2007) This clearly indicated
that even though the legal barriers for inclusion had been withdrawn the system still seemed
premised on the continued exclusion of Africans to equal employment opportunities Other
reasons apart from the de-racialisation process which may have supported the decline were
(Akoojee et al 2005)
1048707 the economic recession during the final phase of apartheid
1048707 rising costs of training fees (up to 80 of a skilled labourerrsquos wage)
1048707 reduction of subsidies and phasing out of tax concessions
1048707 poor image of FET colleges due to a lack of responsiveness to labour market requirements
Whatever the reasons for the decline were a report of the HSRC in 1984 (Investigation into the
Training of Artisans) leveled criticisms at and questioned the general quality of the training and
the system of control for apprenticeships The main concerns were related to the ability of the
system to meet current technological skills requirements and the low quality of the practical
workplace training This was often unsupervised and unstructured on-the-job training which did
not always expose the apprentice to the full range of the trade Moreover the report stressed a
lack of theoretical input and criticised the fact that the system attributed artisan status after 5
years irrespective of passing the trade test ie only by lsquoeffluxion of timersquo A general
5
dissatisfaction was further expressed with the time-based model as it did not take into account
the differing learning tempos of the apprentices Other critics were concerned with the narrow
confine of apprenticeships which did not cater for all age categories gender groups (highly male
dominated) skills levels (only artisans) and industrial sectors (Akoojee et al 2005)They thus
argued for a more responsive inclusive and flexible skills development system to meet the needs
of all (age race and gender dimensions as well as employment sectors)rsquo
Apprenticeships versus learnerships Characteristic features and differences
As the apprenticeship training programme under these conditions did not seem a realistic option
for a national skills solution the concept of learnerships was introduced The new system sought
to be more flexible provide for the needs of all and to address the criticisms leveled at the
declining apprenticeship system (DoL 2001e) The component elements and key features of the
two systems thus differed vastly To illustrate these major differences the key characteristics of
the apprenticeship and the learnership system are looked at in Table 1 The table has been based
on the views of Mummenthey (2008) as set out in her research
Table 1 Apprenticeships versus learnerships
Characteristics Apprenticeship Learnership
Offering principle Mainly supply-side driven Offered by providersindependently of an articulated demand by thelabour market limited to some industries
Offered in response to an articulated social oreconomic need for all sectors
Trained qualifications Only blue collar trades atintermediate skills levels (N1-N4)Mainly building construction workers ofdifferent designated trades at N2 level
All range of occupations in the NQFin which a work-based learning route is viable
Primary qualityassurance institution
Industry Training Board (ITB)BITB (Building Industry Training Board) andCivil Engineering Industry Training Board (CEITB)
Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA)Construction Education and Training Authority(CETA)
6
Addressedlearner group
Indentured learners under the age of 24
All types of learners (employed pre- andunemployed) with disparate levels of prior learningNo age restrictions
Underlying trainingprinciple
Time-based Input-orientedTime-based theoretical education combined withpractical less structured on-the-job learning for adhoc occupational application Focus on input ratherthan an active participation of the learner in thelearning process
Outcomes-based Learner oriented Integration of theoretical education and structured workplace training of a specified nature andduration including generic skills with a clear future orientation The learner stands at the centre of the process and takes an active role in learning
Training providers(TheoreticalPractical)
Technical colleges one employerBuilding Industries Federation of South Africa(BIFSA) training college accredited institutions
Accredited provider(s)Employergroup of employers(large medium small
Duration 3-5 years for qualifying artisans depending on thespecific tradePart-time studies in block release format
On average 12-18 months depending on the finalcredit value of the NQF qualification For artisanlevel several learnerships leading to NQF level 3-4Format according to needs not specified
Assessment Final central trade testConducted by BIFSA on behalf of BITB
Multiple individual assessments by accreditedassessors Evidence provided in portfolio (iePortfolio of Evidence)
Primary legislation Manpower Training Act of 1981
Skills Development Act of 1998
Funding Voluntary levy collected and determined by the responsible Industry Training Board(Manpower Training Amendment Act of 1990)15 levy collected by BITB
Mandatory and nationally fixed levy collected bySARS and disbursed to the SETA(Skills Development Levies Act of 1999)
7
3 The Skills Development Act The Birth of lsquoLearnershipsrsquo
As mentioned in the preceding literature one of the principal causes of the low level of skills in
South Africa is the lacklow education across all the sectors in the country which is influenced
by an a working environment that is ever changing in terms of the methods and skills required to
properly execute work tasks According to Bellis (2001) the fact that there is very little
evaluation of training done in our country has obscured the probability that much expenditure on
training has done little to improve competence and performance In his view the problem lies in
how training and development are undertaken than in how many training courses are run The
Skills Development Act (SDA) together with all the other related legislation (the South African
Qualifications Authority Act No 58 of 1995 encompassing the National Qualifications
Framework concept) aims to address and lessen the above mentioned training and education
deficit
For an understanding of the nature of learnerships it is important to understand the purpose and
function of the SDA and its integrated frameworks The purpose of the skills development Act
No 97 of 1998 is to
Develop the skills of the South African workforce
- to improve the quality of life of workers their prospects of work and labour mobility
- to improve productivity in the workplace and the competitiveness of employers
- to promote self-employment and
- to improve the delivery of social services
To increase the levels of investment in education and training in the labour market and to
improve the return on that investment
To encourage employers
- to use the workplace as an active learning environment
- to provide employees with the opportunities to acquire new skills
- to provide opportunities for new entrants to the labour market to gain work experience
8
- to employ persons who find it difficult to be employed
To improve the employment prospects-of persons previously disadvantaged by unfair
discrimination and to redress those disadvantages through training and education
To ensure the quality of education and training in and for the workplace
To assist
- work seekers to find work retrenched workers tore-enter the labour market employers
to find qualified employees and to provide and regulate employment services
The above purposes are to be achieved through institutional and financial frameworks made up
of
The National Skills Authority whose function is to advice the minister of labour liaise
with the SETArsquos conduct investigations and exercise any other of powers the Act
The National Skill Fund This will be created from funds collected from skill
development levies from parliament donations to the fund interest from investments
and money received from other sources
Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA)
Labour Centers Whose main function are to provide employment services for workers
employers and training providers especially in rural areas to register work seekers and to
register vacancies and work opportunities
The Skills Development Planning Unit This is a unit at the Department of Labour
(DoL) head office to address the national issues on policy and strategy such as the
National Skills Development Strategy I- IIII
One of the major structures for the achievement of the purposes of the SDA is that of the
SETAs (Bellis 2001) as they are the functioning lsquolimbsrsquo of the SDA They are also tasked
9
with implementing registering promoting and collecting amp distributing skills development
levies within their respective sectors (SDA 1998)
4 The Context of Learnerships
Babb et al (2005) points out the learnership system are one of the cornerstones of the new skills
development legislation The learnership system is seen as an intervention to redress the old
apprenticeship system and its problems and create a high quality dual system of learning
(Mukora 2008) Learnerships are defined and regulated by the Skills Development Act and
according to chapter 4 of the SDA learnerships require the following elements for their
establishment through a Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA)
consists of a structured learning component
includes practical work experience of a specified nature and duration
would lead to a qualification registered by the South African Qualifications Authority
and related to an occupation and
is registered with the Director-General in the prescribed manner
There are varying definitions of a Learnership but based on what is outlined in the SDA it can
be described as a path to a nationally recognised qualification that relates to an occupation and
consists of a structured learning component and practical work experience The Construction
Education and Training Authorityrsquos (CETA 2006) defines it as ldquoA learnership is a route to
acquiring a qualification in the National Qualification Framework (NQF) that offers both
theoretical and workplace experience in any chosen career hellip The learnership programme is a
qualification that is outcomes-based It allows learners to interact with the working environment
while gaining an understanding of the workplacerdquo Mummenthey (2008) in her research defines
it as providing a planned and appropriate combination of learning outcomes with a defined
purpose providing learners with applied competence and a basis for further learning comprising
three components ie fundamental core and elective unit standards entailing specified exit level
outcomes and generally achieving the required credits in a range of 30 to 70 of time spent at
the workplace
As stipulated by the SDA (RSA 1998) the learnership agreement is a legally binding agreement
that has to be concluded between the employer and the learner For a learnership to be legal
10
there needs to a signing of a learnership agreement between the three involved parties to a
learnership (the Employer the Learner and the Training provider) and the learnership needs to
registered with a SETA This agreement is in addition to a general contract of employment
signed by the learner
The contract of employment and the learnership agreement place clear obligations and rights on
all three parties to the learnership agreement The basic responsibilities according to the
learnership agreement are (Department of Labour 2001a)
Employer duties
to employ the learner for the defined period
to provide the learner with practical work experience
to allow the learner to attend off-the-job education and training measures
Learner duties
to work for the employer
to attend any educationtraining programmes specified
Provider duties
to provide the learner with the education and training as specified
to support the learner in the learning process
The contract of employment will stipulate the conditions of employment such as working hours
overtime and leave it will also indicate how much and learner will be paid The learner has to be
paid an allowance According to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act No 75 of 1997 (RSA
2001) this allowance is calculated as a percentage of the lsquoqualified wagersquo based on the credits
the learner has already achieved The lsquoqualified wagersquo is defined as the wage the employer
would pay the learner on obtaining the qualification for which the learnership is registered The
exact remuneration as well as its calculation (and the minimum allowance) are regulated by the
Act
11
Learnerships in the Construction Industry to date
CETA funds learnership but with a total of 8 365 levy-paying construction companies in the
sector only 56 learnerships had been registered with the CETA by mid 2003 (cidb 2004) Since
then there has been an innovative approach by industry and CETA that has enabled an
introduction of a system in which a number of companies can take on a shared commitment thus
providing some renewed impetus to skills development (cidb 2004) Government support to this
approach is reflected in amended regulations that cater for employer groups by the form of a tax
incentive The tax incentive is applicable at the beginning of and upon completion of the
learnership (DoL 2001) at the beginning of the learnership (for learners already employed by
the entity) once a Learnership agreement has been entered into and the agreement registered with
a SETA the employer is eligible for a deduction of 70 of the annual wages paid to that learner
up to a maximum of R20 000 during the relevant year of assessment and upon completion for
(unemployed learners) the employer is eligible for a deduction of 100 of the Learnership
allowance paid to that learner up to a maximum of R30 000 during the relevant year of
assessment To date CETA has 84 registered learnerships with 44 of them active 21 of them
replaced and 19 of them Active but to be extended in the future
The following is a list of registered learnerships for the year 2010(CETA 2010)
Registration Number NQF
Status
Learnership Title Qualification
Number
Status
05 Q 050048 18 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(carpentry)
24296 Active
05 Q 050047 16 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(carpeting)
24296 Active
05 Q 050049 20 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(vinyl)
24296 Active
05 Q 050034 41 120 1 1 Construction road worker(construction)
22977 Replaced by 24133
05 Q 050036 40 120 1 1 Construction road 22977 Replaced by
12
worker(maintenance) 24133
Registration Number NQF
Status
Learnership Title Qualification
Number
Status
05 Q 050073 21 123 2 2 Construction materials tester (bituminous)
49058 Active
05 Q 050074 22 139 2 2 Construction materials tester (concrete)
49058 Active
05 Q 050080 32 129 2 2 Construction crane operator
48961 Active
05Q05103261202 2 Construction foreman 49410 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction plasterer
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction masonry
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction painter
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction formworks
65409 Active
05Q050101351604 4 Plumber 58782 Active
05Q050064 241426 4 Surveyor(hydrographic) 20487 Active
05Q050087871764 4 Construction supervisor 23682 Replaced by 49053
05Q050063252715 5 Structural steel detailer 48636 Active
05Q050043312045 5 Manager Building Construction
23675 Active
05Q050044342675 5 Manager Civil Roadworkrsquos
23675 Active
05Q050089341405 5 Geographical information science operator
23675 Active
The CEO of CETA Mr Petrus Maoko reaffirmed their dedication to skills development by
saying ldquoCETA is prepared and able to answer the call to accelerate skills development within the
construction sector and is setting measures in place that will assist the organization worker faster
harder and smarter to meet the needs of the construction sector and accelerate the turn-around
13
time of internal processes rdquo and that CETA is ready to make the construction sector more
accessible to women young people people with disabilities and rural communities (Duma
2010)
Constraints encountered within Learnerships
In the book on Perspective in Learnerships Babb et al (2005) have highlighted the key elements
for an effective learnership programme The elements are the overall purpose aims and
objectives of the programme the governance of the programme the learning outcome expressed
as a qualification the selection of the learners the quality of the learning provision on the job
training and work placement the assessment process and ongoing evaluation of the programme
and the administration of the system
Overall purposes aims and objective It is clear that the purpose and objective of such a
programme is to address the national professional and organisational need for skilled artisan and
to redress the gap of inequality amongst the South African citizens
The governance of the system A learnership is a multi stakeholderrsquos (the DoL DoE SETAs
learners training providers etc) entity and the more diverse the stakeholders the more essential
the governance structures and processes need to be It is when all these stakeholders understand
their roles and responsibilities that an effective programme is created
Qualifications The learnership must lead to an accredited qualification which may be broad
based or occupation specific The curriculum must include broader skills requirements such as
interpersonal skills life skills problem solving skill and communication skills which are cited as
being critical to enable the learner to perform to their full potential and be adaptable to any
working environment
Selection of learners Although learnerships are open to any one within the designated age
limits there needs to be a balance between the numbers of learners accepted into them with their
14
best chances of succeeding To ensure this an assessment of potential learners to ensure their
basic ability to succeed is an essential component of selecting learners for the programme
Quality of learning provision For a learnership to be work effectively highly effective training
provider institutions with well qualified and capable teaching staff sound administration and
cutting edge equipment and facilities are required
On the job training and work placement Successful learnerships incorporate on the job training
coaching and assessment furthermore on the job training should be structured outcome based
and challenging By structured they should ensure that the necessary learning outcomes are
covered by outcome based they should ensure that the learning actually occurs and the
progression from one phase to the next without worrying about the time and it should be
challenging by ensuring that the learner is motivated to learn
The assessment and evaluation process The assessment process needs to be a multiple process
involving problem solving and the design of the process is critical and the capacity of the
assessors needs to be built and the appropriate tools developed Learnerships should also
evaluate their success that is their outcome such as if their learners have been employed if they
are contributing to their sector and how successful their outcome is instead of the number of
learners the programme has produced
Administration of the programme For a learnership to work the administrator who manages it
should ensure that the data required should be well maintained as it is needed for workplace
skills planning and reporting employment equity and sectoral charter reporting
All these above mentioned elements if properly implemented prove to deliver an effective and
successful learnership (Examples of such successes is the BAKSETA from the banking sector
(Dunn 2005)) so then the question arises why are most learnership not delivering what the
Skills development act had set out to achieve Based on various literature read the following are
the key problems thought to be the hindering factors to the success of learnership programme for
artisans in general and in the construction industry (MBA 2008 Mukora 2008 Mummenthey
2008 cidb 2004 CETA 2008 Babb et al 2005)
15
When the Setas were established the majority did not have appropriate systems and
procedures in place to deal with their core functions From a governance and oversight
point of view the situation was equally problematic as SETA boards were constituted
and sought to define their areas of responsibility
There was an underestimation of the scale of the task and the volume of the problems in
terms of implementing the SDA This then could have fed into a failure to sufficiently
factor in the extent to which the new system might become bureaucratized and hence its
resource intensity
There appeared to be a lack of understanding not only around the structure of the
economy but also the nature of work processes (especially in relation to artisans and the
role they played in the production process)
Those pushing for a new order did not have an appreciation for the artisan and there was
a sense that intermediate (artisan) skills are not important This was partly related to the
fact that the apprenticeship system had become so fundamentally linked with the
apartheid system (and hence had become discredited) and there was a real sense that
artisan skills would no longer be required as part of the skills base of the lsquonew economyrsquo
which was to emerge Hence the artisan became a devalued commodity
Research has revealed that learnerships until fairly recently have tended to be focused at
very low skills levels Where artisan-based learnerships have been introduced cynicism
emerged around quality It has been argued that this is partly a result of the fact that
learnerships were not ready to be implemented when they were but there was political
pressure to do so as opposed to continuing with the apprenticeship system
The people required to provide training do not possess the skills required for effective
coaching and training and in addition the administration burden associated with
16
learnerships and assessment results in trainers feeling that they are distracted from their
core responsibilities
The pipeline for the development of skilled personnel is partly a responsibility of
education and labour So it is not within the sole domain of Setas to deliver skills into the
economy The effectiveness of the educational system is critical in achieving this
objective This not only raises the question of the linkage between education and labour
and the lack of co-ordination between the two ministries but also highlights the fact that a
number of blockages have occurred some of which are systemic and have nothing to do
with the functioning of the Setas
Often the lack of an overall learning curriculum is indicative of poor workplace skills
planning (which must be submitted to the SETA by employers)
In many learnerships there is a significant divide between what learners are taught and
what occurs on the job What the learner learns in the classroom is unable to practice in
the work environment
The construction environment with increasingly temporary and casual employment does
not bode well for learnerships as these by definition have a long-term orientation
(duration of a minimum of one year) and require formal contractual arrangements The
duration of the training may thus be a concern
Another challenge is the labour-intensive nature of the work which requires the
employment of a large amount of relatively elementary skills about 40 percent of the
workforce is made up of general manual labour (who are unqualified or partly qualified)
African employees fill almost 90 percent of the elementary occupations The sector
employs the fourth highest number of people having no formal education which
challenges the implementation of learnerships even further as this industry is particularly
affected by the numeracy literacy and language related problems
17
Attracting and Recruiting the Youth as Artisans
Over the years various discussions have taken place on how to build the image of the artisan
(Mukora 2008) The Artisan Development Coordinating Committee has proposed during their
committees meeting in June 2007 a new definition of an artisan as follows lsquoldquoArtisanrdquo will mean
a person that has been certificated as competent by a relevant Education and Training Quality
Assurance body for a qualification registered on the National Qualifications Framework for a
Trade listed by the Minister of Labour in the Skills Development Act as amended which trade
has a designation at occupation level on the Organising Framework for Occupations and the
person is registered with the Registrar for Artisans as an Artisan for such a Tradersquo It is obvious
that in the past the artisan was considered a valued skill within the workplace but as the years
went by the artisan became less appreciated and respected
It is also apparent that young people would rather work with computers than to for engineering
and its associated professions because young people are afraid to get their hands dirty (Mukora
2008) If the country is to increase the supply of artisans some measures will have to be
implemented to encourage the youth to become artisans Catt et al (1997) established mechanism
or methods that can be employed in attracting and retaining younger people to what they
perceive lsquounsuitablersquo or lsquoundesirablersquo careers
Advertising a well written lsquocatchyrsquo advert placed in the newspaper magazines and played on
radio and TV outlining the benefits of being an artisan and how acquiring such skills would
empower the applicant would go a long way in changing the perception of the artisan and
attracting the youth
Open events the DoL DoE the SETAs and all the other contributing stakeholders could host a
series of lsquoopen daysrsquo in schools and communities
18
industry be addressed urgently the general importance of a functioning learnership system in the
construction industry for reducing unemployment and ensuring overall future growth in South
Africa can thus not be overstated (Mummenthey 2008)
1 History on Developing Artisans Apprenticeship
In her study on Learnerships in the Construction Industry Mummenthey (2008) investigated the
history of Apprenticeship training and its eventual failure The subsequent text has been taken
from her thesis lsquoThe origins of learnerships can be traced back to the apprenticeship system of
the 1920s (Apprenticeship Act of 1922) which at the time was a racially defined training system
reserved purely for the white segment of the South African population Traditionally the
apprenticeship system was South Africarsquos major pathway for intermediate skills development
and thus the qualification of white artisans for all major industry sectors including the
construction industry Artisan apprentices were fully sponsored by an employer during their
apprenticeship which had an average duration of 3-5 years Apprentices studied in part-time
block release format at a technical college and were provided practical work experience under
the supervision of a senior artisan at their workplace The historically lsquowhitersquo system only
became inclusive and accessible to the African population with the reforms recommended by
three state commissions in the late 1970s ndash the Wiehahn Riekert and De Lange Commission
(1977-1981) The commissions which had been a reaction to the imminent skills shortage of this
era argued for a streamlining and rationalising of labour and training legislation as well as
improved access for Africans to formal schooling technical colleges and enterprise training
Based on these recommendations the statutory de-racialisation of the apprenticeship system
became effective formally with the enactment of the Manpower Training Act in 1981 (Akoojee
et al 2005) As a result of this new legislation the National Training Board (NTB) was
established in the same year and its primary function was to serve as a national consultant for
the development of policy strategies in the vocational education and training sector From the
mid-80s the system began to experience a substantial and continuous decline the first indication
of which was a significant drop in the number of qualified artisans (from 13500 in 1985 to 5145
in 1999) In addition there was a significant decrease in the number of newly indentured
4
apprentices (from 10758 in 1991 to a low of 3129 in 1999 signifying - 7091) For the building
industry the numbers dropped from 417 indentured apprentices in 1991 to 107 in 1999 a decline
of 7434 (Kraak 2007 pp 487-488) Secondly the system achieved very low placement rates
after training which was estimated between an average of 15 by the DoL (2001c p 32) and
336 by FET college graduates in 2001 Kraak (2003a pp 680-681) reported that 697 of
African and 242 of white qualified artisans remained unemployed The low placement rates
were due mainly to a social change in training conditions in the system over the years
With the introduction of the Manpower Training Act in 1981 and the years following the official
de-racialisation the racial distribution in the system became more and more inverted Ninety
percent of the students in technical colleges were now black and studied full-time mostly
without being able to obtain any employer participation (Kraak 2007) This clearly indicated
that even though the legal barriers for inclusion had been withdrawn the system still seemed
premised on the continued exclusion of Africans to equal employment opportunities Other
reasons apart from the de-racialisation process which may have supported the decline were
(Akoojee et al 2005)
1048707 the economic recession during the final phase of apartheid
1048707 rising costs of training fees (up to 80 of a skilled labourerrsquos wage)
1048707 reduction of subsidies and phasing out of tax concessions
1048707 poor image of FET colleges due to a lack of responsiveness to labour market requirements
Whatever the reasons for the decline were a report of the HSRC in 1984 (Investigation into the
Training of Artisans) leveled criticisms at and questioned the general quality of the training and
the system of control for apprenticeships The main concerns were related to the ability of the
system to meet current technological skills requirements and the low quality of the practical
workplace training This was often unsupervised and unstructured on-the-job training which did
not always expose the apprentice to the full range of the trade Moreover the report stressed a
lack of theoretical input and criticised the fact that the system attributed artisan status after 5
years irrespective of passing the trade test ie only by lsquoeffluxion of timersquo A general
5
dissatisfaction was further expressed with the time-based model as it did not take into account
the differing learning tempos of the apprentices Other critics were concerned with the narrow
confine of apprenticeships which did not cater for all age categories gender groups (highly male
dominated) skills levels (only artisans) and industrial sectors (Akoojee et al 2005)They thus
argued for a more responsive inclusive and flexible skills development system to meet the needs
of all (age race and gender dimensions as well as employment sectors)rsquo
Apprenticeships versus learnerships Characteristic features and differences
As the apprenticeship training programme under these conditions did not seem a realistic option
for a national skills solution the concept of learnerships was introduced The new system sought
to be more flexible provide for the needs of all and to address the criticisms leveled at the
declining apprenticeship system (DoL 2001e) The component elements and key features of the
two systems thus differed vastly To illustrate these major differences the key characteristics of
the apprenticeship and the learnership system are looked at in Table 1 The table has been based
on the views of Mummenthey (2008) as set out in her research
Table 1 Apprenticeships versus learnerships
Characteristics Apprenticeship Learnership
Offering principle Mainly supply-side driven Offered by providersindependently of an articulated demand by thelabour market limited to some industries
Offered in response to an articulated social oreconomic need for all sectors
Trained qualifications Only blue collar trades atintermediate skills levels (N1-N4)Mainly building construction workers ofdifferent designated trades at N2 level
All range of occupations in the NQFin which a work-based learning route is viable
Primary qualityassurance institution
Industry Training Board (ITB)BITB (Building Industry Training Board) andCivil Engineering Industry Training Board (CEITB)
Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA)Construction Education and Training Authority(CETA)
6
Addressedlearner group
Indentured learners under the age of 24
All types of learners (employed pre- andunemployed) with disparate levels of prior learningNo age restrictions
Underlying trainingprinciple
Time-based Input-orientedTime-based theoretical education combined withpractical less structured on-the-job learning for adhoc occupational application Focus on input ratherthan an active participation of the learner in thelearning process
Outcomes-based Learner oriented Integration of theoretical education and structured workplace training of a specified nature andduration including generic skills with a clear future orientation The learner stands at the centre of the process and takes an active role in learning
Training providers(TheoreticalPractical)
Technical colleges one employerBuilding Industries Federation of South Africa(BIFSA) training college accredited institutions
Accredited provider(s)Employergroup of employers(large medium small
Duration 3-5 years for qualifying artisans depending on thespecific tradePart-time studies in block release format
On average 12-18 months depending on the finalcredit value of the NQF qualification For artisanlevel several learnerships leading to NQF level 3-4Format according to needs not specified
Assessment Final central trade testConducted by BIFSA on behalf of BITB
Multiple individual assessments by accreditedassessors Evidence provided in portfolio (iePortfolio of Evidence)
Primary legislation Manpower Training Act of 1981
Skills Development Act of 1998
Funding Voluntary levy collected and determined by the responsible Industry Training Board(Manpower Training Amendment Act of 1990)15 levy collected by BITB
Mandatory and nationally fixed levy collected bySARS and disbursed to the SETA(Skills Development Levies Act of 1999)
7
3 The Skills Development Act The Birth of lsquoLearnershipsrsquo
As mentioned in the preceding literature one of the principal causes of the low level of skills in
South Africa is the lacklow education across all the sectors in the country which is influenced
by an a working environment that is ever changing in terms of the methods and skills required to
properly execute work tasks According to Bellis (2001) the fact that there is very little
evaluation of training done in our country has obscured the probability that much expenditure on
training has done little to improve competence and performance In his view the problem lies in
how training and development are undertaken than in how many training courses are run The
Skills Development Act (SDA) together with all the other related legislation (the South African
Qualifications Authority Act No 58 of 1995 encompassing the National Qualifications
Framework concept) aims to address and lessen the above mentioned training and education
deficit
For an understanding of the nature of learnerships it is important to understand the purpose and
function of the SDA and its integrated frameworks The purpose of the skills development Act
No 97 of 1998 is to
Develop the skills of the South African workforce
- to improve the quality of life of workers their prospects of work and labour mobility
- to improve productivity in the workplace and the competitiveness of employers
- to promote self-employment and
- to improve the delivery of social services
To increase the levels of investment in education and training in the labour market and to
improve the return on that investment
To encourage employers
- to use the workplace as an active learning environment
- to provide employees with the opportunities to acquire new skills
- to provide opportunities for new entrants to the labour market to gain work experience
8
- to employ persons who find it difficult to be employed
To improve the employment prospects-of persons previously disadvantaged by unfair
discrimination and to redress those disadvantages through training and education
To ensure the quality of education and training in and for the workplace
To assist
- work seekers to find work retrenched workers tore-enter the labour market employers
to find qualified employees and to provide and regulate employment services
The above purposes are to be achieved through institutional and financial frameworks made up
of
The National Skills Authority whose function is to advice the minister of labour liaise
with the SETArsquos conduct investigations and exercise any other of powers the Act
The National Skill Fund This will be created from funds collected from skill
development levies from parliament donations to the fund interest from investments
and money received from other sources
Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA)
Labour Centers Whose main function are to provide employment services for workers
employers and training providers especially in rural areas to register work seekers and to
register vacancies and work opportunities
The Skills Development Planning Unit This is a unit at the Department of Labour
(DoL) head office to address the national issues on policy and strategy such as the
National Skills Development Strategy I- IIII
One of the major structures for the achievement of the purposes of the SDA is that of the
SETAs (Bellis 2001) as they are the functioning lsquolimbsrsquo of the SDA They are also tasked
9
with implementing registering promoting and collecting amp distributing skills development
levies within their respective sectors (SDA 1998)
4 The Context of Learnerships
Babb et al (2005) points out the learnership system are one of the cornerstones of the new skills
development legislation The learnership system is seen as an intervention to redress the old
apprenticeship system and its problems and create a high quality dual system of learning
(Mukora 2008) Learnerships are defined and regulated by the Skills Development Act and
according to chapter 4 of the SDA learnerships require the following elements for their
establishment through a Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA)
consists of a structured learning component
includes practical work experience of a specified nature and duration
would lead to a qualification registered by the South African Qualifications Authority
and related to an occupation and
is registered with the Director-General in the prescribed manner
There are varying definitions of a Learnership but based on what is outlined in the SDA it can
be described as a path to a nationally recognised qualification that relates to an occupation and
consists of a structured learning component and practical work experience The Construction
Education and Training Authorityrsquos (CETA 2006) defines it as ldquoA learnership is a route to
acquiring a qualification in the National Qualification Framework (NQF) that offers both
theoretical and workplace experience in any chosen career hellip The learnership programme is a
qualification that is outcomes-based It allows learners to interact with the working environment
while gaining an understanding of the workplacerdquo Mummenthey (2008) in her research defines
it as providing a planned and appropriate combination of learning outcomes with a defined
purpose providing learners with applied competence and a basis for further learning comprising
three components ie fundamental core and elective unit standards entailing specified exit level
outcomes and generally achieving the required credits in a range of 30 to 70 of time spent at
the workplace
As stipulated by the SDA (RSA 1998) the learnership agreement is a legally binding agreement
that has to be concluded between the employer and the learner For a learnership to be legal
10
there needs to a signing of a learnership agreement between the three involved parties to a
learnership (the Employer the Learner and the Training provider) and the learnership needs to
registered with a SETA This agreement is in addition to a general contract of employment
signed by the learner
The contract of employment and the learnership agreement place clear obligations and rights on
all three parties to the learnership agreement The basic responsibilities according to the
learnership agreement are (Department of Labour 2001a)
Employer duties
to employ the learner for the defined period
to provide the learner with practical work experience
to allow the learner to attend off-the-job education and training measures
Learner duties
to work for the employer
to attend any educationtraining programmes specified
Provider duties
to provide the learner with the education and training as specified
to support the learner in the learning process
The contract of employment will stipulate the conditions of employment such as working hours
overtime and leave it will also indicate how much and learner will be paid The learner has to be
paid an allowance According to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act No 75 of 1997 (RSA
2001) this allowance is calculated as a percentage of the lsquoqualified wagersquo based on the credits
the learner has already achieved The lsquoqualified wagersquo is defined as the wage the employer
would pay the learner on obtaining the qualification for which the learnership is registered The
exact remuneration as well as its calculation (and the minimum allowance) are regulated by the
Act
11
Learnerships in the Construction Industry to date
CETA funds learnership but with a total of 8 365 levy-paying construction companies in the
sector only 56 learnerships had been registered with the CETA by mid 2003 (cidb 2004) Since
then there has been an innovative approach by industry and CETA that has enabled an
introduction of a system in which a number of companies can take on a shared commitment thus
providing some renewed impetus to skills development (cidb 2004) Government support to this
approach is reflected in amended regulations that cater for employer groups by the form of a tax
incentive The tax incentive is applicable at the beginning of and upon completion of the
learnership (DoL 2001) at the beginning of the learnership (for learners already employed by
the entity) once a Learnership agreement has been entered into and the agreement registered with
a SETA the employer is eligible for a deduction of 70 of the annual wages paid to that learner
up to a maximum of R20 000 during the relevant year of assessment and upon completion for
(unemployed learners) the employer is eligible for a deduction of 100 of the Learnership
allowance paid to that learner up to a maximum of R30 000 during the relevant year of
assessment To date CETA has 84 registered learnerships with 44 of them active 21 of them
replaced and 19 of them Active but to be extended in the future
The following is a list of registered learnerships for the year 2010(CETA 2010)
Registration Number NQF
Status
Learnership Title Qualification
Number
Status
05 Q 050048 18 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(carpentry)
24296 Active
05 Q 050047 16 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(carpeting)
24296 Active
05 Q 050049 20 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(vinyl)
24296 Active
05 Q 050034 41 120 1 1 Construction road worker(construction)
22977 Replaced by 24133
05 Q 050036 40 120 1 1 Construction road 22977 Replaced by
12
worker(maintenance) 24133
Registration Number NQF
Status
Learnership Title Qualification
Number
Status
05 Q 050073 21 123 2 2 Construction materials tester (bituminous)
49058 Active
05 Q 050074 22 139 2 2 Construction materials tester (concrete)
49058 Active
05 Q 050080 32 129 2 2 Construction crane operator
48961 Active
05Q05103261202 2 Construction foreman 49410 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction plasterer
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction masonry
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction painter
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction formworks
65409 Active
05Q050101351604 4 Plumber 58782 Active
05Q050064 241426 4 Surveyor(hydrographic) 20487 Active
05Q050087871764 4 Construction supervisor 23682 Replaced by 49053
05Q050063252715 5 Structural steel detailer 48636 Active
05Q050043312045 5 Manager Building Construction
23675 Active
05Q050044342675 5 Manager Civil Roadworkrsquos
23675 Active
05Q050089341405 5 Geographical information science operator
23675 Active
The CEO of CETA Mr Petrus Maoko reaffirmed their dedication to skills development by
saying ldquoCETA is prepared and able to answer the call to accelerate skills development within the
construction sector and is setting measures in place that will assist the organization worker faster
harder and smarter to meet the needs of the construction sector and accelerate the turn-around
13
time of internal processes rdquo and that CETA is ready to make the construction sector more
accessible to women young people people with disabilities and rural communities (Duma
2010)
Constraints encountered within Learnerships
In the book on Perspective in Learnerships Babb et al (2005) have highlighted the key elements
for an effective learnership programme The elements are the overall purpose aims and
objectives of the programme the governance of the programme the learning outcome expressed
as a qualification the selection of the learners the quality of the learning provision on the job
training and work placement the assessment process and ongoing evaluation of the programme
and the administration of the system
Overall purposes aims and objective It is clear that the purpose and objective of such a
programme is to address the national professional and organisational need for skilled artisan and
to redress the gap of inequality amongst the South African citizens
The governance of the system A learnership is a multi stakeholderrsquos (the DoL DoE SETAs
learners training providers etc) entity and the more diverse the stakeholders the more essential
the governance structures and processes need to be It is when all these stakeholders understand
their roles and responsibilities that an effective programme is created
Qualifications The learnership must lead to an accredited qualification which may be broad
based or occupation specific The curriculum must include broader skills requirements such as
interpersonal skills life skills problem solving skill and communication skills which are cited as
being critical to enable the learner to perform to their full potential and be adaptable to any
working environment
Selection of learners Although learnerships are open to any one within the designated age
limits there needs to be a balance between the numbers of learners accepted into them with their
14
best chances of succeeding To ensure this an assessment of potential learners to ensure their
basic ability to succeed is an essential component of selecting learners for the programme
Quality of learning provision For a learnership to be work effectively highly effective training
provider institutions with well qualified and capable teaching staff sound administration and
cutting edge equipment and facilities are required
On the job training and work placement Successful learnerships incorporate on the job training
coaching and assessment furthermore on the job training should be structured outcome based
and challenging By structured they should ensure that the necessary learning outcomes are
covered by outcome based they should ensure that the learning actually occurs and the
progression from one phase to the next without worrying about the time and it should be
challenging by ensuring that the learner is motivated to learn
The assessment and evaluation process The assessment process needs to be a multiple process
involving problem solving and the design of the process is critical and the capacity of the
assessors needs to be built and the appropriate tools developed Learnerships should also
evaluate their success that is their outcome such as if their learners have been employed if they
are contributing to their sector and how successful their outcome is instead of the number of
learners the programme has produced
Administration of the programme For a learnership to work the administrator who manages it
should ensure that the data required should be well maintained as it is needed for workplace
skills planning and reporting employment equity and sectoral charter reporting
All these above mentioned elements if properly implemented prove to deliver an effective and
successful learnership (Examples of such successes is the BAKSETA from the banking sector
(Dunn 2005)) so then the question arises why are most learnership not delivering what the
Skills development act had set out to achieve Based on various literature read the following are
the key problems thought to be the hindering factors to the success of learnership programme for
artisans in general and in the construction industry (MBA 2008 Mukora 2008 Mummenthey
2008 cidb 2004 CETA 2008 Babb et al 2005)
15
When the Setas were established the majority did not have appropriate systems and
procedures in place to deal with their core functions From a governance and oversight
point of view the situation was equally problematic as SETA boards were constituted
and sought to define their areas of responsibility
There was an underestimation of the scale of the task and the volume of the problems in
terms of implementing the SDA This then could have fed into a failure to sufficiently
factor in the extent to which the new system might become bureaucratized and hence its
resource intensity
There appeared to be a lack of understanding not only around the structure of the
economy but also the nature of work processes (especially in relation to artisans and the
role they played in the production process)
Those pushing for a new order did not have an appreciation for the artisan and there was
a sense that intermediate (artisan) skills are not important This was partly related to the
fact that the apprenticeship system had become so fundamentally linked with the
apartheid system (and hence had become discredited) and there was a real sense that
artisan skills would no longer be required as part of the skills base of the lsquonew economyrsquo
which was to emerge Hence the artisan became a devalued commodity
Research has revealed that learnerships until fairly recently have tended to be focused at
very low skills levels Where artisan-based learnerships have been introduced cynicism
emerged around quality It has been argued that this is partly a result of the fact that
learnerships were not ready to be implemented when they were but there was political
pressure to do so as opposed to continuing with the apprenticeship system
The people required to provide training do not possess the skills required for effective
coaching and training and in addition the administration burden associated with
16
learnerships and assessment results in trainers feeling that they are distracted from their
core responsibilities
The pipeline for the development of skilled personnel is partly a responsibility of
education and labour So it is not within the sole domain of Setas to deliver skills into the
economy The effectiveness of the educational system is critical in achieving this
objective This not only raises the question of the linkage between education and labour
and the lack of co-ordination between the two ministries but also highlights the fact that a
number of blockages have occurred some of which are systemic and have nothing to do
with the functioning of the Setas
Often the lack of an overall learning curriculum is indicative of poor workplace skills
planning (which must be submitted to the SETA by employers)
In many learnerships there is a significant divide between what learners are taught and
what occurs on the job What the learner learns in the classroom is unable to practice in
the work environment
The construction environment with increasingly temporary and casual employment does
not bode well for learnerships as these by definition have a long-term orientation
(duration of a minimum of one year) and require formal contractual arrangements The
duration of the training may thus be a concern
Another challenge is the labour-intensive nature of the work which requires the
employment of a large amount of relatively elementary skills about 40 percent of the
workforce is made up of general manual labour (who are unqualified or partly qualified)
African employees fill almost 90 percent of the elementary occupations The sector
employs the fourth highest number of people having no formal education which
challenges the implementation of learnerships even further as this industry is particularly
affected by the numeracy literacy and language related problems
17
Attracting and Recruiting the Youth as Artisans
Over the years various discussions have taken place on how to build the image of the artisan
(Mukora 2008) The Artisan Development Coordinating Committee has proposed during their
committees meeting in June 2007 a new definition of an artisan as follows lsquoldquoArtisanrdquo will mean
a person that has been certificated as competent by a relevant Education and Training Quality
Assurance body for a qualification registered on the National Qualifications Framework for a
Trade listed by the Minister of Labour in the Skills Development Act as amended which trade
has a designation at occupation level on the Organising Framework for Occupations and the
person is registered with the Registrar for Artisans as an Artisan for such a Tradersquo It is obvious
that in the past the artisan was considered a valued skill within the workplace but as the years
went by the artisan became less appreciated and respected
It is also apparent that young people would rather work with computers than to for engineering
and its associated professions because young people are afraid to get their hands dirty (Mukora
2008) If the country is to increase the supply of artisans some measures will have to be
implemented to encourage the youth to become artisans Catt et al (1997) established mechanism
or methods that can be employed in attracting and retaining younger people to what they
perceive lsquounsuitablersquo or lsquoundesirablersquo careers
Advertising a well written lsquocatchyrsquo advert placed in the newspaper magazines and played on
radio and TV outlining the benefits of being an artisan and how acquiring such skills would
empower the applicant would go a long way in changing the perception of the artisan and
attracting the youth
Open events the DoL DoE the SETAs and all the other contributing stakeholders could host a
series of lsquoopen daysrsquo in schools and communities
18
apprentices (from 10758 in 1991 to a low of 3129 in 1999 signifying - 7091) For the building
industry the numbers dropped from 417 indentured apprentices in 1991 to 107 in 1999 a decline
of 7434 (Kraak 2007 pp 487-488) Secondly the system achieved very low placement rates
after training which was estimated between an average of 15 by the DoL (2001c p 32) and
336 by FET college graduates in 2001 Kraak (2003a pp 680-681) reported that 697 of
African and 242 of white qualified artisans remained unemployed The low placement rates
were due mainly to a social change in training conditions in the system over the years
With the introduction of the Manpower Training Act in 1981 and the years following the official
de-racialisation the racial distribution in the system became more and more inverted Ninety
percent of the students in technical colleges were now black and studied full-time mostly
without being able to obtain any employer participation (Kraak 2007) This clearly indicated
that even though the legal barriers for inclusion had been withdrawn the system still seemed
premised on the continued exclusion of Africans to equal employment opportunities Other
reasons apart from the de-racialisation process which may have supported the decline were
(Akoojee et al 2005)
1048707 the economic recession during the final phase of apartheid
1048707 rising costs of training fees (up to 80 of a skilled labourerrsquos wage)
1048707 reduction of subsidies and phasing out of tax concessions
1048707 poor image of FET colleges due to a lack of responsiveness to labour market requirements
Whatever the reasons for the decline were a report of the HSRC in 1984 (Investigation into the
Training of Artisans) leveled criticisms at and questioned the general quality of the training and
the system of control for apprenticeships The main concerns were related to the ability of the
system to meet current technological skills requirements and the low quality of the practical
workplace training This was often unsupervised and unstructured on-the-job training which did
not always expose the apprentice to the full range of the trade Moreover the report stressed a
lack of theoretical input and criticised the fact that the system attributed artisan status after 5
years irrespective of passing the trade test ie only by lsquoeffluxion of timersquo A general
5
dissatisfaction was further expressed with the time-based model as it did not take into account
the differing learning tempos of the apprentices Other critics were concerned with the narrow
confine of apprenticeships which did not cater for all age categories gender groups (highly male
dominated) skills levels (only artisans) and industrial sectors (Akoojee et al 2005)They thus
argued for a more responsive inclusive and flexible skills development system to meet the needs
of all (age race and gender dimensions as well as employment sectors)rsquo
Apprenticeships versus learnerships Characteristic features and differences
As the apprenticeship training programme under these conditions did not seem a realistic option
for a national skills solution the concept of learnerships was introduced The new system sought
to be more flexible provide for the needs of all and to address the criticisms leveled at the
declining apprenticeship system (DoL 2001e) The component elements and key features of the
two systems thus differed vastly To illustrate these major differences the key characteristics of
the apprenticeship and the learnership system are looked at in Table 1 The table has been based
on the views of Mummenthey (2008) as set out in her research
Table 1 Apprenticeships versus learnerships
Characteristics Apprenticeship Learnership
Offering principle Mainly supply-side driven Offered by providersindependently of an articulated demand by thelabour market limited to some industries
Offered in response to an articulated social oreconomic need for all sectors
Trained qualifications Only blue collar trades atintermediate skills levels (N1-N4)Mainly building construction workers ofdifferent designated trades at N2 level
All range of occupations in the NQFin which a work-based learning route is viable
Primary qualityassurance institution
Industry Training Board (ITB)BITB (Building Industry Training Board) andCivil Engineering Industry Training Board (CEITB)
Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA)Construction Education and Training Authority(CETA)
6
Addressedlearner group
Indentured learners under the age of 24
All types of learners (employed pre- andunemployed) with disparate levels of prior learningNo age restrictions
Underlying trainingprinciple
Time-based Input-orientedTime-based theoretical education combined withpractical less structured on-the-job learning for adhoc occupational application Focus on input ratherthan an active participation of the learner in thelearning process
Outcomes-based Learner oriented Integration of theoretical education and structured workplace training of a specified nature andduration including generic skills with a clear future orientation The learner stands at the centre of the process and takes an active role in learning
Training providers(TheoreticalPractical)
Technical colleges one employerBuilding Industries Federation of South Africa(BIFSA) training college accredited institutions
Accredited provider(s)Employergroup of employers(large medium small
Duration 3-5 years for qualifying artisans depending on thespecific tradePart-time studies in block release format
On average 12-18 months depending on the finalcredit value of the NQF qualification For artisanlevel several learnerships leading to NQF level 3-4Format according to needs not specified
Assessment Final central trade testConducted by BIFSA on behalf of BITB
Multiple individual assessments by accreditedassessors Evidence provided in portfolio (iePortfolio of Evidence)
Primary legislation Manpower Training Act of 1981
Skills Development Act of 1998
Funding Voluntary levy collected and determined by the responsible Industry Training Board(Manpower Training Amendment Act of 1990)15 levy collected by BITB
Mandatory and nationally fixed levy collected bySARS and disbursed to the SETA(Skills Development Levies Act of 1999)
7
3 The Skills Development Act The Birth of lsquoLearnershipsrsquo
As mentioned in the preceding literature one of the principal causes of the low level of skills in
South Africa is the lacklow education across all the sectors in the country which is influenced
by an a working environment that is ever changing in terms of the methods and skills required to
properly execute work tasks According to Bellis (2001) the fact that there is very little
evaluation of training done in our country has obscured the probability that much expenditure on
training has done little to improve competence and performance In his view the problem lies in
how training and development are undertaken than in how many training courses are run The
Skills Development Act (SDA) together with all the other related legislation (the South African
Qualifications Authority Act No 58 of 1995 encompassing the National Qualifications
Framework concept) aims to address and lessen the above mentioned training and education
deficit
For an understanding of the nature of learnerships it is important to understand the purpose and
function of the SDA and its integrated frameworks The purpose of the skills development Act
No 97 of 1998 is to
Develop the skills of the South African workforce
- to improve the quality of life of workers their prospects of work and labour mobility
- to improve productivity in the workplace and the competitiveness of employers
- to promote self-employment and
- to improve the delivery of social services
To increase the levels of investment in education and training in the labour market and to
improve the return on that investment
To encourage employers
- to use the workplace as an active learning environment
- to provide employees with the opportunities to acquire new skills
- to provide opportunities for new entrants to the labour market to gain work experience
8
- to employ persons who find it difficult to be employed
To improve the employment prospects-of persons previously disadvantaged by unfair
discrimination and to redress those disadvantages through training and education
To ensure the quality of education and training in and for the workplace
To assist
- work seekers to find work retrenched workers tore-enter the labour market employers
to find qualified employees and to provide and regulate employment services
The above purposes are to be achieved through institutional and financial frameworks made up
of
The National Skills Authority whose function is to advice the minister of labour liaise
with the SETArsquos conduct investigations and exercise any other of powers the Act
The National Skill Fund This will be created from funds collected from skill
development levies from parliament donations to the fund interest from investments
and money received from other sources
Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA)
Labour Centers Whose main function are to provide employment services for workers
employers and training providers especially in rural areas to register work seekers and to
register vacancies and work opportunities
The Skills Development Planning Unit This is a unit at the Department of Labour
(DoL) head office to address the national issues on policy and strategy such as the
National Skills Development Strategy I- IIII
One of the major structures for the achievement of the purposes of the SDA is that of the
SETAs (Bellis 2001) as they are the functioning lsquolimbsrsquo of the SDA They are also tasked
9
with implementing registering promoting and collecting amp distributing skills development
levies within their respective sectors (SDA 1998)
4 The Context of Learnerships
Babb et al (2005) points out the learnership system are one of the cornerstones of the new skills
development legislation The learnership system is seen as an intervention to redress the old
apprenticeship system and its problems and create a high quality dual system of learning
(Mukora 2008) Learnerships are defined and regulated by the Skills Development Act and
according to chapter 4 of the SDA learnerships require the following elements for their
establishment through a Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA)
consists of a structured learning component
includes practical work experience of a specified nature and duration
would lead to a qualification registered by the South African Qualifications Authority
and related to an occupation and
is registered with the Director-General in the prescribed manner
There are varying definitions of a Learnership but based on what is outlined in the SDA it can
be described as a path to a nationally recognised qualification that relates to an occupation and
consists of a structured learning component and practical work experience The Construction
Education and Training Authorityrsquos (CETA 2006) defines it as ldquoA learnership is a route to
acquiring a qualification in the National Qualification Framework (NQF) that offers both
theoretical and workplace experience in any chosen career hellip The learnership programme is a
qualification that is outcomes-based It allows learners to interact with the working environment
while gaining an understanding of the workplacerdquo Mummenthey (2008) in her research defines
it as providing a planned and appropriate combination of learning outcomes with a defined
purpose providing learners with applied competence and a basis for further learning comprising
three components ie fundamental core and elective unit standards entailing specified exit level
outcomes and generally achieving the required credits in a range of 30 to 70 of time spent at
the workplace
As stipulated by the SDA (RSA 1998) the learnership agreement is a legally binding agreement
that has to be concluded between the employer and the learner For a learnership to be legal
10
there needs to a signing of a learnership agreement between the three involved parties to a
learnership (the Employer the Learner and the Training provider) and the learnership needs to
registered with a SETA This agreement is in addition to a general contract of employment
signed by the learner
The contract of employment and the learnership agreement place clear obligations and rights on
all three parties to the learnership agreement The basic responsibilities according to the
learnership agreement are (Department of Labour 2001a)
Employer duties
to employ the learner for the defined period
to provide the learner with practical work experience
to allow the learner to attend off-the-job education and training measures
Learner duties
to work for the employer
to attend any educationtraining programmes specified
Provider duties
to provide the learner with the education and training as specified
to support the learner in the learning process
The contract of employment will stipulate the conditions of employment such as working hours
overtime and leave it will also indicate how much and learner will be paid The learner has to be
paid an allowance According to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act No 75 of 1997 (RSA
2001) this allowance is calculated as a percentage of the lsquoqualified wagersquo based on the credits
the learner has already achieved The lsquoqualified wagersquo is defined as the wage the employer
would pay the learner on obtaining the qualification for which the learnership is registered The
exact remuneration as well as its calculation (and the minimum allowance) are regulated by the
Act
11
Learnerships in the Construction Industry to date
CETA funds learnership but with a total of 8 365 levy-paying construction companies in the
sector only 56 learnerships had been registered with the CETA by mid 2003 (cidb 2004) Since
then there has been an innovative approach by industry and CETA that has enabled an
introduction of a system in which a number of companies can take on a shared commitment thus
providing some renewed impetus to skills development (cidb 2004) Government support to this
approach is reflected in amended regulations that cater for employer groups by the form of a tax
incentive The tax incentive is applicable at the beginning of and upon completion of the
learnership (DoL 2001) at the beginning of the learnership (for learners already employed by
the entity) once a Learnership agreement has been entered into and the agreement registered with
a SETA the employer is eligible for a deduction of 70 of the annual wages paid to that learner
up to a maximum of R20 000 during the relevant year of assessment and upon completion for
(unemployed learners) the employer is eligible for a deduction of 100 of the Learnership
allowance paid to that learner up to a maximum of R30 000 during the relevant year of
assessment To date CETA has 84 registered learnerships with 44 of them active 21 of them
replaced and 19 of them Active but to be extended in the future
The following is a list of registered learnerships for the year 2010(CETA 2010)
Registration Number NQF
Status
Learnership Title Qualification
Number
Status
05 Q 050048 18 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(carpentry)
24296 Active
05 Q 050047 16 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(carpeting)
24296 Active
05 Q 050049 20 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(vinyl)
24296 Active
05 Q 050034 41 120 1 1 Construction road worker(construction)
22977 Replaced by 24133
05 Q 050036 40 120 1 1 Construction road 22977 Replaced by
12
worker(maintenance) 24133
Registration Number NQF
Status
Learnership Title Qualification
Number
Status
05 Q 050073 21 123 2 2 Construction materials tester (bituminous)
49058 Active
05 Q 050074 22 139 2 2 Construction materials tester (concrete)
49058 Active
05 Q 050080 32 129 2 2 Construction crane operator
48961 Active
05Q05103261202 2 Construction foreman 49410 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction plasterer
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction masonry
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction painter
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction formworks
65409 Active
05Q050101351604 4 Plumber 58782 Active
05Q050064 241426 4 Surveyor(hydrographic) 20487 Active
05Q050087871764 4 Construction supervisor 23682 Replaced by 49053
05Q050063252715 5 Structural steel detailer 48636 Active
05Q050043312045 5 Manager Building Construction
23675 Active
05Q050044342675 5 Manager Civil Roadworkrsquos
23675 Active
05Q050089341405 5 Geographical information science operator
23675 Active
The CEO of CETA Mr Petrus Maoko reaffirmed their dedication to skills development by
saying ldquoCETA is prepared and able to answer the call to accelerate skills development within the
construction sector and is setting measures in place that will assist the organization worker faster
harder and smarter to meet the needs of the construction sector and accelerate the turn-around
13
time of internal processes rdquo and that CETA is ready to make the construction sector more
accessible to women young people people with disabilities and rural communities (Duma
2010)
Constraints encountered within Learnerships
In the book on Perspective in Learnerships Babb et al (2005) have highlighted the key elements
for an effective learnership programme The elements are the overall purpose aims and
objectives of the programme the governance of the programme the learning outcome expressed
as a qualification the selection of the learners the quality of the learning provision on the job
training and work placement the assessment process and ongoing evaluation of the programme
and the administration of the system
Overall purposes aims and objective It is clear that the purpose and objective of such a
programme is to address the national professional and organisational need for skilled artisan and
to redress the gap of inequality amongst the South African citizens
The governance of the system A learnership is a multi stakeholderrsquos (the DoL DoE SETAs
learners training providers etc) entity and the more diverse the stakeholders the more essential
the governance structures and processes need to be It is when all these stakeholders understand
their roles and responsibilities that an effective programme is created
Qualifications The learnership must lead to an accredited qualification which may be broad
based or occupation specific The curriculum must include broader skills requirements such as
interpersonal skills life skills problem solving skill and communication skills which are cited as
being critical to enable the learner to perform to their full potential and be adaptable to any
working environment
Selection of learners Although learnerships are open to any one within the designated age
limits there needs to be a balance between the numbers of learners accepted into them with their
14
best chances of succeeding To ensure this an assessment of potential learners to ensure their
basic ability to succeed is an essential component of selecting learners for the programme
Quality of learning provision For a learnership to be work effectively highly effective training
provider institutions with well qualified and capable teaching staff sound administration and
cutting edge equipment and facilities are required
On the job training and work placement Successful learnerships incorporate on the job training
coaching and assessment furthermore on the job training should be structured outcome based
and challenging By structured they should ensure that the necessary learning outcomes are
covered by outcome based they should ensure that the learning actually occurs and the
progression from one phase to the next without worrying about the time and it should be
challenging by ensuring that the learner is motivated to learn
The assessment and evaluation process The assessment process needs to be a multiple process
involving problem solving and the design of the process is critical and the capacity of the
assessors needs to be built and the appropriate tools developed Learnerships should also
evaluate their success that is their outcome such as if their learners have been employed if they
are contributing to their sector and how successful their outcome is instead of the number of
learners the programme has produced
Administration of the programme For a learnership to work the administrator who manages it
should ensure that the data required should be well maintained as it is needed for workplace
skills planning and reporting employment equity and sectoral charter reporting
All these above mentioned elements if properly implemented prove to deliver an effective and
successful learnership (Examples of such successes is the BAKSETA from the banking sector
(Dunn 2005)) so then the question arises why are most learnership not delivering what the
Skills development act had set out to achieve Based on various literature read the following are
the key problems thought to be the hindering factors to the success of learnership programme for
artisans in general and in the construction industry (MBA 2008 Mukora 2008 Mummenthey
2008 cidb 2004 CETA 2008 Babb et al 2005)
15
When the Setas were established the majority did not have appropriate systems and
procedures in place to deal with their core functions From a governance and oversight
point of view the situation was equally problematic as SETA boards were constituted
and sought to define their areas of responsibility
There was an underestimation of the scale of the task and the volume of the problems in
terms of implementing the SDA This then could have fed into a failure to sufficiently
factor in the extent to which the new system might become bureaucratized and hence its
resource intensity
There appeared to be a lack of understanding not only around the structure of the
economy but also the nature of work processes (especially in relation to artisans and the
role they played in the production process)
Those pushing for a new order did not have an appreciation for the artisan and there was
a sense that intermediate (artisan) skills are not important This was partly related to the
fact that the apprenticeship system had become so fundamentally linked with the
apartheid system (and hence had become discredited) and there was a real sense that
artisan skills would no longer be required as part of the skills base of the lsquonew economyrsquo
which was to emerge Hence the artisan became a devalued commodity
Research has revealed that learnerships until fairly recently have tended to be focused at
very low skills levels Where artisan-based learnerships have been introduced cynicism
emerged around quality It has been argued that this is partly a result of the fact that
learnerships were not ready to be implemented when they were but there was political
pressure to do so as opposed to continuing with the apprenticeship system
The people required to provide training do not possess the skills required for effective
coaching and training and in addition the administration burden associated with
16
learnerships and assessment results in trainers feeling that they are distracted from their
core responsibilities
The pipeline for the development of skilled personnel is partly a responsibility of
education and labour So it is not within the sole domain of Setas to deliver skills into the
economy The effectiveness of the educational system is critical in achieving this
objective This not only raises the question of the linkage between education and labour
and the lack of co-ordination between the two ministries but also highlights the fact that a
number of blockages have occurred some of which are systemic and have nothing to do
with the functioning of the Setas
Often the lack of an overall learning curriculum is indicative of poor workplace skills
planning (which must be submitted to the SETA by employers)
In many learnerships there is a significant divide between what learners are taught and
what occurs on the job What the learner learns in the classroom is unable to practice in
the work environment
The construction environment with increasingly temporary and casual employment does
not bode well for learnerships as these by definition have a long-term orientation
(duration of a minimum of one year) and require formal contractual arrangements The
duration of the training may thus be a concern
Another challenge is the labour-intensive nature of the work which requires the
employment of a large amount of relatively elementary skills about 40 percent of the
workforce is made up of general manual labour (who are unqualified or partly qualified)
African employees fill almost 90 percent of the elementary occupations The sector
employs the fourth highest number of people having no formal education which
challenges the implementation of learnerships even further as this industry is particularly
affected by the numeracy literacy and language related problems
17
Attracting and Recruiting the Youth as Artisans
Over the years various discussions have taken place on how to build the image of the artisan
(Mukora 2008) The Artisan Development Coordinating Committee has proposed during their
committees meeting in June 2007 a new definition of an artisan as follows lsquoldquoArtisanrdquo will mean
a person that has been certificated as competent by a relevant Education and Training Quality
Assurance body for a qualification registered on the National Qualifications Framework for a
Trade listed by the Minister of Labour in the Skills Development Act as amended which trade
has a designation at occupation level on the Organising Framework for Occupations and the
person is registered with the Registrar for Artisans as an Artisan for such a Tradersquo It is obvious
that in the past the artisan was considered a valued skill within the workplace but as the years
went by the artisan became less appreciated and respected
It is also apparent that young people would rather work with computers than to for engineering
and its associated professions because young people are afraid to get their hands dirty (Mukora
2008) If the country is to increase the supply of artisans some measures will have to be
implemented to encourage the youth to become artisans Catt et al (1997) established mechanism
or methods that can be employed in attracting and retaining younger people to what they
perceive lsquounsuitablersquo or lsquoundesirablersquo careers
Advertising a well written lsquocatchyrsquo advert placed in the newspaper magazines and played on
radio and TV outlining the benefits of being an artisan and how acquiring such skills would
empower the applicant would go a long way in changing the perception of the artisan and
attracting the youth
Open events the DoL DoE the SETAs and all the other contributing stakeholders could host a
series of lsquoopen daysrsquo in schools and communities
18
dissatisfaction was further expressed with the time-based model as it did not take into account
the differing learning tempos of the apprentices Other critics were concerned with the narrow
confine of apprenticeships which did not cater for all age categories gender groups (highly male
dominated) skills levels (only artisans) and industrial sectors (Akoojee et al 2005)They thus
argued for a more responsive inclusive and flexible skills development system to meet the needs
of all (age race and gender dimensions as well as employment sectors)rsquo
Apprenticeships versus learnerships Characteristic features and differences
As the apprenticeship training programme under these conditions did not seem a realistic option
for a national skills solution the concept of learnerships was introduced The new system sought
to be more flexible provide for the needs of all and to address the criticisms leveled at the
declining apprenticeship system (DoL 2001e) The component elements and key features of the
two systems thus differed vastly To illustrate these major differences the key characteristics of
the apprenticeship and the learnership system are looked at in Table 1 The table has been based
on the views of Mummenthey (2008) as set out in her research
Table 1 Apprenticeships versus learnerships
Characteristics Apprenticeship Learnership
Offering principle Mainly supply-side driven Offered by providersindependently of an articulated demand by thelabour market limited to some industries
Offered in response to an articulated social oreconomic need for all sectors
Trained qualifications Only blue collar trades atintermediate skills levels (N1-N4)Mainly building construction workers ofdifferent designated trades at N2 level
All range of occupations in the NQFin which a work-based learning route is viable
Primary qualityassurance institution
Industry Training Board (ITB)BITB (Building Industry Training Board) andCivil Engineering Industry Training Board (CEITB)
Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA)Construction Education and Training Authority(CETA)
6
Addressedlearner group
Indentured learners under the age of 24
All types of learners (employed pre- andunemployed) with disparate levels of prior learningNo age restrictions
Underlying trainingprinciple
Time-based Input-orientedTime-based theoretical education combined withpractical less structured on-the-job learning for adhoc occupational application Focus on input ratherthan an active participation of the learner in thelearning process
Outcomes-based Learner oriented Integration of theoretical education and structured workplace training of a specified nature andduration including generic skills with a clear future orientation The learner stands at the centre of the process and takes an active role in learning
Training providers(TheoreticalPractical)
Technical colleges one employerBuilding Industries Federation of South Africa(BIFSA) training college accredited institutions
Accredited provider(s)Employergroup of employers(large medium small
Duration 3-5 years for qualifying artisans depending on thespecific tradePart-time studies in block release format
On average 12-18 months depending on the finalcredit value of the NQF qualification For artisanlevel several learnerships leading to NQF level 3-4Format according to needs not specified
Assessment Final central trade testConducted by BIFSA on behalf of BITB
Multiple individual assessments by accreditedassessors Evidence provided in portfolio (iePortfolio of Evidence)
Primary legislation Manpower Training Act of 1981
Skills Development Act of 1998
Funding Voluntary levy collected and determined by the responsible Industry Training Board(Manpower Training Amendment Act of 1990)15 levy collected by BITB
Mandatory and nationally fixed levy collected bySARS and disbursed to the SETA(Skills Development Levies Act of 1999)
7
3 The Skills Development Act The Birth of lsquoLearnershipsrsquo
As mentioned in the preceding literature one of the principal causes of the low level of skills in
South Africa is the lacklow education across all the sectors in the country which is influenced
by an a working environment that is ever changing in terms of the methods and skills required to
properly execute work tasks According to Bellis (2001) the fact that there is very little
evaluation of training done in our country has obscured the probability that much expenditure on
training has done little to improve competence and performance In his view the problem lies in
how training and development are undertaken than in how many training courses are run The
Skills Development Act (SDA) together with all the other related legislation (the South African
Qualifications Authority Act No 58 of 1995 encompassing the National Qualifications
Framework concept) aims to address and lessen the above mentioned training and education
deficit
For an understanding of the nature of learnerships it is important to understand the purpose and
function of the SDA and its integrated frameworks The purpose of the skills development Act
No 97 of 1998 is to
Develop the skills of the South African workforce
- to improve the quality of life of workers their prospects of work and labour mobility
- to improve productivity in the workplace and the competitiveness of employers
- to promote self-employment and
- to improve the delivery of social services
To increase the levels of investment in education and training in the labour market and to
improve the return on that investment
To encourage employers
- to use the workplace as an active learning environment
- to provide employees with the opportunities to acquire new skills
- to provide opportunities for new entrants to the labour market to gain work experience
8
- to employ persons who find it difficult to be employed
To improve the employment prospects-of persons previously disadvantaged by unfair
discrimination and to redress those disadvantages through training and education
To ensure the quality of education and training in and for the workplace
To assist
- work seekers to find work retrenched workers tore-enter the labour market employers
to find qualified employees and to provide and regulate employment services
The above purposes are to be achieved through institutional and financial frameworks made up
of
The National Skills Authority whose function is to advice the minister of labour liaise
with the SETArsquos conduct investigations and exercise any other of powers the Act
The National Skill Fund This will be created from funds collected from skill
development levies from parliament donations to the fund interest from investments
and money received from other sources
Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA)
Labour Centers Whose main function are to provide employment services for workers
employers and training providers especially in rural areas to register work seekers and to
register vacancies and work opportunities
The Skills Development Planning Unit This is a unit at the Department of Labour
(DoL) head office to address the national issues on policy and strategy such as the
National Skills Development Strategy I- IIII
One of the major structures for the achievement of the purposes of the SDA is that of the
SETAs (Bellis 2001) as they are the functioning lsquolimbsrsquo of the SDA They are also tasked
9
with implementing registering promoting and collecting amp distributing skills development
levies within their respective sectors (SDA 1998)
4 The Context of Learnerships
Babb et al (2005) points out the learnership system are one of the cornerstones of the new skills
development legislation The learnership system is seen as an intervention to redress the old
apprenticeship system and its problems and create a high quality dual system of learning
(Mukora 2008) Learnerships are defined and regulated by the Skills Development Act and
according to chapter 4 of the SDA learnerships require the following elements for their
establishment through a Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA)
consists of a structured learning component
includes practical work experience of a specified nature and duration
would lead to a qualification registered by the South African Qualifications Authority
and related to an occupation and
is registered with the Director-General in the prescribed manner
There are varying definitions of a Learnership but based on what is outlined in the SDA it can
be described as a path to a nationally recognised qualification that relates to an occupation and
consists of a structured learning component and practical work experience The Construction
Education and Training Authorityrsquos (CETA 2006) defines it as ldquoA learnership is a route to
acquiring a qualification in the National Qualification Framework (NQF) that offers both
theoretical and workplace experience in any chosen career hellip The learnership programme is a
qualification that is outcomes-based It allows learners to interact with the working environment
while gaining an understanding of the workplacerdquo Mummenthey (2008) in her research defines
it as providing a planned and appropriate combination of learning outcomes with a defined
purpose providing learners with applied competence and a basis for further learning comprising
three components ie fundamental core and elective unit standards entailing specified exit level
outcomes and generally achieving the required credits in a range of 30 to 70 of time spent at
the workplace
As stipulated by the SDA (RSA 1998) the learnership agreement is a legally binding agreement
that has to be concluded between the employer and the learner For a learnership to be legal
10
there needs to a signing of a learnership agreement between the three involved parties to a
learnership (the Employer the Learner and the Training provider) and the learnership needs to
registered with a SETA This agreement is in addition to a general contract of employment
signed by the learner
The contract of employment and the learnership agreement place clear obligations and rights on
all three parties to the learnership agreement The basic responsibilities according to the
learnership agreement are (Department of Labour 2001a)
Employer duties
to employ the learner for the defined period
to provide the learner with practical work experience
to allow the learner to attend off-the-job education and training measures
Learner duties
to work for the employer
to attend any educationtraining programmes specified
Provider duties
to provide the learner with the education and training as specified
to support the learner in the learning process
The contract of employment will stipulate the conditions of employment such as working hours
overtime and leave it will also indicate how much and learner will be paid The learner has to be
paid an allowance According to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act No 75 of 1997 (RSA
2001) this allowance is calculated as a percentage of the lsquoqualified wagersquo based on the credits
the learner has already achieved The lsquoqualified wagersquo is defined as the wage the employer
would pay the learner on obtaining the qualification for which the learnership is registered The
exact remuneration as well as its calculation (and the minimum allowance) are regulated by the
Act
11
Learnerships in the Construction Industry to date
CETA funds learnership but with a total of 8 365 levy-paying construction companies in the
sector only 56 learnerships had been registered with the CETA by mid 2003 (cidb 2004) Since
then there has been an innovative approach by industry and CETA that has enabled an
introduction of a system in which a number of companies can take on a shared commitment thus
providing some renewed impetus to skills development (cidb 2004) Government support to this
approach is reflected in amended regulations that cater for employer groups by the form of a tax
incentive The tax incentive is applicable at the beginning of and upon completion of the
learnership (DoL 2001) at the beginning of the learnership (for learners already employed by
the entity) once a Learnership agreement has been entered into and the agreement registered with
a SETA the employer is eligible for a deduction of 70 of the annual wages paid to that learner
up to a maximum of R20 000 during the relevant year of assessment and upon completion for
(unemployed learners) the employer is eligible for a deduction of 100 of the Learnership
allowance paid to that learner up to a maximum of R30 000 during the relevant year of
assessment To date CETA has 84 registered learnerships with 44 of them active 21 of them
replaced and 19 of them Active but to be extended in the future
The following is a list of registered learnerships for the year 2010(CETA 2010)
Registration Number NQF
Status
Learnership Title Qualification
Number
Status
05 Q 050048 18 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(carpentry)
24296 Active
05 Q 050047 16 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(carpeting)
24296 Active
05 Q 050049 20 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(vinyl)
24296 Active
05 Q 050034 41 120 1 1 Construction road worker(construction)
22977 Replaced by 24133
05 Q 050036 40 120 1 1 Construction road 22977 Replaced by
12
worker(maintenance) 24133
Registration Number NQF
Status
Learnership Title Qualification
Number
Status
05 Q 050073 21 123 2 2 Construction materials tester (bituminous)
49058 Active
05 Q 050074 22 139 2 2 Construction materials tester (concrete)
49058 Active
05 Q 050080 32 129 2 2 Construction crane operator
48961 Active
05Q05103261202 2 Construction foreman 49410 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction plasterer
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction masonry
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction painter
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction formworks
65409 Active
05Q050101351604 4 Plumber 58782 Active
05Q050064 241426 4 Surveyor(hydrographic) 20487 Active
05Q050087871764 4 Construction supervisor 23682 Replaced by 49053
05Q050063252715 5 Structural steel detailer 48636 Active
05Q050043312045 5 Manager Building Construction
23675 Active
05Q050044342675 5 Manager Civil Roadworkrsquos
23675 Active
05Q050089341405 5 Geographical information science operator
23675 Active
The CEO of CETA Mr Petrus Maoko reaffirmed their dedication to skills development by
saying ldquoCETA is prepared and able to answer the call to accelerate skills development within the
construction sector and is setting measures in place that will assist the organization worker faster
harder and smarter to meet the needs of the construction sector and accelerate the turn-around
13
time of internal processes rdquo and that CETA is ready to make the construction sector more
accessible to women young people people with disabilities and rural communities (Duma
2010)
Constraints encountered within Learnerships
In the book on Perspective in Learnerships Babb et al (2005) have highlighted the key elements
for an effective learnership programme The elements are the overall purpose aims and
objectives of the programme the governance of the programme the learning outcome expressed
as a qualification the selection of the learners the quality of the learning provision on the job
training and work placement the assessment process and ongoing evaluation of the programme
and the administration of the system
Overall purposes aims and objective It is clear that the purpose and objective of such a
programme is to address the national professional and organisational need for skilled artisan and
to redress the gap of inequality amongst the South African citizens
The governance of the system A learnership is a multi stakeholderrsquos (the DoL DoE SETAs
learners training providers etc) entity and the more diverse the stakeholders the more essential
the governance structures and processes need to be It is when all these stakeholders understand
their roles and responsibilities that an effective programme is created
Qualifications The learnership must lead to an accredited qualification which may be broad
based or occupation specific The curriculum must include broader skills requirements such as
interpersonal skills life skills problem solving skill and communication skills which are cited as
being critical to enable the learner to perform to their full potential and be adaptable to any
working environment
Selection of learners Although learnerships are open to any one within the designated age
limits there needs to be a balance between the numbers of learners accepted into them with their
14
best chances of succeeding To ensure this an assessment of potential learners to ensure their
basic ability to succeed is an essential component of selecting learners for the programme
Quality of learning provision For a learnership to be work effectively highly effective training
provider institutions with well qualified and capable teaching staff sound administration and
cutting edge equipment and facilities are required
On the job training and work placement Successful learnerships incorporate on the job training
coaching and assessment furthermore on the job training should be structured outcome based
and challenging By structured they should ensure that the necessary learning outcomes are
covered by outcome based they should ensure that the learning actually occurs and the
progression from one phase to the next without worrying about the time and it should be
challenging by ensuring that the learner is motivated to learn
The assessment and evaluation process The assessment process needs to be a multiple process
involving problem solving and the design of the process is critical and the capacity of the
assessors needs to be built and the appropriate tools developed Learnerships should also
evaluate their success that is their outcome such as if their learners have been employed if they
are contributing to their sector and how successful their outcome is instead of the number of
learners the programme has produced
Administration of the programme For a learnership to work the administrator who manages it
should ensure that the data required should be well maintained as it is needed for workplace
skills planning and reporting employment equity and sectoral charter reporting
All these above mentioned elements if properly implemented prove to deliver an effective and
successful learnership (Examples of such successes is the BAKSETA from the banking sector
(Dunn 2005)) so then the question arises why are most learnership not delivering what the
Skills development act had set out to achieve Based on various literature read the following are
the key problems thought to be the hindering factors to the success of learnership programme for
artisans in general and in the construction industry (MBA 2008 Mukora 2008 Mummenthey
2008 cidb 2004 CETA 2008 Babb et al 2005)
15
When the Setas were established the majority did not have appropriate systems and
procedures in place to deal with their core functions From a governance and oversight
point of view the situation was equally problematic as SETA boards were constituted
and sought to define their areas of responsibility
There was an underestimation of the scale of the task and the volume of the problems in
terms of implementing the SDA This then could have fed into a failure to sufficiently
factor in the extent to which the new system might become bureaucratized and hence its
resource intensity
There appeared to be a lack of understanding not only around the structure of the
economy but also the nature of work processes (especially in relation to artisans and the
role they played in the production process)
Those pushing for a new order did not have an appreciation for the artisan and there was
a sense that intermediate (artisan) skills are not important This was partly related to the
fact that the apprenticeship system had become so fundamentally linked with the
apartheid system (and hence had become discredited) and there was a real sense that
artisan skills would no longer be required as part of the skills base of the lsquonew economyrsquo
which was to emerge Hence the artisan became a devalued commodity
Research has revealed that learnerships until fairly recently have tended to be focused at
very low skills levels Where artisan-based learnerships have been introduced cynicism
emerged around quality It has been argued that this is partly a result of the fact that
learnerships were not ready to be implemented when they were but there was political
pressure to do so as opposed to continuing with the apprenticeship system
The people required to provide training do not possess the skills required for effective
coaching and training and in addition the administration burden associated with
16
learnerships and assessment results in trainers feeling that they are distracted from their
core responsibilities
The pipeline for the development of skilled personnel is partly a responsibility of
education and labour So it is not within the sole domain of Setas to deliver skills into the
economy The effectiveness of the educational system is critical in achieving this
objective This not only raises the question of the linkage between education and labour
and the lack of co-ordination between the two ministries but also highlights the fact that a
number of blockages have occurred some of which are systemic and have nothing to do
with the functioning of the Setas
Often the lack of an overall learning curriculum is indicative of poor workplace skills
planning (which must be submitted to the SETA by employers)
In many learnerships there is a significant divide between what learners are taught and
what occurs on the job What the learner learns in the classroom is unable to practice in
the work environment
The construction environment with increasingly temporary and casual employment does
not bode well for learnerships as these by definition have a long-term orientation
(duration of a minimum of one year) and require formal contractual arrangements The
duration of the training may thus be a concern
Another challenge is the labour-intensive nature of the work which requires the
employment of a large amount of relatively elementary skills about 40 percent of the
workforce is made up of general manual labour (who are unqualified or partly qualified)
African employees fill almost 90 percent of the elementary occupations The sector
employs the fourth highest number of people having no formal education which
challenges the implementation of learnerships even further as this industry is particularly
affected by the numeracy literacy and language related problems
17
Attracting and Recruiting the Youth as Artisans
Over the years various discussions have taken place on how to build the image of the artisan
(Mukora 2008) The Artisan Development Coordinating Committee has proposed during their
committees meeting in June 2007 a new definition of an artisan as follows lsquoldquoArtisanrdquo will mean
a person that has been certificated as competent by a relevant Education and Training Quality
Assurance body for a qualification registered on the National Qualifications Framework for a
Trade listed by the Minister of Labour in the Skills Development Act as amended which trade
has a designation at occupation level on the Organising Framework for Occupations and the
person is registered with the Registrar for Artisans as an Artisan for such a Tradersquo It is obvious
that in the past the artisan was considered a valued skill within the workplace but as the years
went by the artisan became less appreciated and respected
It is also apparent that young people would rather work with computers than to for engineering
and its associated professions because young people are afraid to get their hands dirty (Mukora
2008) If the country is to increase the supply of artisans some measures will have to be
implemented to encourage the youth to become artisans Catt et al (1997) established mechanism
or methods that can be employed in attracting and retaining younger people to what they
perceive lsquounsuitablersquo or lsquoundesirablersquo careers
Advertising a well written lsquocatchyrsquo advert placed in the newspaper magazines and played on
radio and TV outlining the benefits of being an artisan and how acquiring such skills would
empower the applicant would go a long way in changing the perception of the artisan and
attracting the youth
Open events the DoL DoE the SETAs and all the other contributing stakeholders could host a
series of lsquoopen daysrsquo in schools and communities
18
Addressedlearner group
Indentured learners under the age of 24
All types of learners (employed pre- andunemployed) with disparate levels of prior learningNo age restrictions
Underlying trainingprinciple
Time-based Input-orientedTime-based theoretical education combined withpractical less structured on-the-job learning for adhoc occupational application Focus on input ratherthan an active participation of the learner in thelearning process
Outcomes-based Learner oriented Integration of theoretical education and structured workplace training of a specified nature andduration including generic skills with a clear future orientation The learner stands at the centre of the process and takes an active role in learning
Training providers(TheoreticalPractical)
Technical colleges one employerBuilding Industries Federation of South Africa(BIFSA) training college accredited institutions
Accredited provider(s)Employergroup of employers(large medium small
Duration 3-5 years for qualifying artisans depending on thespecific tradePart-time studies in block release format
On average 12-18 months depending on the finalcredit value of the NQF qualification For artisanlevel several learnerships leading to NQF level 3-4Format according to needs not specified
Assessment Final central trade testConducted by BIFSA on behalf of BITB
Multiple individual assessments by accreditedassessors Evidence provided in portfolio (iePortfolio of Evidence)
Primary legislation Manpower Training Act of 1981
Skills Development Act of 1998
Funding Voluntary levy collected and determined by the responsible Industry Training Board(Manpower Training Amendment Act of 1990)15 levy collected by BITB
Mandatory and nationally fixed levy collected bySARS and disbursed to the SETA(Skills Development Levies Act of 1999)
7
3 The Skills Development Act The Birth of lsquoLearnershipsrsquo
As mentioned in the preceding literature one of the principal causes of the low level of skills in
South Africa is the lacklow education across all the sectors in the country which is influenced
by an a working environment that is ever changing in terms of the methods and skills required to
properly execute work tasks According to Bellis (2001) the fact that there is very little
evaluation of training done in our country has obscured the probability that much expenditure on
training has done little to improve competence and performance In his view the problem lies in
how training and development are undertaken than in how many training courses are run The
Skills Development Act (SDA) together with all the other related legislation (the South African
Qualifications Authority Act No 58 of 1995 encompassing the National Qualifications
Framework concept) aims to address and lessen the above mentioned training and education
deficit
For an understanding of the nature of learnerships it is important to understand the purpose and
function of the SDA and its integrated frameworks The purpose of the skills development Act
No 97 of 1998 is to
Develop the skills of the South African workforce
- to improve the quality of life of workers their prospects of work and labour mobility
- to improve productivity in the workplace and the competitiveness of employers
- to promote self-employment and
- to improve the delivery of social services
To increase the levels of investment in education and training in the labour market and to
improve the return on that investment
To encourage employers
- to use the workplace as an active learning environment
- to provide employees with the opportunities to acquire new skills
- to provide opportunities for new entrants to the labour market to gain work experience
8
- to employ persons who find it difficult to be employed
To improve the employment prospects-of persons previously disadvantaged by unfair
discrimination and to redress those disadvantages through training and education
To ensure the quality of education and training in and for the workplace
To assist
- work seekers to find work retrenched workers tore-enter the labour market employers
to find qualified employees and to provide and regulate employment services
The above purposes are to be achieved through institutional and financial frameworks made up
of
The National Skills Authority whose function is to advice the minister of labour liaise
with the SETArsquos conduct investigations and exercise any other of powers the Act
The National Skill Fund This will be created from funds collected from skill
development levies from parliament donations to the fund interest from investments
and money received from other sources
Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA)
Labour Centers Whose main function are to provide employment services for workers
employers and training providers especially in rural areas to register work seekers and to
register vacancies and work opportunities
The Skills Development Planning Unit This is a unit at the Department of Labour
(DoL) head office to address the national issues on policy and strategy such as the
National Skills Development Strategy I- IIII
One of the major structures for the achievement of the purposes of the SDA is that of the
SETAs (Bellis 2001) as they are the functioning lsquolimbsrsquo of the SDA They are also tasked
9
with implementing registering promoting and collecting amp distributing skills development
levies within their respective sectors (SDA 1998)
4 The Context of Learnerships
Babb et al (2005) points out the learnership system are one of the cornerstones of the new skills
development legislation The learnership system is seen as an intervention to redress the old
apprenticeship system and its problems and create a high quality dual system of learning
(Mukora 2008) Learnerships are defined and regulated by the Skills Development Act and
according to chapter 4 of the SDA learnerships require the following elements for their
establishment through a Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA)
consists of a structured learning component
includes practical work experience of a specified nature and duration
would lead to a qualification registered by the South African Qualifications Authority
and related to an occupation and
is registered with the Director-General in the prescribed manner
There are varying definitions of a Learnership but based on what is outlined in the SDA it can
be described as a path to a nationally recognised qualification that relates to an occupation and
consists of a structured learning component and practical work experience The Construction
Education and Training Authorityrsquos (CETA 2006) defines it as ldquoA learnership is a route to
acquiring a qualification in the National Qualification Framework (NQF) that offers both
theoretical and workplace experience in any chosen career hellip The learnership programme is a
qualification that is outcomes-based It allows learners to interact with the working environment
while gaining an understanding of the workplacerdquo Mummenthey (2008) in her research defines
it as providing a planned and appropriate combination of learning outcomes with a defined
purpose providing learners with applied competence and a basis for further learning comprising
three components ie fundamental core and elective unit standards entailing specified exit level
outcomes and generally achieving the required credits in a range of 30 to 70 of time spent at
the workplace
As stipulated by the SDA (RSA 1998) the learnership agreement is a legally binding agreement
that has to be concluded between the employer and the learner For a learnership to be legal
10
there needs to a signing of a learnership agreement between the three involved parties to a
learnership (the Employer the Learner and the Training provider) and the learnership needs to
registered with a SETA This agreement is in addition to a general contract of employment
signed by the learner
The contract of employment and the learnership agreement place clear obligations and rights on
all three parties to the learnership agreement The basic responsibilities according to the
learnership agreement are (Department of Labour 2001a)
Employer duties
to employ the learner for the defined period
to provide the learner with practical work experience
to allow the learner to attend off-the-job education and training measures
Learner duties
to work for the employer
to attend any educationtraining programmes specified
Provider duties
to provide the learner with the education and training as specified
to support the learner in the learning process
The contract of employment will stipulate the conditions of employment such as working hours
overtime and leave it will also indicate how much and learner will be paid The learner has to be
paid an allowance According to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act No 75 of 1997 (RSA
2001) this allowance is calculated as a percentage of the lsquoqualified wagersquo based on the credits
the learner has already achieved The lsquoqualified wagersquo is defined as the wage the employer
would pay the learner on obtaining the qualification for which the learnership is registered The
exact remuneration as well as its calculation (and the minimum allowance) are regulated by the
Act
11
Learnerships in the Construction Industry to date
CETA funds learnership but with a total of 8 365 levy-paying construction companies in the
sector only 56 learnerships had been registered with the CETA by mid 2003 (cidb 2004) Since
then there has been an innovative approach by industry and CETA that has enabled an
introduction of a system in which a number of companies can take on a shared commitment thus
providing some renewed impetus to skills development (cidb 2004) Government support to this
approach is reflected in amended regulations that cater for employer groups by the form of a tax
incentive The tax incentive is applicable at the beginning of and upon completion of the
learnership (DoL 2001) at the beginning of the learnership (for learners already employed by
the entity) once a Learnership agreement has been entered into and the agreement registered with
a SETA the employer is eligible for a deduction of 70 of the annual wages paid to that learner
up to a maximum of R20 000 during the relevant year of assessment and upon completion for
(unemployed learners) the employer is eligible for a deduction of 100 of the Learnership
allowance paid to that learner up to a maximum of R30 000 during the relevant year of
assessment To date CETA has 84 registered learnerships with 44 of them active 21 of them
replaced and 19 of them Active but to be extended in the future
The following is a list of registered learnerships for the year 2010(CETA 2010)
Registration Number NQF
Status
Learnership Title Qualification
Number
Status
05 Q 050048 18 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(carpentry)
24296 Active
05 Q 050047 16 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(carpeting)
24296 Active
05 Q 050049 20 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(vinyl)
24296 Active
05 Q 050034 41 120 1 1 Construction road worker(construction)
22977 Replaced by 24133
05 Q 050036 40 120 1 1 Construction road 22977 Replaced by
12
worker(maintenance) 24133
Registration Number NQF
Status
Learnership Title Qualification
Number
Status
05 Q 050073 21 123 2 2 Construction materials tester (bituminous)
49058 Active
05 Q 050074 22 139 2 2 Construction materials tester (concrete)
49058 Active
05 Q 050080 32 129 2 2 Construction crane operator
48961 Active
05Q05103261202 2 Construction foreman 49410 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction plasterer
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction masonry
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction painter
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction formworks
65409 Active
05Q050101351604 4 Plumber 58782 Active
05Q050064 241426 4 Surveyor(hydrographic) 20487 Active
05Q050087871764 4 Construction supervisor 23682 Replaced by 49053
05Q050063252715 5 Structural steel detailer 48636 Active
05Q050043312045 5 Manager Building Construction
23675 Active
05Q050044342675 5 Manager Civil Roadworkrsquos
23675 Active
05Q050089341405 5 Geographical information science operator
23675 Active
The CEO of CETA Mr Petrus Maoko reaffirmed their dedication to skills development by
saying ldquoCETA is prepared and able to answer the call to accelerate skills development within the
construction sector and is setting measures in place that will assist the organization worker faster
harder and smarter to meet the needs of the construction sector and accelerate the turn-around
13
time of internal processes rdquo and that CETA is ready to make the construction sector more
accessible to women young people people with disabilities and rural communities (Duma
2010)
Constraints encountered within Learnerships
In the book on Perspective in Learnerships Babb et al (2005) have highlighted the key elements
for an effective learnership programme The elements are the overall purpose aims and
objectives of the programme the governance of the programme the learning outcome expressed
as a qualification the selection of the learners the quality of the learning provision on the job
training and work placement the assessment process and ongoing evaluation of the programme
and the administration of the system
Overall purposes aims and objective It is clear that the purpose and objective of such a
programme is to address the national professional and organisational need for skilled artisan and
to redress the gap of inequality amongst the South African citizens
The governance of the system A learnership is a multi stakeholderrsquos (the DoL DoE SETAs
learners training providers etc) entity and the more diverse the stakeholders the more essential
the governance structures and processes need to be It is when all these stakeholders understand
their roles and responsibilities that an effective programme is created
Qualifications The learnership must lead to an accredited qualification which may be broad
based or occupation specific The curriculum must include broader skills requirements such as
interpersonal skills life skills problem solving skill and communication skills which are cited as
being critical to enable the learner to perform to their full potential and be adaptable to any
working environment
Selection of learners Although learnerships are open to any one within the designated age
limits there needs to be a balance between the numbers of learners accepted into them with their
14
best chances of succeeding To ensure this an assessment of potential learners to ensure their
basic ability to succeed is an essential component of selecting learners for the programme
Quality of learning provision For a learnership to be work effectively highly effective training
provider institutions with well qualified and capable teaching staff sound administration and
cutting edge equipment and facilities are required
On the job training and work placement Successful learnerships incorporate on the job training
coaching and assessment furthermore on the job training should be structured outcome based
and challenging By structured they should ensure that the necessary learning outcomes are
covered by outcome based they should ensure that the learning actually occurs and the
progression from one phase to the next without worrying about the time and it should be
challenging by ensuring that the learner is motivated to learn
The assessment and evaluation process The assessment process needs to be a multiple process
involving problem solving and the design of the process is critical and the capacity of the
assessors needs to be built and the appropriate tools developed Learnerships should also
evaluate their success that is their outcome such as if their learners have been employed if they
are contributing to their sector and how successful their outcome is instead of the number of
learners the programme has produced
Administration of the programme For a learnership to work the administrator who manages it
should ensure that the data required should be well maintained as it is needed for workplace
skills planning and reporting employment equity and sectoral charter reporting
All these above mentioned elements if properly implemented prove to deliver an effective and
successful learnership (Examples of such successes is the BAKSETA from the banking sector
(Dunn 2005)) so then the question arises why are most learnership not delivering what the
Skills development act had set out to achieve Based on various literature read the following are
the key problems thought to be the hindering factors to the success of learnership programme for
artisans in general and in the construction industry (MBA 2008 Mukora 2008 Mummenthey
2008 cidb 2004 CETA 2008 Babb et al 2005)
15
When the Setas were established the majority did not have appropriate systems and
procedures in place to deal with their core functions From a governance and oversight
point of view the situation was equally problematic as SETA boards were constituted
and sought to define their areas of responsibility
There was an underestimation of the scale of the task and the volume of the problems in
terms of implementing the SDA This then could have fed into a failure to sufficiently
factor in the extent to which the new system might become bureaucratized and hence its
resource intensity
There appeared to be a lack of understanding not only around the structure of the
economy but also the nature of work processes (especially in relation to artisans and the
role they played in the production process)
Those pushing for a new order did not have an appreciation for the artisan and there was
a sense that intermediate (artisan) skills are not important This was partly related to the
fact that the apprenticeship system had become so fundamentally linked with the
apartheid system (and hence had become discredited) and there was a real sense that
artisan skills would no longer be required as part of the skills base of the lsquonew economyrsquo
which was to emerge Hence the artisan became a devalued commodity
Research has revealed that learnerships until fairly recently have tended to be focused at
very low skills levels Where artisan-based learnerships have been introduced cynicism
emerged around quality It has been argued that this is partly a result of the fact that
learnerships were not ready to be implemented when they were but there was political
pressure to do so as opposed to continuing with the apprenticeship system
The people required to provide training do not possess the skills required for effective
coaching and training and in addition the administration burden associated with
16
learnerships and assessment results in trainers feeling that they are distracted from their
core responsibilities
The pipeline for the development of skilled personnel is partly a responsibility of
education and labour So it is not within the sole domain of Setas to deliver skills into the
economy The effectiveness of the educational system is critical in achieving this
objective This not only raises the question of the linkage between education and labour
and the lack of co-ordination between the two ministries but also highlights the fact that a
number of blockages have occurred some of which are systemic and have nothing to do
with the functioning of the Setas
Often the lack of an overall learning curriculum is indicative of poor workplace skills
planning (which must be submitted to the SETA by employers)
In many learnerships there is a significant divide between what learners are taught and
what occurs on the job What the learner learns in the classroom is unable to practice in
the work environment
The construction environment with increasingly temporary and casual employment does
not bode well for learnerships as these by definition have a long-term orientation
(duration of a minimum of one year) and require formal contractual arrangements The
duration of the training may thus be a concern
Another challenge is the labour-intensive nature of the work which requires the
employment of a large amount of relatively elementary skills about 40 percent of the
workforce is made up of general manual labour (who are unqualified or partly qualified)
African employees fill almost 90 percent of the elementary occupations The sector
employs the fourth highest number of people having no formal education which
challenges the implementation of learnerships even further as this industry is particularly
affected by the numeracy literacy and language related problems
17
Attracting and Recruiting the Youth as Artisans
Over the years various discussions have taken place on how to build the image of the artisan
(Mukora 2008) The Artisan Development Coordinating Committee has proposed during their
committees meeting in June 2007 a new definition of an artisan as follows lsquoldquoArtisanrdquo will mean
a person that has been certificated as competent by a relevant Education and Training Quality
Assurance body for a qualification registered on the National Qualifications Framework for a
Trade listed by the Minister of Labour in the Skills Development Act as amended which trade
has a designation at occupation level on the Organising Framework for Occupations and the
person is registered with the Registrar for Artisans as an Artisan for such a Tradersquo It is obvious
that in the past the artisan was considered a valued skill within the workplace but as the years
went by the artisan became less appreciated and respected
It is also apparent that young people would rather work with computers than to for engineering
and its associated professions because young people are afraid to get their hands dirty (Mukora
2008) If the country is to increase the supply of artisans some measures will have to be
implemented to encourage the youth to become artisans Catt et al (1997) established mechanism
or methods that can be employed in attracting and retaining younger people to what they
perceive lsquounsuitablersquo or lsquoundesirablersquo careers
Advertising a well written lsquocatchyrsquo advert placed in the newspaper magazines and played on
radio and TV outlining the benefits of being an artisan and how acquiring such skills would
empower the applicant would go a long way in changing the perception of the artisan and
attracting the youth
Open events the DoL DoE the SETAs and all the other contributing stakeholders could host a
series of lsquoopen daysrsquo in schools and communities
18
3 The Skills Development Act The Birth of lsquoLearnershipsrsquo
As mentioned in the preceding literature one of the principal causes of the low level of skills in
South Africa is the lacklow education across all the sectors in the country which is influenced
by an a working environment that is ever changing in terms of the methods and skills required to
properly execute work tasks According to Bellis (2001) the fact that there is very little
evaluation of training done in our country has obscured the probability that much expenditure on
training has done little to improve competence and performance In his view the problem lies in
how training and development are undertaken than in how many training courses are run The
Skills Development Act (SDA) together with all the other related legislation (the South African
Qualifications Authority Act No 58 of 1995 encompassing the National Qualifications
Framework concept) aims to address and lessen the above mentioned training and education
deficit
For an understanding of the nature of learnerships it is important to understand the purpose and
function of the SDA and its integrated frameworks The purpose of the skills development Act
No 97 of 1998 is to
Develop the skills of the South African workforce
- to improve the quality of life of workers their prospects of work and labour mobility
- to improve productivity in the workplace and the competitiveness of employers
- to promote self-employment and
- to improve the delivery of social services
To increase the levels of investment in education and training in the labour market and to
improve the return on that investment
To encourage employers
- to use the workplace as an active learning environment
- to provide employees with the opportunities to acquire new skills
- to provide opportunities for new entrants to the labour market to gain work experience
8
- to employ persons who find it difficult to be employed
To improve the employment prospects-of persons previously disadvantaged by unfair
discrimination and to redress those disadvantages through training and education
To ensure the quality of education and training in and for the workplace
To assist
- work seekers to find work retrenched workers tore-enter the labour market employers
to find qualified employees and to provide and regulate employment services
The above purposes are to be achieved through institutional and financial frameworks made up
of
The National Skills Authority whose function is to advice the minister of labour liaise
with the SETArsquos conduct investigations and exercise any other of powers the Act
The National Skill Fund This will be created from funds collected from skill
development levies from parliament donations to the fund interest from investments
and money received from other sources
Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA)
Labour Centers Whose main function are to provide employment services for workers
employers and training providers especially in rural areas to register work seekers and to
register vacancies and work opportunities
The Skills Development Planning Unit This is a unit at the Department of Labour
(DoL) head office to address the national issues on policy and strategy such as the
National Skills Development Strategy I- IIII
One of the major structures for the achievement of the purposes of the SDA is that of the
SETAs (Bellis 2001) as they are the functioning lsquolimbsrsquo of the SDA They are also tasked
9
with implementing registering promoting and collecting amp distributing skills development
levies within their respective sectors (SDA 1998)
4 The Context of Learnerships
Babb et al (2005) points out the learnership system are one of the cornerstones of the new skills
development legislation The learnership system is seen as an intervention to redress the old
apprenticeship system and its problems and create a high quality dual system of learning
(Mukora 2008) Learnerships are defined and regulated by the Skills Development Act and
according to chapter 4 of the SDA learnerships require the following elements for their
establishment through a Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA)
consists of a structured learning component
includes practical work experience of a specified nature and duration
would lead to a qualification registered by the South African Qualifications Authority
and related to an occupation and
is registered with the Director-General in the prescribed manner
There are varying definitions of a Learnership but based on what is outlined in the SDA it can
be described as a path to a nationally recognised qualification that relates to an occupation and
consists of a structured learning component and practical work experience The Construction
Education and Training Authorityrsquos (CETA 2006) defines it as ldquoA learnership is a route to
acquiring a qualification in the National Qualification Framework (NQF) that offers both
theoretical and workplace experience in any chosen career hellip The learnership programme is a
qualification that is outcomes-based It allows learners to interact with the working environment
while gaining an understanding of the workplacerdquo Mummenthey (2008) in her research defines
it as providing a planned and appropriate combination of learning outcomes with a defined
purpose providing learners with applied competence and a basis for further learning comprising
three components ie fundamental core and elective unit standards entailing specified exit level
outcomes and generally achieving the required credits in a range of 30 to 70 of time spent at
the workplace
As stipulated by the SDA (RSA 1998) the learnership agreement is a legally binding agreement
that has to be concluded between the employer and the learner For a learnership to be legal
10
there needs to a signing of a learnership agreement between the three involved parties to a
learnership (the Employer the Learner and the Training provider) and the learnership needs to
registered with a SETA This agreement is in addition to a general contract of employment
signed by the learner
The contract of employment and the learnership agreement place clear obligations and rights on
all three parties to the learnership agreement The basic responsibilities according to the
learnership agreement are (Department of Labour 2001a)
Employer duties
to employ the learner for the defined period
to provide the learner with practical work experience
to allow the learner to attend off-the-job education and training measures
Learner duties
to work for the employer
to attend any educationtraining programmes specified
Provider duties
to provide the learner with the education and training as specified
to support the learner in the learning process
The contract of employment will stipulate the conditions of employment such as working hours
overtime and leave it will also indicate how much and learner will be paid The learner has to be
paid an allowance According to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act No 75 of 1997 (RSA
2001) this allowance is calculated as a percentage of the lsquoqualified wagersquo based on the credits
the learner has already achieved The lsquoqualified wagersquo is defined as the wage the employer
would pay the learner on obtaining the qualification for which the learnership is registered The
exact remuneration as well as its calculation (and the minimum allowance) are regulated by the
Act
11
Learnerships in the Construction Industry to date
CETA funds learnership but with a total of 8 365 levy-paying construction companies in the
sector only 56 learnerships had been registered with the CETA by mid 2003 (cidb 2004) Since
then there has been an innovative approach by industry and CETA that has enabled an
introduction of a system in which a number of companies can take on a shared commitment thus
providing some renewed impetus to skills development (cidb 2004) Government support to this
approach is reflected in amended regulations that cater for employer groups by the form of a tax
incentive The tax incentive is applicable at the beginning of and upon completion of the
learnership (DoL 2001) at the beginning of the learnership (for learners already employed by
the entity) once a Learnership agreement has been entered into and the agreement registered with
a SETA the employer is eligible for a deduction of 70 of the annual wages paid to that learner
up to a maximum of R20 000 during the relevant year of assessment and upon completion for
(unemployed learners) the employer is eligible for a deduction of 100 of the Learnership
allowance paid to that learner up to a maximum of R30 000 during the relevant year of
assessment To date CETA has 84 registered learnerships with 44 of them active 21 of them
replaced and 19 of them Active but to be extended in the future
The following is a list of registered learnerships for the year 2010(CETA 2010)
Registration Number NQF
Status
Learnership Title Qualification
Number
Status
05 Q 050048 18 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(carpentry)
24296 Active
05 Q 050047 16 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(carpeting)
24296 Active
05 Q 050049 20 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(vinyl)
24296 Active
05 Q 050034 41 120 1 1 Construction road worker(construction)
22977 Replaced by 24133
05 Q 050036 40 120 1 1 Construction road 22977 Replaced by
12
worker(maintenance) 24133
Registration Number NQF
Status
Learnership Title Qualification
Number
Status
05 Q 050073 21 123 2 2 Construction materials tester (bituminous)
49058 Active
05 Q 050074 22 139 2 2 Construction materials tester (concrete)
49058 Active
05 Q 050080 32 129 2 2 Construction crane operator
48961 Active
05Q05103261202 2 Construction foreman 49410 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction plasterer
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction masonry
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction painter
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction formworks
65409 Active
05Q050101351604 4 Plumber 58782 Active
05Q050064 241426 4 Surveyor(hydrographic) 20487 Active
05Q050087871764 4 Construction supervisor 23682 Replaced by 49053
05Q050063252715 5 Structural steel detailer 48636 Active
05Q050043312045 5 Manager Building Construction
23675 Active
05Q050044342675 5 Manager Civil Roadworkrsquos
23675 Active
05Q050089341405 5 Geographical information science operator
23675 Active
The CEO of CETA Mr Petrus Maoko reaffirmed their dedication to skills development by
saying ldquoCETA is prepared and able to answer the call to accelerate skills development within the
construction sector and is setting measures in place that will assist the organization worker faster
harder and smarter to meet the needs of the construction sector and accelerate the turn-around
13
time of internal processes rdquo and that CETA is ready to make the construction sector more
accessible to women young people people with disabilities and rural communities (Duma
2010)
Constraints encountered within Learnerships
In the book on Perspective in Learnerships Babb et al (2005) have highlighted the key elements
for an effective learnership programme The elements are the overall purpose aims and
objectives of the programme the governance of the programme the learning outcome expressed
as a qualification the selection of the learners the quality of the learning provision on the job
training and work placement the assessment process and ongoing evaluation of the programme
and the administration of the system
Overall purposes aims and objective It is clear that the purpose and objective of such a
programme is to address the national professional and organisational need for skilled artisan and
to redress the gap of inequality amongst the South African citizens
The governance of the system A learnership is a multi stakeholderrsquos (the DoL DoE SETAs
learners training providers etc) entity and the more diverse the stakeholders the more essential
the governance structures and processes need to be It is when all these stakeholders understand
their roles and responsibilities that an effective programme is created
Qualifications The learnership must lead to an accredited qualification which may be broad
based or occupation specific The curriculum must include broader skills requirements such as
interpersonal skills life skills problem solving skill and communication skills which are cited as
being critical to enable the learner to perform to their full potential and be adaptable to any
working environment
Selection of learners Although learnerships are open to any one within the designated age
limits there needs to be a balance between the numbers of learners accepted into them with their
14
best chances of succeeding To ensure this an assessment of potential learners to ensure their
basic ability to succeed is an essential component of selecting learners for the programme
Quality of learning provision For a learnership to be work effectively highly effective training
provider institutions with well qualified and capable teaching staff sound administration and
cutting edge equipment and facilities are required
On the job training and work placement Successful learnerships incorporate on the job training
coaching and assessment furthermore on the job training should be structured outcome based
and challenging By structured they should ensure that the necessary learning outcomes are
covered by outcome based they should ensure that the learning actually occurs and the
progression from one phase to the next without worrying about the time and it should be
challenging by ensuring that the learner is motivated to learn
The assessment and evaluation process The assessment process needs to be a multiple process
involving problem solving and the design of the process is critical and the capacity of the
assessors needs to be built and the appropriate tools developed Learnerships should also
evaluate their success that is their outcome such as if their learners have been employed if they
are contributing to their sector and how successful their outcome is instead of the number of
learners the programme has produced
Administration of the programme For a learnership to work the administrator who manages it
should ensure that the data required should be well maintained as it is needed for workplace
skills planning and reporting employment equity and sectoral charter reporting
All these above mentioned elements if properly implemented prove to deliver an effective and
successful learnership (Examples of such successes is the BAKSETA from the banking sector
(Dunn 2005)) so then the question arises why are most learnership not delivering what the
Skills development act had set out to achieve Based on various literature read the following are
the key problems thought to be the hindering factors to the success of learnership programme for
artisans in general and in the construction industry (MBA 2008 Mukora 2008 Mummenthey
2008 cidb 2004 CETA 2008 Babb et al 2005)
15
When the Setas were established the majority did not have appropriate systems and
procedures in place to deal with their core functions From a governance and oversight
point of view the situation was equally problematic as SETA boards were constituted
and sought to define their areas of responsibility
There was an underestimation of the scale of the task and the volume of the problems in
terms of implementing the SDA This then could have fed into a failure to sufficiently
factor in the extent to which the new system might become bureaucratized and hence its
resource intensity
There appeared to be a lack of understanding not only around the structure of the
economy but also the nature of work processes (especially in relation to artisans and the
role they played in the production process)
Those pushing for a new order did not have an appreciation for the artisan and there was
a sense that intermediate (artisan) skills are not important This was partly related to the
fact that the apprenticeship system had become so fundamentally linked with the
apartheid system (and hence had become discredited) and there was a real sense that
artisan skills would no longer be required as part of the skills base of the lsquonew economyrsquo
which was to emerge Hence the artisan became a devalued commodity
Research has revealed that learnerships until fairly recently have tended to be focused at
very low skills levels Where artisan-based learnerships have been introduced cynicism
emerged around quality It has been argued that this is partly a result of the fact that
learnerships were not ready to be implemented when they were but there was political
pressure to do so as opposed to continuing with the apprenticeship system
The people required to provide training do not possess the skills required for effective
coaching and training and in addition the administration burden associated with
16
learnerships and assessment results in trainers feeling that they are distracted from their
core responsibilities
The pipeline for the development of skilled personnel is partly a responsibility of
education and labour So it is not within the sole domain of Setas to deliver skills into the
economy The effectiveness of the educational system is critical in achieving this
objective This not only raises the question of the linkage between education and labour
and the lack of co-ordination between the two ministries but also highlights the fact that a
number of blockages have occurred some of which are systemic and have nothing to do
with the functioning of the Setas
Often the lack of an overall learning curriculum is indicative of poor workplace skills
planning (which must be submitted to the SETA by employers)
In many learnerships there is a significant divide between what learners are taught and
what occurs on the job What the learner learns in the classroom is unable to practice in
the work environment
The construction environment with increasingly temporary and casual employment does
not bode well for learnerships as these by definition have a long-term orientation
(duration of a minimum of one year) and require formal contractual arrangements The
duration of the training may thus be a concern
Another challenge is the labour-intensive nature of the work which requires the
employment of a large amount of relatively elementary skills about 40 percent of the
workforce is made up of general manual labour (who are unqualified or partly qualified)
African employees fill almost 90 percent of the elementary occupations The sector
employs the fourth highest number of people having no formal education which
challenges the implementation of learnerships even further as this industry is particularly
affected by the numeracy literacy and language related problems
17
Attracting and Recruiting the Youth as Artisans
Over the years various discussions have taken place on how to build the image of the artisan
(Mukora 2008) The Artisan Development Coordinating Committee has proposed during their
committees meeting in June 2007 a new definition of an artisan as follows lsquoldquoArtisanrdquo will mean
a person that has been certificated as competent by a relevant Education and Training Quality
Assurance body for a qualification registered on the National Qualifications Framework for a
Trade listed by the Minister of Labour in the Skills Development Act as amended which trade
has a designation at occupation level on the Organising Framework for Occupations and the
person is registered with the Registrar for Artisans as an Artisan for such a Tradersquo It is obvious
that in the past the artisan was considered a valued skill within the workplace but as the years
went by the artisan became less appreciated and respected
It is also apparent that young people would rather work with computers than to for engineering
and its associated professions because young people are afraid to get their hands dirty (Mukora
2008) If the country is to increase the supply of artisans some measures will have to be
implemented to encourage the youth to become artisans Catt et al (1997) established mechanism
or methods that can be employed in attracting and retaining younger people to what they
perceive lsquounsuitablersquo or lsquoundesirablersquo careers
Advertising a well written lsquocatchyrsquo advert placed in the newspaper magazines and played on
radio and TV outlining the benefits of being an artisan and how acquiring such skills would
empower the applicant would go a long way in changing the perception of the artisan and
attracting the youth
Open events the DoL DoE the SETAs and all the other contributing stakeholders could host a
series of lsquoopen daysrsquo in schools and communities
18
- to employ persons who find it difficult to be employed
To improve the employment prospects-of persons previously disadvantaged by unfair
discrimination and to redress those disadvantages through training and education
To ensure the quality of education and training in and for the workplace
To assist
- work seekers to find work retrenched workers tore-enter the labour market employers
to find qualified employees and to provide and regulate employment services
The above purposes are to be achieved through institutional and financial frameworks made up
of
The National Skills Authority whose function is to advice the minister of labour liaise
with the SETArsquos conduct investigations and exercise any other of powers the Act
The National Skill Fund This will be created from funds collected from skill
development levies from parliament donations to the fund interest from investments
and money received from other sources
Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA)
Labour Centers Whose main function are to provide employment services for workers
employers and training providers especially in rural areas to register work seekers and to
register vacancies and work opportunities
The Skills Development Planning Unit This is a unit at the Department of Labour
(DoL) head office to address the national issues on policy and strategy such as the
National Skills Development Strategy I- IIII
One of the major structures for the achievement of the purposes of the SDA is that of the
SETAs (Bellis 2001) as they are the functioning lsquolimbsrsquo of the SDA They are also tasked
9
with implementing registering promoting and collecting amp distributing skills development
levies within their respective sectors (SDA 1998)
4 The Context of Learnerships
Babb et al (2005) points out the learnership system are one of the cornerstones of the new skills
development legislation The learnership system is seen as an intervention to redress the old
apprenticeship system and its problems and create a high quality dual system of learning
(Mukora 2008) Learnerships are defined and regulated by the Skills Development Act and
according to chapter 4 of the SDA learnerships require the following elements for their
establishment through a Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA)
consists of a structured learning component
includes practical work experience of a specified nature and duration
would lead to a qualification registered by the South African Qualifications Authority
and related to an occupation and
is registered with the Director-General in the prescribed manner
There are varying definitions of a Learnership but based on what is outlined in the SDA it can
be described as a path to a nationally recognised qualification that relates to an occupation and
consists of a structured learning component and practical work experience The Construction
Education and Training Authorityrsquos (CETA 2006) defines it as ldquoA learnership is a route to
acquiring a qualification in the National Qualification Framework (NQF) that offers both
theoretical and workplace experience in any chosen career hellip The learnership programme is a
qualification that is outcomes-based It allows learners to interact with the working environment
while gaining an understanding of the workplacerdquo Mummenthey (2008) in her research defines
it as providing a planned and appropriate combination of learning outcomes with a defined
purpose providing learners with applied competence and a basis for further learning comprising
three components ie fundamental core and elective unit standards entailing specified exit level
outcomes and generally achieving the required credits in a range of 30 to 70 of time spent at
the workplace
As stipulated by the SDA (RSA 1998) the learnership agreement is a legally binding agreement
that has to be concluded between the employer and the learner For a learnership to be legal
10
there needs to a signing of a learnership agreement between the three involved parties to a
learnership (the Employer the Learner and the Training provider) and the learnership needs to
registered with a SETA This agreement is in addition to a general contract of employment
signed by the learner
The contract of employment and the learnership agreement place clear obligations and rights on
all three parties to the learnership agreement The basic responsibilities according to the
learnership agreement are (Department of Labour 2001a)
Employer duties
to employ the learner for the defined period
to provide the learner with practical work experience
to allow the learner to attend off-the-job education and training measures
Learner duties
to work for the employer
to attend any educationtraining programmes specified
Provider duties
to provide the learner with the education and training as specified
to support the learner in the learning process
The contract of employment will stipulate the conditions of employment such as working hours
overtime and leave it will also indicate how much and learner will be paid The learner has to be
paid an allowance According to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act No 75 of 1997 (RSA
2001) this allowance is calculated as a percentage of the lsquoqualified wagersquo based on the credits
the learner has already achieved The lsquoqualified wagersquo is defined as the wage the employer
would pay the learner on obtaining the qualification for which the learnership is registered The
exact remuneration as well as its calculation (and the minimum allowance) are regulated by the
Act
11
Learnerships in the Construction Industry to date
CETA funds learnership but with a total of 8 365 levy-paying construction companies in the
sector only 56 learnerships had been registered with the CETA by mid 2003 (cidb 2004) Since
then there has been an innovative approach by industry and CETA that has enabled an
introduction of a system in which a number of companies can take on a shared commitment thus
providing some renewed impetus to skills development (cidb 2004) Government support to this
approach is reflected in amended regulations that cater for employer groups by the form of a tax
incentive The tax incentive is applicable at the beginning of and upon completion of the
learnership (DoL 2001) at the beginning of the learnership (for learners already employed by
the entity) once a Learnership agreement has been entered into and the agreement registered with
a SETA the employer is eligible for a deduction of 70 of the annual wages paid to that learner
up to a maximum of R20 000 during the relevant year of assessment and upon completion for
(unemployed learners) the employer is eligible for a deduction of 100 of the Learnership
allowance paid to that learner up to a maximum of R30 000 during the relevant year of
assessment To date CETA has 84 registered learnerships with 44 of them active 21 of them
replaced and 19 of them Active but to be extended in the future
The following is a list of registered learnerships for the year 2010(CETA 2010)
Registration Number NQF
Status
Learnership Title Qualification
Number
Status
05 Q 050048 18 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(carpentry)
24296 Active
05 Q 050047 16 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(carpeting)
24296 Active
05 Q 050049 20 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(vinyl)
24296 Active
05 Q 050034 41 120 1 1 Construction road worker(construction)
22977 Replaced by 24133
05 Q 050036 40 120 1 1 Construction road 22977 Replaced by
12
worker(maintenance) 24133
Registration Number NQF
Status
Learnership Title Qualification
Number
Status
05 Q 050073 21 123 2 2 Construction materials tester (bituminous)
49058 Active
05 Q 050074 22 139 2 2 Construction materials tester (concrete)
49058 Active
05 Q 050080 32 129 2 2 Construction crane operator
48961 Active
05Q05103261202 2 Construction foreman 49410 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction plasterer
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction masonry
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction painter
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction formworks
65409 Active
05Q050101351604 4 Plumber 58782 Active
05Q050064 241426 4 Surveyor(hydrographic) 20487 Active
05Q050087871764 4 Construction supervisor 23682 Replaced by 49053
05Q050063252715 5 Structural steel detailer 48636 Active
05Q050043312045 5 Manager Building Construction
23675 Active
05Q050044342675 5 Manager Civil Roadworkrsquos
23675 Active
05Q050089341405 5 Geographical information science operator
23675 Active
The CEO of CETA Mr Petrus Maoko reaffirmed their dedication to skills development by
saying ldquoCETA is prepared and able to answer the call to accelerate skills development within the
construction sector and is setting measures in place that will assist the organization worker faster
harder and smarter to meet the needs of the construction sector and accelerate the turn-around
13
time of internal processes rdquo and that CETA is ready to make the construction sector more
accessible to women young people people with disabilities and rural communities (Duma
2010)
Constraints encountered within Learnerships
In the book on Perspective in Learnerships Babb et al (2005) have highlighted the key elements
for an effective learnership programme The elements are the overall purpose aims and
objectives of the programme the governance of the programme the learning outcome expressed
as a qualification the selection of the learners the quality of the learning provision on the job
training and work placement the assessment process and ongoing evaluation of the programme
and the administration of the system
Overall purposes aims and objective It is clear that the purpose and objective of such a
programme is to address the national professional and organisational need for skilled artisan and
to redress the gap of inequality amongst the South African citizens
The governance of the system A learnership is a multi stakeholderrsquos (the DoL DoE SETAs
learners training providers etc) entity and the more diverse the stakeholders the more essential
the governance structures and processes need to be It is when all these stakeholders understand
their roles and responsibilities that an effective programme is created
Qualifications The learnership must lead to an accredited qualification which may be broad
based or occupation specific The curriculum must include broader skills requirements such as
interpersonal skills life skills problem solving skill and communication skills which are cited as
being critical to enable the learner to perform to their full potential and be adaptable to any
working environment
Selection of learners Although learnerships are open to any one within the designated age
limits there needs to be a balance between the numbers of learners accepted into them with their
14
best chances of succeeding To ensure this an assessment of potential learners to ensure their
basic ability to succeed is an essential component of selecting learners for the programme
Quality of learning provision For a learnership to be work effectively highly effective training
provider institutions with well qualified and capable teaching staff sound administration and
cutting edge equipment and facilities are required
On the job training and work placement Successful learnerships incorporate on the job training
coaching and assessment furthermore on the job training should be structured outcome based
and challenging By structured they should ensure that the necessary learning outcomes are
covered by outcome based they should ensure that the learning actually occurs and the
progression from one phase to the next without worrying about the time and it should be
challenging by ensuring that the learner is motivated to learn
The assessment and evaluation process The assessment process needs to be a multiple process
involving problem solving and the design of the process is critical and the capacity of the
assessors needs to be built and the appropriate tools developed Learnerships should also
evaluate their success that is their outcome such as if their learners have been employed if they
are contributing to their sector and how successful their outcome is instead of the number of
learners the programme has produced
Administration of the programme For a learnership to work the administrator who manages it
should ensure that the data required should be well maintained as it is needed for workplace
skills planning and reporting employment equity and sectoral charter reporting
All these above mentioned elements if properly implemented prove to deliver an effective and
successful learnership (Examples of such successes is the BAKSETA from the banking sector
(Dunn 2005)) so then the question arises why are most learnership not delivering what the
Skills development act had set out to achieve Based on various literature read the following are
the key problems thought to be the hindering factors to the success of learnership programme for
artisans in general and in the construction industry (MBA 2008 Mukora 2008 Mummenthey
2008 cidb 2004 CETA 2008 Babb et al 2005)
15
When the Setas were established the majority did not have appropriate systems and
procedures in place to deal with their core functions From a governance and oversight
point of view the situation was equally problematic as SETA boards were constituted
and sought to define their areas of responsibility
There was an underestimation of the scale of the task and the volume of the problems in
terms of implementing the SDA This then could have fed into a failure to sufficiently
factor in the extent to which the new system might become bureaucratized and hence its
resource intensity
There appeared to be a lack of understanding not only around the structure of the
economy but also the nature of work processes (especially in relation to artisans and the
role they played in the production process)
Those pushing for a new order did not have an appreciation for the artisan and there was
a sense that intermediate (artisan) skills are not important This was partly related to the
fact that the apprenticeship system had become so fundamentally linked with the
apartheid system (and hence had become discredited) and there was a real sense that
artisan skills would no longer be required as part of the skills base of the lsquonew economyrsquo
which was to emerge Hence the artisan became a devalued commodity
Research has revealed that learnerships until fairly recently have tended to be focused at
very low skills levels Where artisan-based learnerships have been introduced cynicism
emerged around quality It has been argued that this is partly a result of the fact that
learnerships were not ready to be implemented when they were but there was political
pressure to do so as opposed to continuing with the apprenticeship system
The people required to provide training do not possess the skills required for effective
coaching and training and in addition the administration burden associated with
16
learnerships and assessment results in trainers feeling that they are distracted from their
core responsibilities
The pipeline for the development of skilled personnel is partly a responsibility of
education and labour So it is not within the sole domain of Setas to deliver skills into the
economy The effectiveness of the educational system is critical in achieving this
objective This not only raises the question of the linkage between education and labour
and the lack of co-ordination between the two ministries but also highlights the fact that a
number of blockages have occurred some of which are systemic and have nothing to do
with the functioning of the Setas
Often the lack of an overall learning curriculum is indicative of poor workplace skills
planning (which must be submitted to the SETA by employers)
In many learnerships there is a significant divide between what learners are taught and
what occurs on the job What the learner learns in the classroom is unable to practice in
the work environment
The construction environment with increasingly temporary and casual employment does
not bode well for learnerships as these by definition have a long-term orientation
(duration of a minimum of one year) and require formal contractual arrangements The
duration of the training may thus be a concern
Another challenge is the labour-intensive nature of the work which requires the
employment of a large amount of relatively elementary skills about 40 percent of the
workforce is made up of general manual labour (who are unqualified or partly qualified)
African employees fill almost 90 percent of the elementary occupations The sector
employs the fourth highest number of people having no formal education which
challenges the implementation of learnerships even further as this industry is particularly
affected by the numeracy literacy and language related problems
17
Attracting and Recruiting the Youth as Artisans
Over the years various discussions have taken place on how to build the image of the artisan
(Mukora 2008) The Artisan Development Coordinating Committee has proposed during their
committees meeting in June 2007 a new definition of an artisan as follows lsquoldquoArtisanrdquo will mean
a person that has been certificated as competent by a relevant Education and Training Quality
Assurance body for a qualification registered on the National Qualifications Framework for a
Trade listed by the Minister of Labour in the Skills Development Act as amended which trade
has a designation at occupation level on the Organising Framework for Occupations and the
person is registered with the Registrar for Artisans as an Artisan for such a Tradersquo It is obvious
that in the past the artisan was considered a valued skill within the workplace but as the years
went by the artisan became less appreciated and respected
It is also apparent that young people would rather work with computers than to for engineering
and its associated professions because young people are afraid to get their hands dirty (Mukora
2008) If the country is to increase the supply of artisans some measures will have to be
implemented to encourage the youth to become artisans Catt et al (1997) established mechanism
or methods that can be employed in attracting and retaining younger people to what they
perceive lsquounsuitablersquo or lsquoundesirablersquo careers
Advertising a well written lsquocatchyrsquo advert placed in the newspaper magazines and played on
radio and TV outlining the benefits of being an artisan and how acquiring such skills would
empower the applicant would go a long way in changing the perception of the artisan and
attracting the youth
Open events the DoL DoE the SETAs and all the other contributing stakeholders could host a
series of lsquoopen daysrsquo in schools and communities
18
with implementing registering promoting and collecting amp distributing skills development
levies within their respective sectors (SDA 1998)
4 The Context of Learnerships
Babb et al (2005) points out the learnership system are one of the cornerstones of the new skills
development legislation The learnership system is seen as an intervention to redress the old
apprenticeship system and its problems and create a high quality dual system of learning
(Mukora 2008) Learnerships are defined and regulated by the Skills Development Act and
according to chapter 4 of the SDA learnerships require the following elements for their
establishment through a Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA)
consists of a structured learning component
includes practical work experience of a specified nature and duration
would lead to a qualification registered by the South African Qualifications Authority
and related to an occupation and
is registered with the Director-General in the prescribed manner
There are varying definitions of a Learnership but based on what is outlined in the SDA it can
be described as a path to a nationally recognised qualification that relates to an occupation and
consists of a structured learning component and practical work experience The Construction
Education and Training Authorityrsquos (CETA 2006) defines it as ldquoA learnership is a route to
acquiring a qualification in the National Qualification Framework (NQF) that offers both
theoretical and workplace experience in any chosen career hellip The learnership programme is a
qualification that is outcomes-based It allows learners to interact with the working environment
while gaining an understanding of the workplacerdquo Mummenthey (2008) in her research defines
it as providing a planned and appropriate combination of learning outcomes with a defined
purpose providing learners with applied competence and a basis for further learning comprising
three components ie fundamental core and elective unit standards entailing specified exit level
outcomes and generally achieving the required credits in a range of 30 to 70 of time spent at
the workplace
As stipulated by the SDA (RSA 1998) the learnership agreement is a legally binding agreement
that has to be concluded between the employer and the learner For a learnership to be legal
10
there needs to a signing of a learnership agreement between the three involved parties to a
learnership (the Employer the Learner and the Training provider) and the learnership needs to
registered with a SETA This agreement is in addition to a general contract of employment
signed by the learner
The contract of employment and the learnership agreement place clear obligations and rights on
all three parties to the learnership agreement The basic responsibilities according to the
learnership agreement are (Department of Labour 2001a)
Employer duties
to employ the learner for the defined period
to provide the learner with practical work experience
to allow the learner to attend off-the-job education and training measures
Learner duties
to work for the employer
to attend any educationtraining programmes specified
Provider duties
to provide the learner with the education and training as specified
to support the learner in the learning process
The contract of employment will stipulate the conditions of employment such as working hours
overtime and leave it will also indicate how much and learner will be paid The learner has to be
paid an allowance According to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act No 75 of 1997 (RSA
2001) this allowance is calculated as a percentage of the lsquoqualified wagersquo based on the credits
the learner has already achieved The lsquoqualified wagersquo is defined as the wage the employer
would pay the learner on obtaining the qualification for which the learnership is registered The
exact remuneration as well as its calculation (and the minimum allowance) are regulated by the
Act
11
Learnerships in the Construction Industry to date
CETA funds learnership but with a total of 8 365 levy-paying construction companies in the
sector only 56 learnerships had been registered with the CETA by mid 2003 (cidb 2004) Since
then there has been an innovative approach by industry and CETA that has enabled an
introduction of a system in which a number of companies can take on a shared commitment thus
providing some renewed impetus to skills development (cidb 2004) Government support to this
approach is reflected in amended regulations that cater for employer groups by the form of a tax
incentive The tax incentive is applicable at the beginning of and upon completion of the
learnership (DoL 2001) at the beginning of the learnership (for learners already employed by
the entity) once a Learnership agreement has been entered into and the agreement registered with
a SETA the employer is eligible for a deduction of 70 of the annual wages paid to that learner
up to a maximum of R20 000 during the relevant year of assessment and upon completion for
(unemployed learners) the employer is eligible for a deduction of 100 of the Learnership
allowance paid to that learner up to a maximum of R30 000 during the relevant year of
assessment To date CETA has 84 registered learnerships with 44 of them active 21 of them
replaced and 19 of them Active but to be extended in the future
The following is a list of registered learnerships for the year 2010(CETA 2010)
Registration Number NQF
Status
Learnership Title Qualification
Number
Status
05 Q 050048 18 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(carpentry)
24296 Active
05 Q 050047 16 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(carpeting)
24296 Active
05 Q 050049 20 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(vinyl)
24296 Active
05 Q 050034 41 120 1 1 Construction road worker(construction)
22977 Replaced by 24133
05 Q 050036 40 120 1 1 Construction road 22977 Replaced by
12
worker(maintenance) 24133
Registration Number NQF
Status
Learnership Title Qualification
Number
Status
05 Q 050073 21 123 2 2 Construction materials tester (bituminous)
49058 Active
05 Q 050074 22 139 2 2 Construction materials tester (concrete)
49058 Active
05 Q 050080 32 129 2 2 Construction crane operator
48961 Active
05Q05103261202 2 Construction foreman 49410 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction plasterer
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction masonry
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction painter
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction formworks
65409 Active
05Q050101351604 4 Plumber 58782 Active
05Q050064 241426 4 Surveyor(hydrographic) 20487 Active
05Q050087871764 4 Construction supervisor 23682 Replaced by 49053
05Q050063252715 5 Structural steel detailer 48636 Active
05Q050043312045 5 Manager Building Construction
23675 Active
05Q050044342675 5 Manager Civil Roadworkrsquos
23675 Active
05Q050089341405 5 Geographical information science operator
23675 Active
The CEO of CETA Mr Petrus Maoko reaffirmed their dedication to skills development by
saying ldquoCETA is prepared and able to answer the call to accelerate skills development within the
construction sector and is setting measures in place that will assist the organization worker faster
harder and smarter to meet the needs of the construction sector and accelerate the turn-around
13
time of internal processes rdquo and that CETA is ready to make the construction sector more
accessible to women young people people with disabilities and rural communities (Duma
2010)
Constraints encountered within Learnerships
In the book on Perspective in Learnerships Babb et al (2005) have highlighted the key elements
for an effective learnership programme The elements are the overall purpose aims and
objectives of the programme the governance of the programme the learning outcome expressed
as a qualification the selection of the learners the quality of the learning provision on the job
training and work placement the assessment process and ongoing evaluation of the programme
and the administration of the system
Overall purposes aims and objective It is clear that the purpose and objective of such a
programme is to address the national professional and organisational need for skilled artisan and
to redress the gap of inequality amongst the South African citizens
The governance of the system A learnership is a multi stakeholderrsquos (the DoL DoE SETAs
learners training providers etc) entity and the more diverse the stakeholders the more essential
the governance structures and processes need to be It is when all these stakeholders understand
their roles and responsibilities that an effective programme is created
Qualifications The learnership must lead to an accredited qualification which may be broad
based or occupation specific The curriculum must include broader skills requirements such as
interpersonal skills life skills problem solving skill and communication skills which are cited as
being critical to enable the learner to perform to their full potential and be adaptable to any
working environment
Selection of learners Although learnerships are open to any one within the designated age
limits there needs to be a balance between the numbers of learners accepted into them with their
14
best chances of succeeding To ensure this an assessment of potential learners to ensure their
basic ability to succeed is an essential component of selecting learners for the programme
Quality of learning provision For a learnership to be work effectively highly effective training
provider institutions with well qualified and capable teaching staff sound administration and
cutting edge equipment and facilities are required
On the job training and work placement Successful learnerships incorporate on the job training
coaching and assessment furthermore on the job training should be structured outcome based
and challenging By structured they should ensure that the necessary learning outcomes are
covered by outcome based they should ensure that the learning actually occurs and the
progression from one phase to the next without worrying about the time and it should be
challenging by ensuring that the learner is motivated to learn
The assessment and evaluation process The assessment process needs to be a multiple process
involving problem solving and the design of the process is critical and the capacity of the
assessors needs to be built and the appropriate tools developed Learnerships should also
evaluate their success that is their outcome such as if their learners have been employed if they
are contributing to their sector and how successful their outcome is instead of the number of
learners the programme has produced
Administration of the programme For a learnership to work the administrator who manages it
should ensure that the data required should be well maintained as it is needed for workplace
skills planning and reporting employment equity and sectoral charter reporting
All these above mentioned elements if properly implemented prove to deliver an effective and
successful learnership (Examples of such successes is the BAKSETA from the banking sector
(Dunn 2005)) so then the question arises why are most learnership not delivering what the
Skills development act had set out to achieve Based on various literature read the following are
the key problems thought to be the hindering factors to the success of learnership programme for
artisans in general and in the construction industry (MBA 2008 Mukora 2008 Mummenthey
2008 cidb 2004 CETA 2008 Babb et al 2005)
15
When the Setas were established the majority did not have appropriate systems and
procedures in place to deal with their core functions From a governance and oversight
point of view the situation was equally problematic as SETA boards were constituted
and sought to define their areas of responsibility
There was an underestimation of the scale of the task and the volume of the problems in
terms of implementing the SDA This then could have fed into a failure to sufficiently
factor in the extent to which the new system might become bureaucratized and hence its
resource intensity
There appeared to be a lack of understanding not only around the structure of the
economy but also the nature of work processes (especially in relation to artisans and the
role they played in the production process)
Those pushing for a new order did not have an appreciation for the artisan and there was
a sense that intermediate (artisan) skills are not important This was partly related to the
fact that the apprenticeship system had become so fundamentally linked with the
apartheid system (and hence had become discredited) and there was a real sense that
artisan skills would no longer be required as part of the skills base of the lsquonew economyrsquo
which was to emerge Hence the artisan became a devalued commodity
Research has revealed that learnerships until fairly recently have tended to be focused at
very low skills levels Where artisan-based learnerships have been introduced cynicism
emerged around quality It has been argued that this is partly a result of the fact that
learnerships were not ready to be implemented when they were but there was political
pressure to do so as opposed to continuing with the apprenticeship system
The people required to provide training do not possess the skills required for effective
coaching and training and in addition the administration burden associated with
16
learnerships and assessment results in trainers feeling that they are distracted from their
core responsibilities
The pipeline for the development of skilled personnel is partly a responsibility of
education and labour So it is not within the sole domain of Setas to deliver skills into the
economy The effectiveness of the educational system is critical in achieving this
objective This not only raises the question of the linkage between education and labour
and the lack of co-ordination between the two ministries but also highlights the fact that a
number of blockages have occurred some of which are systemic and have nothing to do
with the functioning of the Setas
Often the lack of an overall learning curriculum is indicative of poor workplace skills
planning (which must be submitted to the SETA by employers)
In many learnerships there is a significant divide between what learners are taught and
what occurs on the job What the learner learns in the classroom is unable to practice in
the work environment
The construction environment with increasingly temporary and casual employment does
not bode well for learnerships as these by definition have a long-term orientation
(duration of a minimum of one year) and require formal contractual arrangements The
duration of the training may thus be a concern
Another challenge is the labour-intensive nature of the work which requires the
employment of a large amount of relatively elementary skills about 40 percent of the
workforce is made up of general manual labour (who are unqualified or partly qualified)
African employees fill almost 90 percent of the elementary occupations The sector
employs the fourth highest number of people having no formal education which
challenges the implementation of learnerships even further as this industry is particularly
affected by the numeracy literacy and language related problems
17
Attracting and Recruiting the Youth as Artisans
Over the years various discussions have taken place on how to build the image of the artisan
(Mukora 2008) The Artisan Development Coordinating Committee has proposed during their
committees meeting in June 2007 a new definition of an artisan as follows lsquoldquoArtisanrdquo will mean
a person that has been certificated as competent by a relevant Education and Training Quality
Assurance body for a qualification registered on the National Qualifications Framework for a
Trade listed by the Minister of Labour in the Skills Development Act as amended which trade
has a designation at occupation level on the Organising Framework for Occupations and the
person is registered with the Registrar for Artisans as an Artisan for such a Tradersquo It is obvious
that in the past the artisan was considered a valued skill within the workplace but as the years
went by the artisan became less appreciated and respected
It is also apparent that young people would rather work with computers than to for engineering
and its associated professions because young people are afraid to get their hands dirty (Mukora
2008) If the country is to increase the supply of artisans some measures will have to be
implemented to encourage the youth to become artisans Catt et al (1997) established mechanism
or methods that can be employed in attracting and retaining younger people to what they
perceive lsquounsuitablersquo or lsquoundesirablersquo careers
Advertising a well written lsquocatchyrsquo advert placed in the newspaper magazines and played on
radio and TV outlining the benefits of being an artisan and how acquiring such skills would
empower the applicant would go a long way in changing the perception of the artisan and
attracting the youth
Open events the DoL DoE the SETAs and all the other contributing stakeholders could host a
series of lsquoopen daysrsquo in schools and communities
18
there needs to a signing of a learnership agreement between the three involved parties to a
learnership (the Employer the Learner and the Training provider) and the learnership needs to
registered with a SETA This agreement is in addition to a general contract of employment
signed by the learner
The contract of employment and the learnership agreement place clear obligations and rights on
all three parties to the learnership agreement The basic responsibilities according to the
learnership agreement are (Department of Labour 2001a)
Employer duties
to employ the learner for the defined period
to provide the learner with practical work experience
to allow the learner to attend off-the-job education and training measures
Learner duties
to work for the employer
to attend any educationtraining programmes specified
Provider duties
to provide the learner with the education and training as specified
to support the learner in the learning process
The contract of employment will stipulate the conditions of employment such as working hours
overtime and leave it will also indicate how much and learner will be paid The learner has to be
paid an allowance According to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act No 75 of 1997 (RSA
2001) this allowance is calculated as a percentage of the lsquoqualified wagersquo based on the credits
the learner has already achieved The lsquoqualified wagersquo is defined as the wage the employer
would pay the learner on obtaining the qualification for which the learnership is registered The
exact remuneration as well as its calculation (and the minimum allowance) are regulated by the
Act
11
Learnerships in the Construction Industry to date
CETA funds learnership but with a total of 8 365 levy-paying construction companies in the
sector only 56 learnerships had been registered with the CETA by mid 2003 (cidb 2004) Since
then there has been an innovative approach by industry and CETA that has enabled an
introduction of a system in which a number of companies can take on a shared commitment thus
providing some renewed impetus to skills development (cidb 2004) Government support to this
approach is reflected in amended regulations that cater for employer groups by the form of a tax
incentive The tax incentive is applicable at the beginning of and upon completion of the
learnership (DoL 2001) at the beginning of the learnership (for learners already employed by
the entity) once a Learnership agreement has been entered into and the agreement registered with
a SETA the employer is eligible for a deduction of 70 of the annual wages paid to that learner
up to a maximum of R20 000 during the relevant year of assessment and upon completion for
(unemployed learners) the employer is eligible for a deduction of 100 of the Learnership
allowance paid to that learner up to a maximum of R30 000 during the relevant year of
assessment To date CETA has 84 registered learnerships with 44 of them active 21 of them
replaced and 19 of them Active but to be extended in the future
The following is a list of registered learnerships for the year 2010(CETA 2010)
Registration Number NQF
Status
Learnership Title Qualification
Number
Status
05 Q 050048 18 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(carpentry)
24296 Active
05 Q 050047 16 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(carpeting)
24296 Active
05 Q 050049 20 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(vinyl)
24296 Active
05 Q 050034 41 120 1 1 Construction road worker(construction)
22977 Replaced by 24133
05 Q 050036 40 120 1 1 Construction road 22977 Replaced by
12
worker(maintenance) 24133
Registration Number NQF
Status
Learnership Title Qualification
Number
Status
05 Q 050073 21 123 2 2 Construction materials tester (bituminous)
49058 Active
05 Q 050074 22 139 2 2 Construction materials tester (concrete)
49058 Active
05 Q 050080 32 129 2 2 Construction crane operator
48961 Active
05Q05103261202 2 Construction foreman 49410 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction plasterer
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction masonry
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction painter
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction formworks
65409 Active
05Q050101351604 4 Plumber 58782 Active
05Q050064 241426 4 Surveyor(hydrographic) 20487 Active
05Q050087871764 4 Construction supervisor 23682 Replaced by 49053
05Q050063252715 5 Structural steel detailer 48636 Active
05Q050043312045 5 Manager Building Construction
23675 Active
05Q050044342675 5 Manager Civil Roadworkrsquos
23675 Active
05Q050089341405 5 Geographical information science operator
23675 Active
The CEO of CETA Mr Petrus Maoko reaffirmed their dedication to skills development by
saying ldquoCETA is prepared and able to answer the call to accelerate skills development within the
construction sector and is setting measures in place that will assist the organization worker faster
harder and smarter to meet the needs of the construction sector and accelerate the turn-around
13
time of internal processes rdquo and that CETA is ready to make the construction sector more
accessible to women young people people with disabilities and rural communities (Duma
2010)
Constraints encountered within Learnerships
In the book on Perspective in Learnerships Babb et al (2005) have highlighted the key elements
for an effective learnership programme The elements are the overall purpose aims and
objectives of the programme the governance of the programme the learning outcome expressed
as a qualification the selection of the learners the quality of the learning provision on the job
training and work placement the assessment process and ongoing evaluation of the programme
and the administration of the system
Overall purposes aims and objective It is clear that the purpose and objective of such a
programme is to address the national professional and organisational need for skilled artisan and
to redress the gap of inequality amongst the South African citizens
The governance of the system A learnership is a multi stakeholderrsquos (the DoL DoE SETAs
learners training providers etc) entity and the more diverse the stakeholders the more essential
the governance structures and processes need to be It is when all these stakeholders understand
their roles and responsibilities that an effective programme is created
Qualifications The learnership must lead to an accredited qualification which may be broad
based or occupation specific The curriculum must include broader skills requirements such as
interpersonal skills life skills problem solving skill and communication skills which are cited as
being critical to enable the learner to perform to their full potential and be adaptable to any
working environment
Selection of learners Although learnerships are open to any one within the designated age
limits there needs to be a balance between the numbers of learners accepted into them with their
14
best chances of succeeding To ensure this an assessment of potential learners to ensure their
basic ability to succeed is an essential component of selecting learners for the programme
Quality of learning provision For a learnership to be work effectively highly effective training
provider institutions with well qualified and capable teaching staff sound administration and
cutting edge equipment and facilities are required
On the job training and work placement Successful learnerships incorporate on the job training
coaching and assessment furthermore on the job training should be structured outcome based
and challenging By structured they should ensure that the necessary learning outcomes are
covered by outcome based they should ensure that the learning actually occurs and the
progression from one phase to the next without worrying about the time and it should be
challenging by ensuring that the learner is motivated to learn
The assessment and evaluation process The assessment process needs to be a multiple process
involving problem solving and the design of the process is critical and the capacity of the
assessors needs to be built and the appropriate tools developed Learnerships should also
evaluate their success that is their outcome such as if their learners have been employed if they
are contributing to their sector and how successful their outcome is instead of the number of
learners the programme has produced
Administration of the programme For a learnership to work the administrator who manages it
should ensure that the data required should be well maintained as it is needed for workplace
skills planning and reporting employment equity and sectoral charter reporting
All these above mentioned elements if properly implemented prove to deliver an effective and
successful learnership (Examples of such successes is the BAKSETA from the banking sector
(Dunn 2005)) so then the question arises why are most learnership not delivering what the
Skills development act had set out to achieve Based on various literature read the following are
the key problems thought to be the hindering factors to the success of learnership programme for
artisans in general and in the construction industry (MBA 2008 Mukora 2008 Mummenthey
2008 cidb 2004 CETA 2008 Babb et al 2005)
15
When the Setas were established the majority did not have appropriate systems and
procedures in place to deal with their core functions From a governance and oversight
point of view the situation was equally problematic as SETA boards were constituted
and sought to define their areas of responsibility
There was an underestimation of the scale of the task and the volume of the problems in
terms of implementing the SDA This then could have fed into a failure to sufficiently
factor in the extent to which the new system might become bureaucratized and hence its
resource intensity
There appeared to be a lack of understanding not only around the structure of the
economy but also the nature of work processes (especially in relation to artisans and the
role they played in the production process)
Those pushing for a new order did not have an appreciation for the artisan and there was
a sense that intermediate (artisan) skills are not important This was partly related to the
fact that the apprenticeship system had become so fundamentally linked with the
apartheid system (and hence had become discredited) and there was a real sense that
artisan skills would no longer be required as part of the skills base of the lsquonew economyrsquo
which was to emerge Hence the artisan became a devalued commodity
Research has revealed that learnerships until fairly recently have tended to be focused at
very low skills levels Where artisan-based learnerships have been introduced cynicism
emerged around quality It has been argued that this is partly a result of the fact that
learnerships were not ready to be implemented when they were but there was political
pressure to do so as opposed to continuing with the apprenticeship system
The people required to provide training do not possess the skills required for effective
coaching and training and in addition the administration burden associated with
16
learnerships and assessment results in trainers feeling that they are distracted from their
core responsibilities
The pipeline for the development of skilled personnel is partly a responsibility of
education and labour So it is not within the sole domain of Setas to deliver skills into the
economy The effectiveness of the educational system is critical in achieving this
objective This not only raises the question of the linkage between education and labour
and the lack of co-ordination between the two ministries but also highlights the fact that a
number of blockages have occurred some of which are systemic and have nothing to do
with the functioning of the Setas
Often the lack of an overall learning curriculum is indicative of poor workplace skills
planning (which must be submitted to the SETA by employers)
In many learnerships there is a significant divide between what learners are taught and
what occurs on the job What the learner learns in the classroom is unable to practice in
the work environment
The construction environment with increasingly temporary and casual employment does
not bode well for learnerships as these by definition have a long-term orientation
(duration of a minimum of one year) and require formal contractual arrangements The
duration of the training may thus be a concern
Another challenge is the labour-intensive nature of the work which requires the
employment of a large amount of relatively elementary skills about 40 percent of the
workforce is made up of general manual labour (who are unqualified or partly qualified)
African employees fill almost 90 percent of the elementary occupations The sector
employs the fourth highest number of people having no formal education which
challenges the implementation of learnerships even further as this industry is particularly
affected by the numeracy literacy and language related problems
17
Attracting and Recruiting the Youth as Artisans
Over the years various discussions have taken place on how to build the image of the artisan
(Mukora 2008) The Artisan Development Coordinating Committee has proposed during their
committees meeting in June 2007 a new definition of an artisan as follows lsquoldquoArtisanrdquo will mean
a person that has been certificated as competent by a relevant Education and Training Quality
Assurance body for a qualification registered on the National Qualifications Framework for a
Trade listed by the Minister of Labour in the Skills Development Act as amended which trade
has a designation at occupation level on the Organising Framework for Occupations and the
person is registered with the Registrar for Artisans as an Artisan for such a Tradersquo It is obvious
that in the past the artisan was considered a valued skill within the workplace but as the years
went by the artisan became less appreciated and respected
It is also apparent that young people would rather work with computers than to for engineering
and its associated professions because young people are afraid to get their hands dirty (Mukora
2008) If the country is to increase the supply of artisans some measures will have to be
implemented to encourage the youth to become artisans Catt et al (1997) established mechanism
or methods that can be employed in attracting and retaining younger people to what they
perceive lsquounsuitablersquo or lsquoundesirablersquo careers
Advertising a well written lsquocatchyrsquo advert placed in the newspaper magazines and played on
radio and TV outlining the benefits of being an artisan and how acquiring such skills would
empower the applicant would go a long way in changing the perception of the artisan and
attracting the youth
Open events the DoL DoE the SETAs and all the other contributing stakeholders could host a
series of lsquoopen daysrsquo in schools and communities
18
Learnerships in the Construction Industry to date
CETA funds learnership but with a total of 8 365 levy-paying construction companies in the
sector only 56 learnerships had been registered with the CETA by mid 2003 (cidb 2004) Since
then there has been an innovative approach by industry and CETA that has enabled an
introduction of a system in which a number of companies can take on a shared commitment thus
providing some renewed impetus to skills development (cidb 2004) Government support to this
approach is reflected in amended regulations that cater for employer groups by the form of a tax
incentive The tax incentive is applicable at the beginning of and upon completion of the
learnership (DoL 2001) at the beginning of the learnership (for learners already employed by
the entity) once a Learnership agreement has been entered into and the agreement registered with
a SETA the employer is eligible for a deduction of 70 of the annual wages paid to that learner
up to a maximum of R20 000 during the relevant year of assessment and upon completion for
(unemployed learners) the employer is eligible for a deduction of 100 of the Learnership
allowance paid to that learner up to a maximum of R30 000 during the relevant year of
assessment To date CETA has 84 registered learnerships with 44 of them active 21 of them
replaced and 19 of them Active but to be extended in the future
The following is a list of registered learnerships for the year 2010(CETA 2010)
Registration Number NQF
Status
Learnership Title Qualification
Number
Status
05 Q 050048 18 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(carpentry)
24296 Active
05 Q 050047 16 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(carpeting)
24296 Active
05 Q 050049 20 120 1 1 Construction Floor coverer(vinyl)
24296 Active
05 Q 050034 41 120 1 1 Construction road worker(construction)
22977 Replaced by 24133
05 Q 050036 40 120 1 1 Construction road 22977 Replaced by
12
worker(maintenance) 24133
Registration Number NQF
Status
Learnership Title Qualification
Number
Status
05 Q 050073 21 123 2 2 Construction materials tester (bituminous)
49058 Active
05 Q 050074 22 139 2 2 Construction materials tester (concrete)
49058 Active
05 Q 050080 32 129 2 2 Construction crane operator
48961 Active
05Q05103261202 2 Construction foreman 49410 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction plasterer
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction masonry
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction painter
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction formworks
65409 Active
05Q050101351604 4 Plumber 58782 Active
05Q050064 241426 4 Surveyor(hydrographic) 20487 Active
05Q050087871764 4 Construction supervisor 23682 Replaced by 49053
05Q050063252715 5 Structural steel detailer 48636 Active
05Q050043312045 5 Manager Building Construction
23675 Active
05Q050044342675 5 Manager Civil Roadworkrsquos
23675 Active
05Q050089341405 5 Geographical information science operator
23675 Active
The CEO of CETA Mr Petrus Maoko reaffirmed their dedication to skills development by
saying ldquoCETA is prepared and able to answer the call to accelerate skills development within the
construction sector and is setting measures in place that will assist the organization worker faster
harder and smarter to meet the needs of the construction sector and accelerate the turn-around
13
time of internal processes rdquo and that CETA is ready to make the construction sector more
accessible to women young people people with disabilities and rural communities (Duma
2010)
Constraints encountered within Learnerships
In the book on Perspective in Learnerships Babb et al (2005) have highlighted the key elements
for an effective learnership programme The elements are the overall purpose aims and
objectives of the programme the governance of the programme the learning outcome expressed
as a qualification the selection of the learners the quality of the learning provision on the job
training and work placement the assessment process and ongoing evaluation of the programme
and the administration of the system
Overall purposes aims and objective It is clear that the purpose and objective of such a
programme is to address the national professional and organisational need for skilled artisan and
to redress the gap of inequality amongst the South African citizens
The governance of the system A learnership is a multi stakeholderrsquos (the DoL DoE SETAs
learners training providers etc) entity and the more diverse the stakeholders the more essential
the governance structures and processes need to be It is when all these stakeholders understand
their roles and responsibilities that an effective programme is created
Qualifications The learnership must lead to an accredited qualification which may be broad
based or occupation specific The curriculum must include broader skills requirements such as
interpersonal skills life skills problem solving skill and communication skills which are cited as
being critical to enable the learner to perform to their full potential and be adaptable to any
working environment
Selection of learners Although learnerships are open to any one within the designated age
limits there needs to be a balance between the numbers of learners accepted into them with their
14
best chances of succeeding To ensure this an assessment of potential learners to ensure their
basic ability to succeed is an essential component of selecting learners for the programme
Quality of learning provision For a learnership to be work effectively highly effective training
provider institutions with well qualified and capable teaching staff sound administration and
cutting edge equipment and facilities are required
On the job training and work placement Successful learnerships incorporate on the job training
coaching and assessment furthermore on the job training should be structured outcome based
and challenging By structured they should ensure that the necessary learning outcomes are
covered by outcome based they should ensure that the learning actually occurs and the
progression from one phase to the next without worrying about the time and it should be
challenging by ensuring that the learner is motivated to learn
The assessment and evaluation process The assessment process needs to be a multiple process
involving problem solving and the design of the process is critical and the capacity of the
assessors needs to be built and the appropriate tools developed Learnerships should also
evaluate their success that is their outcome such as if their learners have been employed if they
are contributing to their sector and how successful their outcome is instead of the number of
learners the programme has produced
Administration of the programme For a learnership to work the administrator who manages it
should ensure that the data required should be well maintained as it is needed for workplace
skills planning and reporting employment equity and sectoral charter reporting
All these above mentioned elements if properly implemented prove to deliver an effective and
successful learnership (Examples of such successes is the BAKSETA from the banking sector
(Dunn 2005)) so then the question arises why are most learnership not delivering what the
Skills development act had set out to achieve Based on various literature read the following are
the key problems thought to be the hindering factors to the success of learnership programme for
artisans in general and in the construction industry (MBA 2008 Mukora 2008 Mummenthey
2008 cidb 2004 CETA 2008 Babb et al 2005)
15
When the Setas were established the majority did not have appropriate systems and
procedures in place to deal with their core functions From a governance and oversight
point of view the situation was equally problematic as SETA boards were constituted
and sought to define their areas of responsibility
There was an underestimation of the scale of the task and the volume of the problems in
terms of implementing the SDA This then could have fed into a failure to sufficiently
factor in the extent to which the new system might become bureaucratized and hence its
resource intensity
There appeared to be a lack of understanding not only around the structure of the
economy but also the nature of work processes (especially in relation to artisans and the
role they played in the production process)
Those pushing for a new order did not have an appreciation for the artisan and there was
a sense that intermediate (artisan) skills are not important This was partly related to the
fact that the apprenticeship system had become so fundamentally linked with the
apartheid system (and hence had become discredited) and there was a real sense that
artisan skills would no longer be required as part of the skills base of the lsquonew economyrsquo
which was to emerge Hence the artisan became a devalued commodity
Research has revealed that learnerships until fairly recently have tended to be focused at
very low skills levels Where artisan-based learnerships have been introduced cynicism
emerged around quality It has been argued that this is partly a result of the fact that
learnerships were not ready to be implemented when they were but there was political
pressure to do so as opposed to continuing with the apprenticeship system
The people required to provide training do not possess the skills required for effective
coaching and training and in addition the administration burden associated with
16
learnerships and assessment results in trainers feeling that they are distracted from their
core responsibilities
The pipeline for the development of skilled personnel is partly a responsibility of
education and labour So it is not within the sole domain of Setas to deliver skills into the
economy The effectiveness of the educational system is critical in achieving this
objective This not only raises the question of the linkage between education and labour
and the lack of co-ordination between the two ministries but also highlights the fact that a
number of blockages have occurred some of which are systemic and have nothing to do
with the functioning of the Setas
Often the lack of an overall learning curriculum is indicative of poor workplace skills
planning (which must be submitted to the SETA by employers)
In many learnerships there is a significant divide between what learners are taught and
what occurs on the job What the learner learns in the classroom is unable to practice in
the work environment
The construction environment with increasingly temporary and casual employment does
not bode well for learnerships as these by definition have a long-term orientation
(duration of a minimum of one year) and require formal contractual arrangements The
duration of the training may thus be a concern
Another challenge is the labour-intensive nature of the work which requires the
employment of a large amount of relatively elementary skills about 40 percent of the
workforce is made up of general manual labour (who are unqualified or partly qualified)
African employees fill almost 90 percent of the elementary occupations The sector
employs the fourth highest number of people having no formal education which
challenges the implementation of learnerships even further as this industry is particularly
affected by the numeracy literacy and language related problems
17
Attracting and Recruiting the Youth as Artisans
Over the years various discussions have taken place on how to build the image of the artisan
(Mukora 2008) The Artisan Development Coordinating Committee has proposed during their
committees meeting in June 2007 a new definition of an artisan as follows lsquoldquoArtisanrdquo will mean
a person that has been certificated as competent by a relevant Education and Training Quality
Assurance body for a qualification registered on the National Qualifications Framework for a
Trade listed by the Minister of Labour in the Skills Development Act as amended which trade
has a designation at occupation level on the Organising Framework for Occupations and the
person is registered with the Registrar for Artisans as an Artisan for such a Tradersquo It is obvious
that in the past the artisan was considered a valued skill within the workplace but as the years
went by the artisan became less appreciated and respected
It is also apparent that young people would rather work with computers than to for engineering
and its associated professions because young people are afraid to get their hands dirty (Mukora
2008) If the country is to increase the supply of artisans some measures will have to be
implemented to encourage the youth to become artisans Catt et al (1997) established mechanism
or methods that can be employed in attracting and retaining younger people to what they
perceive lsquounsuitablersquo or lsquoundesirablersquo careers
Advertising a well written lsquocatchyrsquo advert placed in the newspaper magazines and played on
radio and TV outlining the benefits of being an artisan and how acquiring such skills would
empower the applicant would go a long way in changing the perception of the artisan and
attracting the youth
Open events the DoL DoE the SETAs and all the other contributing stakeholders could host a
series of lsquoopen daysrsquo in schools and communities
18
worker(maintenance) 24133
Registration Number NQF
Status
Learnership Title Qualification
Number
Status
05 Q 050073 21 123 2 2 Construction materials tester (bituminous)
49058 Active
05 Q 050074 22 139 2 2 Construction materials tester (concrete)
49058 Active
05 Q 050080 32 129 2 2 Construction crane operator
48961 Active
05Q05103261202 2 Construction foreman 49410 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction plasterer
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction masonry
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction painter
65409 Active
05Q050110221403 3 NC Construction formworks
65409 Active
05Q050101351604 4 Plumber 58782 Active
05Q050064 241426 4 Surveyor(hydrographic) 20487 Active
05Q050087871764 4 Construction supervisor 23682 Replaced by 49053
05Q050063252715 5 Structural steel detailer 48636 Active
05Q050043312045 5 Manager Building Construction
23675 Active
05Q050044342675 5 Manager Civil Roadworkrsquos
23675 Active
05Q050089341405 5 Geographical information science operator
23675 Active
The CEO of CETA Mr Petrus Maoko reaffirmed their dedication to skills development by
saying ldquoCETA is prepared and able to answer the call to accelerate skills development within the
construction sector and is setting measures in place that will assist the organization worker faster
harder and smarter to meet the needs of the construction sector and accelerate the turn-around
13
time of internal processes rdquo and that CETA is ready to make the construction sector more
accessible to women young people people with disabilities and rural communities (Duma
2010)
Constraints encountered within Learnerships
In the book on Perspective in Learnerships Babb et al (2005) have highlighted the key elements
for an effective learnership programme The elements are the overall purpose aims and
objectives of the programme the governance of the programme the learning outcome expressed
as a qualification the selection of the learners the quality of the learning provision on the job
training and work placement the assessment process and ongoing evaluation of the programme
and the administration of the system
Overall purposes aims and objective It is clear that the purpose and objective of such a
programme is to address the national professional and organisational need for skilled artisan and
to redress the gap of inequality amongst the South African citizens
The governance of the system A learnership is a multi stakeholderrsquos (the DoL DoE SETAs
learners training providers etc) entity and the more diverse the stakeholders the more essential
the governance structures and processes need to be It is when all these stakeholders understand
their roles and responsibilities that an effective programme is created
Qualifications The learnership must lead to an accredited qualification which may be broad
based or occupation specific The curriculum must include broader skills requirements such as
interpersonal skills life skills problem solving skill and communication skills which are cited as
being critical to enable the learner to perform to their full potential and be adaptable to any
working environment
Selection of learners Although learnerships are open to any one within the designated age
limits there needs to be a balance between the numbers of learners accepted into them with their
14
best chances of succeeding To ensure this an assessment of potential learners to ensure their
basic ability to succeed is an essential component of selecting learners for the programme
Quality of learning provision For a learnership to be work effectively highly effective training
provider institutions with well qualified and capable teaching staff sound administration and
cutting edge equipment and facilities are required
On the job training and work placement Successful learnerships incorporate on the job training
coaching and assessment furthermore on the job training should be structured outcome based
and challenging By structured they should ensure that the necessary learning outcomes are
covered by outcome based they should ensure that the learning actually occurs and the
progression from one phase to the next without worrying about the time and it should be
challenging by ensuring that the learner is motivated to learn
The assessment and evaluation process The assessment process needs to be a multiple process
involving problem solving and the design of the process is critical and the capacity of the
assessors needs to be built and the appropriate tools developed Learnerships should also
evaluate their success that is their outcome such as if their learners have been employed if they
are contributing to their sector and how successful their outcome is instead of the number of
learners the programme has produced
Administration of the programme For a learnership to work the administrator who manages it
should ensure that the data required should be well maintained as it is needed for workplace
skills planning and reporting employment equity and sectoral charter reporting
All these above mentioned elements if properly implemented prove to deliver an effective and
successful learnership (Examples of such successes is the BAKSETA from the banking sector
(Dunn 2005)) so then the question arises why are most learnership not delivering what the
Skills development act had set out to achieve Based on various literature read the following are
the key problems thought to be the hindering factors to the success of learnership programme for
artisans in general and in the construction industry (MBA 2008 Mukora 2008 Mummenthey
2008 cidb 2004 CETA 2008 Babb et al 2005)
15
When the Setas were established the majority did not have appropriate systems and
procedures in place to deal with their core functions From a governance and oversight
point of view the situation was equally problematic as SETA boards were constituted
and sought to define their areas of responsibility
There was an underestimation of the scale of the task and the volume of the problems in
terms of implementing the SDA This then could have fed into a failure to sufficiently
factor in the extent to which the new system might become bureaucratized and hence its
resource intensity
There appeared to be a lack of understanding not only around the structure of the
economy but also the nature of work processes (especially in relation to artisans and the
role they played in the production process)
Those pushing for a new order did not have an appreciation for the artisan and there was
a sense that intermediate (artisan) skills are not important This was partly related to the
fact that the apprenticeship system had become so fundamentally linked with the
apartheid system (and hence had become discredited) and there was a real sense that
artisan skills would no longer be required as part of the skills base of the lsquonew economyrsquo
which was to emerge Hence the artisan became a devalued commodity
Research has revealed that learnerships until fairly recently have tended to be focused at
very low skills levels Where artisan-based learnerships have been introduced cynicism
emerged around quality It has been argued that this is partly a result of the fact that
learnerships were not ready to be implemented when they were but there was political
pressure to do so as opposed to continuing with the apprenticeship system
The people required to provide training do not possess the skills required for effective
coaching and training and in addition the administration burden associated with
16
learnerships and assessment results in trainers feeling that they are distracted from their
core responsibilities
The pipeline for the development of skilled personnel is partly a responsibility of
education and labour So it is not within the sole domain of Setas to deliver skills into the
economy The effectiveness of the educational system is critical in achieving this
objective This not only raises the question of the linkage between education and labour
and the lack of co-ordination between the two ministries but also highlights the fact that a
number of blockages have occurred some of which are systemic and have nothing to do
with the functioning of the Setas
Often the lack of an overall learning curriculum is indicative of poor workplace skills
planning (which must be submitted to the SETA by employers)
In many learnerships there is a significant divide between what learners are taught and
what occurs on the job What the learner learns in the classroom is unable to practice in
the work environment
The construction environment with increasingly temporary and casual employment does
not bode well for learnerships as these by definition have a long-term orientation
(duration of a minimum of one year) and require formal contractual arrangements The
duration of the training may thus be a concern
Another challenge is the labour-intensive nature of the work which requires the
employment of a large amount of relatively elementary skills about 40 percent of the
workforce is made up of general manual labour (who are unqualified or partly qualified)
African employees fill almost 90 percent of the elementary occupations The sector
employs the fourth highest number of people having no formal education which
challenges the implementation of learnerships even further as this industry is particularly
affected by the numeracy literacy and language related problems
17
Attracting and Recruiting the Youth as Artisans
Over the years various discussions have taken place on how to build the image of the artisan
(Mukora 2008) The Artisan Development Coordinating Committee has proposed during their
committees meeting in June 2007 a new definition of an artisan as follows lsquoldquoArtisanrdquo will mean
a person that has been certificated as competent by a relevant Education and Training Quality
Assurance body for a qualification registered on the National Qualifications Framework for a
Trade listed by the Minister of Labour in the Skills Development Act as amended which trade
has a designation at occupation level on the Organising Framework for Occupations and the
person is registered with the Registrar for Artisans as an Artisan for such a Tradersquo It is obvious
that in the past the artisan was considered a valued skill within the workplace but as the years
went by the artisan became less appreciated and respected
It is also apparent that young people would rather work with computers than to for engineering
and its associated professions because young people are afraid to get their hands dirty (Mukora
2008) If the country is to increase the supply of artisans some measures will have to be
implemented to encourage the youth to become artisans Catt et al (1997) established mechanism
or methods that can be employed in attracting and retaining younger people to what they
perceive lsquounsuitablersquo or lsquoundesirablersquo careers
Advertising a well written lsquocatchyrsquo advert placed in the newspaper magazines and played on
radio and TV outlining the benefits of being an artisan and how acquiring such skills would
empower the applicant would go a long way in changing the perception of the artisan and
attracting the youth
Open events the DoL DoE the SETAs and all the other contributing stakeholders could host a
series of lsquoopen daysrsquo in schools and communities
18
time of internal processes rdquo and that CETA is ready to make the construction sector more
accessible to women young people people with disabilities and rural communities (Duma
2010)
Constraints encountered within Learnerships
In the book on Perspective in Learnerships Babb et al (2005) have highlighted the key elements
for an effective learnership programme The elements are the overall purpose aims and
objectives of the programme the governance of the programme the learning outcome expressed
as a qualification the selection of the learners the quality of the learning provision on the job
training and work placement the assessment process and ongoing evaluation of the programme
and the administration of the system
Overall purposes aims and objective It is clear that the purpose and objective of such a
programme is to address the national professional and organisational need for skilled artisan and
to redress the gap of inequality amongst the South African citizens
The governance of the system A learnership is a multi stakeholderrsquos (the DoL DoE SETAs
learners training providers etc) entity and the more diverse the stakeholders the more essential
the governance structures and processes need to be It is when all these stakeholders understand
their roles and responsibilities that an effective programme is created
Qualifications The learnership must lead to an accredited qualification which may be broad
based or occupation specific The curriculum must include broader skills requirements such as
interpersonal skills life skills problem solving skill and communication skills which are cited as
being critical to enable the learner to perform to their full potential and be adaptable to any
working environment
Selection of learners Although learnerships are open to any one within the designated age
limits there needs to be a balance between the numbers of learners accepted into them with their
14
best chances of succeeding To ensure this an assessment of potential learners to ensure their
basic ability to succeed is an essential component of selecting learners for the programme
Quality of learning provision For a learnership to be work effectively highly effective training
provider institutions with well qualified and capable teaching staff sound administration and
cutting edge equipment and facilities are required
On the job training and work placement Successful learnerships incorporate on the job training
coaching and assessment furthermore on the job training should be structured outcome based
and challenging By structured they should ensure that the necessary learning outcomes are
covered by outcome based they should ensure that the learning actually occurs and the
progression from one phase to the next without worrying about the time and it should be
challenging by ensuring that the learner is motivated to learn
The assessment and evaluation process The assessment process needs to be a multiple process
involving problem solving and the design of the process is critical and the capacity of the
assessors needs to be built and the appropriate tools developed Learnerships should also
evaluate their success that is their outcome such as if their learners have been employed if they
are contributing to their sector and how successful their outcome is instead of the number of
learners the programme has produced
Administration of the programme For a learnership to work the administrator who manages it
should ensure that the data required should be well maintained as it is needed for workplace
skills planning and reporting employment equity and sectoral charter reporting
All these above mentioned elements if properly implemented prove to deliver an effective and
successful learnership (Examples of such successes is the BAKSETA from the banking sector
(Dunn 2005)) so then the question arises why are most learnership not delivering what the
Skills development act had set out to achieve Based on various literature read the following are
the key problems thought to be the hindering factors to the success of learnership programme for
artisans in general and in the construction industry (MBA 2008 Mukora 2008 Mummenthey
2008 cidb 2004 CETA 2008 Babb et al 2005)
15
When the Setas were established the majority did not have appropriate systems and
procedures in place to deal with their core functions From a governance and oversight
point of view the situation was equally problematic as SETA boards were constituted
and sought to define their areas of responsibility
There was an underestimation of the scale of the task and the volume of the problems in
terms of implementing the SDA This then could have fed into a failure to sufficiently
factor in the extent to which the new system might become bureaucratized and hence its
resource intensity
There appeared to be a lack of understanding not only around the structure of the
economy but also the nature of work processes (especially in relation to artisans and the
role they played in the production process)
Those pushing for a new order did not have an appreciation for the artisan and there was
a sense that intermediate (artisan) skills are not important This was partly related to the
fact that the apprenticeship system had become so fundamentally linked with the
apartheid system (and hence had become discredited) and there was a real sense that
artisan skills would no longer be required as part of the skills base of the lsquonew economyrsquo
which was to emerge Hence the artisan became a devalued commodity
Research has revealed that learnerships until fairly recently have tended to be focused at
very low skills levels Where artisan-based learnerships have been introduced cynicism
emerged around quality It has been argued that this is partly a result of the fact that
learnerships were not ready to be implemented when they were but there was political
pressure to do so as opposed to continuing with the apprenticeship system
The people required to provide training do not possess the skills required for effective
coaching and training and in addition the administration burden associated with
16
learnerships and assessment results in trainers feeling that they are distracted from their
core responsibilities
The pipeline for the development of skilled personnel is partly a responsibility of
education and labour So it is not within the sole domain of Setas to deliver skills into the
economy The effectiveness of the educational system is critical in achieving this
objective This not only raises the question of the linkage between education and labour
and the lack of co-ordination between the two ministries but also highlights the fact that a
number of blockages have occurred some of which are systemic and have nothing to do
with the functioning of the Setas
Often the lack of an overall learning curriculum is indicative of poor workplace skills
planning (which must be submitted to the SETA by employers)
In many learnerships there is a significant divide between what learners are taught and
what occurs on the job What the learner learns in the classroom is unable to practice in
the work environment
The construction environment with increasingly temporary and casual employment does
not bode well for learnerships as these by definition have a long-term orientation
(duration of a minimum of one year) and require formal contractual arrangements The
duration of the training may thus be a concern
Another challenge is the labour-intensive nature of the work which requires the
employment of a large amount of relatively elementary skills about 40 percent of the
workforce is made up of general manual labour (who are unqualified or partly qualified)
African employees fill almost 90 percent of the elementary occupations The sector
employs the fourth highest number of people having no formal education which
challenges the implementation of learnerships even further as this industry is particularly
affected by the numeracy literacy and language related problems
17
Attracting and Recruiting the Youth as Artisans
Over the years various discussions have taken place on how to build the image of the artisan
(Mukora 2008) The Artisan Development Coordinating Committee has proposed during their
committees meeting in June 2007 a new definition of an artisan as follows lsquoldquoArtisanrdquo will mean
a person that has been certificated as competent by a relevant Education and Training Quality
Assurance body for a qualification registered on the National Qualifications Framework for a
Trade listed by the Minister of Labour in the Skills Development Act as amended which trade
has a designation at occupation level on the Organising Framework for Occupations and the
person is registered with the Registrar for Artisans as an Artisan for such a Tradersquo It is obvious
that in the past the artisan was considered a valued skill within the workplace but as the years
went by the artisan became less appreciated and respected
It is also apparent that young people would rather work with computers than to for engineering
and its associated professions because young people are afraid to get their hands dirty (Mukora
2008) If the country is to increase the supply of artisans some measures will have to be
implemented to encourage the youth to become artisans Catt et al (1997) established mechanism
or methods that can be employed in attracting and retaining younger people to what they
perceive lsquounsuitablersquo or lsquoundesirablersquo careers
Advertising a well written lsquocatchyrsquo advert placed in the newspaper magazines and played on
radio and TV outlining the benefits of being an artisan and how acquiring such skills would
empower the applicant would go a long way in changing the perception of the artisan and
attracting the youth
Open events the DoL DoE the SETAs and all the other contributing stakeholders could host a
series of lsquoopen daysrsquo in schools and communities
18
best chances of succeeding To ensure this an assessment of potential learners to ensure their
basic ability to succeed is an essential component of selecting learners for the programme
Quality of learning provision For a learnership to be work effectively highly effective training
provider institutions with well qualified and capable teaching staff sound administration and
cutting edge equipment and facilities are required
On the job training and work placement Successful learnerships incorporate on the job training
coaching and assessment furthermore on the job training should be structured outcome based
and challenging By structured they should ensure that the necessary learning outcomes are
covered by outcome based they should ensure that the learning actually occurs and the
progression from one phase to the next without worrying about the time and it should be
challenging by ensuring that the learner is motivated to learn
The assessment and evaluation process The assessment process needs to be a multiple process
involving problem solving and the design of the process is critical and the capacity of the
assessors needs to be built and the appropriate tools developed Learnerships should also
evaluate their success that is their outcome such as if their learners have been employed if they
are contributing to their sector and how successful their outcome is instead of the number of
learners the programme has produced
Administration of the programme For a learnership to work the administrator who manages it
should ensure that the data required should be well maintained as it is needed for workplace
skills planning and reporting employment equity and sectoral charter reporting
All these above mentioned elements if properly implemented prove to deliver an effective and
successful learnership (Examples of such successes is the BAKSETA from the banking sector
(Dunn 2005)) so then the question arises why are most learnership not delivering what the
Skills development act had set out to achieve Based on various literature read the following are
the key problems thought to be the hindering factors to the success of learnership programme for
artisans in general and in the construction industry (MBA 2008 Mukora 2008 Mummenthey
2008 cidb 2004 CETA 2008 Babb et al 2005)
15
When the Setas were established the majority did not have appropriate systems and
procedures in place to deal with their core functions From a governance and oversight
point of view the situation was equally problematic as SETA boards were constituted
and sought to define their areas of responsibility
There was an underestimation of the scale of the task and the volume of the problems in
terms of implementing the SDA This then could have fed into a failure to sufficiently
factor in the extent to which the new system might become bureaucratized and hence its
resource intensity
There appeared to be a lack of understanding not only around the structure of the
economy but also the nature of work processes (especially in relation to artisans and the
role they played in the production process)
Those pushing for a new order did not have an appreciation for the artisan and there was
a sense that intermediate (artisan) skills are not important This was partly related to the
fact that the apprenticeship system had become so fundamentally linked with the
apartheid system (and hence had become discredited) and there was a real sense that
artisan skills would no longer be required as part of the skills base of the lsquonew economyrsquo
which was to emerge Hence the artisan became a devalued commodity
Research has revealed that learnerships until fairly recently have tended to be focused at
very low skills levels Where artisan-based learnerships have been introduced cynicism
emerged around quality It has been argued that this is partly a result of the fact that
learnerships were not ready to be implemented when they were but there was political
pressure to do so as opposed to continuing with the apprenticeship system
The people required to provide training do not possess the skills required for effective
coaching and training and in addition the administration burden associated with
16
learnerships and assessment results in trainers feeling that they are distracted from their
core responsibilities
The pipeline for the development of skilled personnel is partly a responsibility of
education and labour So it is not within the sole domain of Setas to deliver skills into the
economy The effectiveness of the educational system is critical in achieving this
objective This not only raises the question of the linkage between education and labour
and the lack of co-ordination between the two ministries but also highlights the fact that a
number of blockages have occurred some of which are systemic and have nothing to do
with the functioning of the Setas
Often the lack of an overall learning curriculum is indicative of poor workplace skills
planning (which must be submitted to the SETA by employers)
In many learnerships there is a significant divide between what learners are taught and
what occurs on the job What the learner learns in the classroom is unable to practice in
the work environment
The construction environment with increasingly temporary and casual employment does
not bode well for learnerships as these by definition have a long-term orientation
(duration of a minimum of one year) and require formal contractual arrangements The
duration of the training may thus be a concern
Another challenge is the labour-intensive nature of the work which requires the
employment of a large amount of relatively elementary skills about 40 percent of the
workforce is made up of general manual labour (who are unqualified or partly qualified)
African employees fill almost 90 percent of the elementary occupations The sector
employs the fourth highest number of people having no formal education which
challenges the implementation of learnerships even further as this industry is particularly
affected by the numeracy literacy and language related problems
17
Attracting and Recruiting the Youth as Artisans
Over the years various discussions have taken place on how to build the image of the artisan
(Mukora 2008) The Artisan Development Coordinating Committee has proposed during their
committees meeting in June 2007 a new definition of an artisan as follows lsquoldquoArtisanrdquo will mean
a person that has been certificated as competent by a relevant Education and Training Quality
Assurance body for a qualification registered on the National Qualifications Framework for a
Trade listed by the Minister of Labour in the Skills Development Act as amended which trade
has a designation at occupation level on the Organising Framework for Occupations and the
person is registered with the Registrar for Artisans as an Artisan for such a Tradersquo It is obvious
that in the past the artisan was considered a valued skill within the workplace but as the years
went by the artisan became less appreciated and respected
It is also apparent that young people would rather work with computers than to for engineering
and its associated professions because young people are afraid to get their hands dirty (Mukora
2008) If the country is to increase the supply of artisans some measures will have to be
implemented to encourage the youth to become artisans Catt et al (1997) established mechanism
or methods that can be employed in attracting and retaining younger people to what they
perceive lsquounsuitablersquo or lsquoundesirablersquo careers
Advertising a well written lsquocatchyrsquo advert placed in the newspaper magazines and played on
radio and TV outlining the benefits of being an artisan and how acquiring such skills would
empower the applicant would go a long way in changing the perception of the artisan and
attracting the youth
Open events the DoL DoE the SETAs and all the other contributing stakeholders could host a
series of lsquoopen daysrsquo in schools and communities
18
When the Setas were established the majority did not have appropriate systems and
procedures in place to deal with their core functions From a governance and oversight
point of view the situation was equally problematic as SETA boards were constituted
and sought to define their areas of responsibility
There was an underestimation of the scale of the task and the volume of the problems in
terms of implementing the SDA This then could have fed into a failure to sufficiently
factor in the extent to which the new system might become bureaucratized and hence its
resource intensity
There appeared to be a lack of understanding not only around the structure of the
economy but also the nature of work processes (especially in relation to artisans and the
role they played in the production process)
Those pushing for a new order did not have an appreciation for the artisan and there was
a sense that intermediate (artisan) skills are not important This was partly related to the
fact that the apprenticeship system had become so fundamentally linked with the
apartheid system (and hence had become discredited) and there was a real sense that
artisan skills would no longer be required as part of the skills base of the lsquonew economyrsquo
which was to emerge Hence the artisan became a devalued commodity
Research has revealed that learnerships until fairly recently have tended to be focused at
very low skills levels Where artisan-based learnerships have been introduced cynicism
emerged around quality It has been argued that this is partly a result of the fact that
learnerships were not ready to be implemented when they were but there was political
pressure to do so as opposed to continuing with the apprenticeship system
The people required to provide training do not possess the skills required for effective
coaching and training and in addition the administration burden associated with
16
learnerships and assessment results in trainers feeling that they are distracted from their
core responsibilities
The pipeline for the development of skilled personnel is partly a responsibility of
education and labour So it is not within the sole domain of Setas to deliver skills into the
economy The effectiveness of the educational system is critical in achieving this
objective This not only raises the question of the linkage between education and labour
and the lack of co-ordination between the two ministries but also highlights the fact that a
number of blockages have occurred some of which are systemic and have nothing to do
with the functioning of the Setas
Often the lack of an overall learning curriculum is indicative of poor workplace skills
planning (which must be submitted to the SETA by employers)
In many learnerships there is a significant divide between what learners are taught and
what occurs on the job What the learner learns in the classroom is unable to practice in
the work environment
The construction environment with increasingly temporary and casual employment does
not bode well for learnerships as these by definition have a long-term orientation
(duration of a minimum of one year) and require formal contractual arrangements The
duration of the training may thus be a concern
Another challenge is the labour-intensive nature of the work which requires the
employment of a large amount of relatively elementary skills about 40 percent of the
workforce is made up of general manual labour (who are unqualified or partly qualified)
African employees fill almost 90 percent of the elementary occupations The sector
employs the fourth highest number of people having no formal education which
challenges the implementation of learnerships even further as this industry is particularly
affected by the numeracy literacy and language related problems
17
Attracting and Recruiting the Youth as Artisans
Over the years various discussions have taken place on how to build the image of the artisan
(Mukora 2008) The Artisan Development Coordinating Committee has proposed during their
committees meeting in June 2007 a new definition of an artisan as follows lsquoldquoArtisanrdquo will mean
a person that has been certificated as competent by a relevant Education and Training Quality
Assurance body for a qualification registered on the National Qualifications Framework for a
Trade listed by the Minister of Labour in the Skills Development Act as amended which trade
has a designation at occupation level on the Organising Framework for Occupations and the
person is registered with the Registrar for Artisans as an Artisan for such a Tradersquo It is obvious
that in the past the artisan was considered a valued skill within the workplace but as the years
went by the artisan became less appreciated and respected
It is also apparent that young people would rather work with computers than to for engineering
and its associated professions because young people are afraid to get their hands dirty (Mukora
2008) If the country is to increase the supply of artisans some measures will have to be
implemented to encourage the youth to become artisans Catt et al (1997) established mechanism
or methods that can be employed in attracting and retaining younger people to what they
perceive lsquounsuitablersquo or lsquoundesirablersquo careers
Advertising a well written lsquocatchyrsquo advert placed in the newspaper magazines and played on
radio and TV outlining the benefits of being an artisan and how acquiring such skills would
empower the applicant would go a long way in changing the perception of the artisan and
attracting the youth
Open events the DoL DoE the SETAs and all the other contributing stakeholders could host a
series of lsquoopen daysrsquo in schools and communities
18
learnerships and assessment results in trainers feeling that they are distracted from their
core responsibilities
The pipeline for the development of skilled personnel is partly a responsibility of
education and labour So it is not within the sole domain of Setas to deliver skills into the
economy The effectiveness of the educational system is critical in achieving this
objective This not only raises the question of the linkage between education and labour
and the lack of co-ordination between the two ministries but also highlights the fact that a
number of blockages have occurred some of which are systemic and have nothing to do
with the functioning of the Setas
Often the lack of an overall learning curriculum is indicative of poor workplace skills
planning (which must be submitted to the SETA by employers)
In many learnerships there is a significant divide between what learners are taught and
what occurs on the job What the learner learns in the classroom is unable to practice in
the work environment
The construction environment with increasingly temporary and casual employment does
not bode well for learnerships as these by definition have a long-term orientation
(duration of a minimum of one year) and require formal contractual arrangements The
duration of the training may thus be a concern
Another challenge is the labour-intensive nature of the work which requires the
employment of a large amount of relatively elementary skills about 40 percent of the
workforce is made up of general manual labour (who are unqualified or partly qualified)
African employees fill almost 90 percent of the elementary occupations The sector
employs the fourth highest number of people having no formal education which
challenges the implementation of learnerships even further as this industry is particularly
affected by the numeracy literacy and language related problems
17
Attracting and Recruiting the Youth as Artisans
Over the years various discussions have taken place on how to build the image of the artisan
(Mukora 2008) The Artisan Development Coordinating Committee has proposed during their
committees meeting in June 2007 a new definition of an artisan as follows lsquoldquoArtisanrdquo will mean
a person that has been certificated as competent by a relevant Education and Training Quality
Assurance body for a qualification registered on the National Qualifications Framework for a
Trade listed by the Minister of Labour in the Skills Development Act as amended which trade
has a designation at occupation level on the Organising Framework for Occupations and the
person is registered with the Registrar for Artisans as an Artisan for such a Tradersquo It is obvious
that in the past the artisan was considered a valued skill within the workplace but as the years
went by the artisan became less appreciated and respected
It is also apparent that young people would rather work with computers than to for engineering
and its associated professions because young people are afraid to get their hands dirty (Mukora
2008) If the country is to increase the supply of artisans some measures will have to be
implemented to encourage the youth to become artisans Catt et al (1997) established mechanism
or methods that can be employed in attracting and retaining younger people to what they
perceive lsquounsuitablersquo or lsquoundesirablersquo careers
Advertising a well written lsquocatchyrsquo advert placed in the newspaper magazines and played on
radio and TV outlining the benefits of being an artisan and how acquiring such skills would
empower the applicant would go a long way in changing the perception of the artisan and
attracting the youth
Open events the DoL DoE the SETAs and all the other contributing stakeholders could host a
series of lsquoopen daysrsquo in schools and communities
18
Attracting and Recruiting the Youth as Artisans
Over the years various discussions have taken place on how to build the image of the artisan
(Mukora 2008) The Artisan Development Coordinating Committee has proposed during their
committees meeting in June 2007 a new definition of an artisan as follows lsquoldquoArtisanrdquo will mean
a person that has been certificated as competent by a relevant Education and Training Quality
Assurance body for a qualification registered on the National Qualifications Framework for a
Trade listed by the Minister of Labour in the Skills Development Act as amended which trade
has a designation at occupation level on the Organising Framework for Occupations and the
person is registered with the Registrar for Artisans as an Artisan for such a Tradersquo It is obvious
that in the past the artisan was considered a valued skill within the workplace but as the years
went by the artisan became less appreciated and respected
It is also apparent that young people would rather work with computers than to for engineering
and its associated professions because young people are afraid to get their hands dirty (Mukora
2008) If the country is to increase the supply of artisans some measures will have to be
implemented to encourage the youth to become artisans Catt et al (1997) established mechanism
or methods that can be employed in attracting and retaining younger people to what they
perceive lsquounsuitablersquo or lsquoundesirablersquo careers
Advertising a well written lsquocatchyrsquo advert placed in the newspaper magazines and played on
radio and TV outlining the benefits of being an artisan and how acquiring such skills would
empower the applicant would go a long way in changing the perception of the artisan and
attracting the youth
Open events the DoL DoE the SETAs and all the other contributing stakeholders could host a
series of lsquoopen daysrsquo in schools and communities
18