Briefing by Department of Labour

Meeting Summary

A summary of this committee meeting is not yet available.

Meeting report

IMPROVEMENT OF QUALITY OF LIFE AND STATUS OF CHILDREN, YOUTH AND DISABLED PERSONS JOINT MONITORING COMMITTEE
31 October 2001
BRIEFING BY DEPARTMENT OF LABOUR


Acting Chair:
Mr Maloyi ANC)

Documents handed out:
Policies, Budget programmes, Anticipated policies and Programmes (See Appendix)

SUMMARY
The Department of Labour presented the policies, budget programmes, anticipated policies and programmes related to children, youth and disabled persons. The Committee was informed on the life skills standards generating project in partnership with the South African Qualifications Authority and the National Youth Commission. Their responsibility is to develop standards for life skills programmes relevant to assisting young people, people with disabilities and all other people who find it difficult to find employment. 

There is a need to develop and monitor existing policies related to issues such as child labour and the introduction of training that is relevant to the economic realities of South Africa. The Department has launched pilot projects aimed at developing models for assisting the entry of young people into the world of work. Support in the form of bursaries has been made available to persons with disability, who have completed school. Assistance through training programmes has also been given to young people in prisons. The Committee raised concerns about the low equity targets set by the skills strategy, which they felt should be increased. The inefficiency of certain policies like the wage subsidy, for companies employing disabled persons was mentioned.

MINUTES
Ms Lebogang Ngwangwa  the Deputy Director of Designated Groups within the Labour Department presented the policies, budget programmes, anticipated policies and programmes.

Please refer to attached document.

Discussion
Ms Newhoudt-Druchen (ANC) asked why the equity targets for people with disabilities standing at 4% were so low compared to 85% for black people and 54% for women.  

Ms Ngwangwa explained that these figures were prevalent of the October 1996 household study. It was found that 5.4% of disabled persons in South Africa were able to take part in the labour market. The study showed that there was 0.51 economically active people with disabilities in the country. However during debates in the Job summit, it was agreed that mechanisms to bring disabled people into the job market were not in place hence this was decreased to 4%.

Ms Newhoudt-Druchen asked where one could obtain the bursary forms for disabled students who want to enroll in a training institution. Considering the fact that matric done by abled persons and disabled was not the same, hence entry into institutions such Technikon's, colleges and Universities for these students was hard. Were bursaries awarded to students who wanted to enroll into institutions such as Damelin?

Ms Ngwangwa replied that bursaries covered out of schooling training institutions. However she stated that students should be older than 15 years. Those institutions that they want to enroll into should stipulate clearly how the skills learnt by a student from them would make him/her eligible for employment in the job market.

Ms Newhoudt-Druchen raised the issue about employers who got subsidized for employing disabled persons and in the past have fired those employees, and hired another employee to benefit from the wage subsidy scheme. How was the Department was dealing with this problem?

Ms Ngwangwa said the  issue of the wage subsidies is a huge challenge for her Department and policies were still being developed to combat this problem.
 
An ANC member was concerned about the pilot projects in the North West and Mpumalanga, because his experience with pilot projects was that there is rarely any time frame stipulating their duration. How long do these projects for developing models for assisting entry of young people into the world of work take?

Ms Ngwangwa explained that a time frame had been set till 2005 for the pilot projects to create sustainable programs. The project in Mpumalanga has already been completed; they are waiting for Eskom to route out training models for that programme. The North West project has been set a time frame of 3 to 5 years from 1999.

An ANC member enquired if the Department had figures on the number of students they had given bursaries to.

Ms Ngwangwa said she does not currently have the actual figures at her disposal but she believed that they currently have 150 disabled students funded by the program. They are aiming to award bursaries to 500 candidates at the  end of November this year. The fund for the bursary scheme amounted to R2, 5 million.

An ANC member asked how far the Department was with finalizing the Code of Good Practice.

Ms Ngwangwa said stakeholders working with people with disabilities have been brought into the process of establishing a Code of Good Practice, which would make it easier for people with disabilities to enter the job market. Unfortunately it was regrettable to mention that there has been no submission forth coming from stakeholders, even from the disability community itself. However she said they hoped to have a report on the Code of Good Practice towards the end of the year.

An ANC member said he had noted that the representative from the Department of Labour has talked about an inter-sectoral Committee that has been established in partnerships with other stakeholders, to develop strategies to combat child labour. This is a long-term solution.
What is the Department currently doing to censor people involved in child labour?

Besides establishing that the inter-sectoral Committee had been established, the Department had also launched an advocacy campaign on child labour in South Africa.

An ANC member asked if there were any relations between the Department and Umsobomvu.

Ms Ngwangwa explained that they were in constant consultation with management of Umsobomvu in efforts to develop an integrated approach to youth development to South Africa.

Mr Moss (ANC) enquired on  where these bursaries forms are found.

Ms Ngwangwa stated that this could be obtained from any labour centre in the country, however she explained that candidates would have to go through a rigorous interview before they were awarded the bursaries. This was to ensure that people were given the proper skills to be successful when seeking employment in the labour market.

Mr Moss asked how many disabled persons the Department itself employed. Does the Department have statistics on how many disabled people are employed all over the country?

Ms Ngwangwa said  that these figures could be obtained from the Department of Public Service as it was directly involved with employment of people in the public sector. Her Department had certain targets in 1998 that were met in some provinces however in other provinces these were not met. A unit has been established in her Department to deal with this issue. 

Ms Mbuyazi (IFP) asked if the Department of  Labour monitored the progress of former young prisoners that have gone through the training programs in prisons. This might be useful in ascertaining if  they took part in the labour market as a result of those skills.

Ms Ngwangwa said the Department of  Labour was working with the Department of Correctional Services to assist people to gain access into the labour market.

Mrs Mbuyazi said  the presentation did not discuss the policy of the Department on HIV/AIDS.

Ms Ngwangwa explained that there were two streams in which they dealt with the issue of HIV/AIDS as a Department and those are internally and externally. Internally (within the Department) the Department had a program of disclosure on one status, she said this was purely voluntary. The programme included providing support through counselling and other kinds of support needed. Externally the Department thought the Employment equity act has ensured that no person is discriminated against because of  their HIV/AIDS status. It has also ensured that  people are not forced to disclose their HIV/AIDS status.

An ANC member asked where the projects in the North West were taking place, so he could consult his constituency when he returns to them.

The member should consult the provincial directors of  labour in both the North West and Mpumalanga province as they were responsible for the projects on the ground.

In conclusion Ms Ngwangwa said the unit that has been established by the Department of Labour to advise on policies relating to the development of policies that would initiate special programs, advocacy and awareness creation for people with disabilities. This unit would welcome recommendations from the Joint Monitoring Committee on Improvement of Quality of Life and Status of Children, Youth and Disabled Persons. 

The meeting was adjourned.

 Appendix
DEPARTMENT OF LABOUR

BRIEFING TO THE JOINT MONITORING COMMITTEE ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF QUALITY OF LIFE AND STATUS OF CHILDREN, YOUTH AND DISABLED PERSONS

POLICIES, BUDGET PROGRAMMES, ANTICIPATED POLICIES AND PROGRAMMES

INTRODUCTION

The Department of Labour is committed to the creation of an environment in the labour market, which is conducive to economic growth, investment and job creation, characterized by skills development, sound labour relations, respect for worker rights and employment standards.

In its Strategic plan for 2000-2004, The Department of Labour commits to achieve seven major objectives and one of these is the removal of unfair discrimination and the promotion of workplace equality to increase the participation of Black People, women and people with disabilities in the economic life of our country.

1          YOUTH AND CHILDREN

1.1        POLICIES

Basic Conditions of Employment Act

The Department of Labour, as an organ of State is committed to the enhancement and delivery of the ideals of the National Programme of Action for Children.  Of particular importance and relevance to this Department is Articles 28 and 32 of the Convention on the rights of the Child, which advocate for vocational information and prohibit child labour respectively. 

The Basic Conditions of Employment Act defines working age as 15 years, thus employment of children below this age is a crime, and could attract a fine or an imprisonment sentence of up to three years.

A child Labour inter-sectoral Committee has been established in partnership with other government Departments, non- governmental Organizations, business and unions.  The main objectives of this Committee are to develop a strategy for combating child labour, advocacy and awareness creation.  A survey is underway to establish the extent of the problem in South Africa.

Skills Development Act No 97 of 1998

Employment Services, as established by the Section 23 of this Act, provides career and vocational guidance, information and counseling for young people to ensure informed career choices.  Some of the key implementing structures are Labour Centres, which have been established according to Section 23(i) of the Skills Development Act.

Functions of the Labour Centres are:

To assist prescribed categories of persons -

to enter special education and training programmes

to find employment

to start income-generating projects: and

to participate in special employment programmes

BUDGET

National Skills Fund

The National Skills Fund has been established according to Section 27 of the Skills Development Act, primarily for funding of social development projects and initiatives in the field of skills development and employment.

Allocations to this fund are derived from fiscus, 20% of the skills levies, donations to the fund and any other sources.  Funding windows have been established in this fund and one of them is a social development funding window which targets projects for youth, people with disabilities and women.  

PROGRAMMES

North West and Mpumalanga Youth Development Projects

These are pilots aimed at developing models for assisting entry of young people into the world of work.  They are implemented in partnership with Working for Water, The German and Netherlands governments, as well as Eskom in the case of the Routing model in Mpumalanga.   Other key stakeholders include the South African Youth Council and National Youth Commission.

Current budget for these projects is R2 653 996.00. 

New learnerships are being developed in partnership with the Department of Education across all 25 SETAs, covering all occupational categories.  The Learnerships are to run concurrently with apprenticeships until further notice by the Minister of Labour.  The necessary regulations and, registration and support systems, learnership allowance determination and targets as well as indicators for performance are already in place.  The SETAs have developed plans that will ensure that a minimum of 80 000 learners have been enrolled by year 2005, in line with objective five of the Skills Development Strategy.

Other projects for young people include projects for young people in prisons.   These projects are implemented in partnership with the Departments of Correctional Services and Public Works. They ensure that young people acquire skills in various sectors including the Construction, agriculture and other trade skills or in some cases credits to qualifications whilst serving their sentences.  Young people actually gain experience by practically applying the skills on site thereby contributing through service to renovation activities.

A Life Skills Standard generating project has been established in partnership with the South African Qualifications Authority and the National Youth Commission, to develop standards for life skills programmes relevant to assisting young people, people with disabilities and all other people who find it difficult to find employment

The Department promotes integration into the mainstream of development through the involvement of these designated groups in social dialogue related to economic empowerment.  Interests of young people and people with disabilities are advanced and protected at NEDLAC, National Skills Authority and Employment Equity Commission, by representatives nominated by organizations for people with disabilities.

A special programme has been established to ensure that these target populations are integrated into all projects and programmes of the Department.  It is this unit that is responsible for advising the Department on policy issues through the development and initiation of special employment and bridging programmes, advocacy and awareness creation. This unit serves as a focal point accountable to the Offices on the Status of people with disabilities, women in the Presidency and the National Youth Commission. 

DISABLED PERSONS

POLICIES

Employment Equity Act

The Employment Equity Act specifically targets people with disabilities for the implementation of accelerative measures that will ensure that they enter the labour market, secures their adjustment and enhances their advancement.

One of the key mechanisms for this purpose is Affirmative Action. 

Designated employers are required by law to submit equity reports and plans subsequently to the Department of Labour, to ensure close monitoring of the process.  Inspectorates of the Department also visit industry to monitor and support the process. 

The Act also makes provision for a Code of Good Practice on disability which aims to serve as a guideline for employers in their efforts to recruit, select, place, and, train and advance people with disabilities in the workplace.  It also strongly recommends reasonable accommodation, which if implemented would be the ultimate in removing barriers to training and employment of people with disabilities.

Affirmative Action policy

The Department of Labour as an employer has also submitted both an equity report and a plan.  An Affirmative Action policy also exists in line with the requirements of the Public Service Administration and the Employment Equity Act.

Skills Development Strategy

The aim of the Skills Development Act is to improve the skills of the workforce as well as to improve the employability of those who find it difficult to enter the labour market. These are mainly people from previously disadvantaged communities (black people, women, youth and people with disabilities). 

Objectives of the Skills Development Strategy

To develop a culture of high quality life-long learning.

Fostering skills development in the formal economy for productivity and employment growth.

Stimulating and supporting skills development in small businesses.

Promoting skills development for employability and sustainable livelihoods through social development initiatives.

Assisting new entrants into employment.

All employers who pay R250 000 or more in wages are expected to pay a training levy.   The levy is 1% of payroll, of which 80% is ploughed back into skills development in Industry, whilst 20% is allocated to a National Skills Fund- a social development fund for new skills areas, training of the unemployed and special projects.   This fund has been divided into funding windows for purposes already mentioned.

The following equity targets have been set and agreed with all stakeholders in terms of all skills development initiatives in the country, 85% black people, 54% women and 4% people with disabilities, across all the objectives of the skills Strategy, to ensure their inclusion of all these groups.

Sector Education and Training Authorities are expected by law to submit sector skills plans that reflect industry training plans and initiatives by sector, and these are expected to reflect the equity targets.

BUDGET

National Skills Fund

PROGRAMMES

In order to ensure mainstreaming of people with disabilities into all these initiatives and many others, a unit has been established to facilitate entry and adjustment of designated groups as defined in the Employment Equity Act (black people, women, people with disabilities) through amongst other, advising policy, undertaking an advocacy role and developing special employment programmes.

Special employment programmes for people with disabilities funded through the National Skills Fund include the following:

A Bursary scheme, for students studying at technical colleges technikons and universities.  The fund covers tuition, assistive devices and reasonable accommodation for skills development, accommodation, travelling costs where necessary, exam registration fees, and amanuenses allowances where required.

A wage subsidy scheme that serves as an incentive for employers to employ people with disabilities.

Funding of accredited training providers who train people with disabilities.

A placement subsidy paid out to Organizations of people with disabilities as a complementary function to the placement function located in the Employment Services Section of The Department of Labour.

The following equity targets have been set and agreed with all stakeholders in terms of all skills development initiatives in the country, 85% black people, 54% women and 4% people with disabilities, across all the objectives of the skills Strategy, to ensure their inclusion in the Skills Strategy.

The Department of Labour also funds and supports sheltered employment factories.  These factories provide employment to people with disabilities who would not be able to work under ordinary working environments.  They pose huge challenges to the state in terms in terms of operation and accommodation of people with disabilities.  They are currently under review and restructuring. 

A feasibility study has been conducted as a basis for restructuring and transformation in a manner aligned with the mission, vision and mandate of the Department.  The Department works closely with a Ministerial Task Team with representatives from organizations of and for people with disabilities as well as the Office on the Status of Disabled Persons in the Office of the Presidents, as well as the Department of Social development to ensure an integrated approach, but also to ensure alignment between these factories and protective workshops managed by the latter Department.

ANTICIPATED POLICIES AND PROGRAMMES

A comprehensive Employment Support Programme for people with Disabilities is in the final stages of development.

A process of developing a project for the capacity building of stakeholders is underway and funds set aside for this project are to the tune of plus minus R15m.

Transformation of Sheltered Employment Factories.

YOUTH

(Extract from paper on youth strategies prepared by Adrianne Bird: Chief Director for Employment And Skills Development Services.)

Peri-statal para-professional Learnership Scheme

(supported by a 'Public Service Employment Subsidy')

Motivation for Scheme

The case against a general wage subsidy rests on three core propositions: deadweight, displacement and impermanence.  In general these arguments are compelling.  However there is a form of 'wage subsidy' which does not suffer from at least two of the three ills cited (deadweight and displacement effects) and it would be a wage subsidy to the public sector.  This seems to be a contradiction in terms - how can the public sector subsidize itself?

The case rests on the following arguments:

If the economists are right and general insecurity in the society is undermining investment - then lowering this insecurity (through the provision of social security to the poor) must improve the overall investment climate.

Support for public sector jobs does not carry the danger of displacement or deadweight - as the public sector is able to manage for these directly. 

By linking the proposal to a strong skills development component - it adds to the stock of human capital in the country.

It could be construed to be a peace-time form of national service and could include a strong element of social responsibility (linked to low wages).  However it resolves the problems of previous formulations of national service, in so far as the management responsibilities clearly fall to government Departments.

Whilst it does not completely address the concern that the state is 'getting bigger' and potentially crowding out private sector investment, the fact remains that the poor are unable to purchase these services and hence there is a market failure in these areas.  Intervening in areas where the market does not want to go is surely the mandate of the state in respect of direct services.  And surely arguments regarding private sector are less relevant in the South African context where half of its citizens are living in poverty!

It has the additional advantage that 'para-professionals' will not be nearly as internationally mobile as fully qualified professionals and hence will be much more likely to stay in the country and apply their skills locally.  And by taking significant pressure off professionals, they will hopefully contribute to lowering the emigration pressures on professionals.

And if there are public funds to support a private sector wage subsidy - why should the same funds not simply be redirected (especially since when applied to the private sector it appears that they principally go into the pocket of employers with very few new jobs)?

There is enormous stress within most frontline service delivery units that serve the poor.  (The rich are always able to buy their way out of the queues.)  This is evident in a wide range of public service delivery contexts.  Here are a few examples:

Teachers are having to teach classes of up to 100 learners in some areas.  In many instances these classes include children from homes who are suffering from poverty or ill-ness related problems and they are unable to effectively participate in learning - however the teacher has no alternative but to try to continue to serve the majority of learners.

Nurses are having to single-handedly serve rural communities in the absence of doctors or where there are doctors they are having to work enormously long shifts to deal with the poor people who need their services.

Prosecutors are having to put in long hours of overtime to deal with the backlogs in the courts. 

Under-resourced trauma counselling units are having to deal with children, women and others who are victims of crime in our country. 

Social workers are faced with an undo-able workload.

Police officers, detectives and others are under inhuman stress due to work pressure and danger.

The list goes on and on.

Examples extend beyond professional services into areas which are more routine, but nevertheless vital to poverty alleviation:

Welfare and pension pay-outs to the elderly are severely under-resourced resulting in long queues.

Home Affairs cannot cope with the number of people applying for passports and work permits.

The Department of Labour has long queues for the payment of unemployment insurance.

Particularly in the areas of professional service, the providers of the service are increasingly looking for alternatives.  They complain of low pay and untenable work situations.  Wherever they have a choice - such as doctors, nurses and teachers - they look to emigrate.  The figures are breath-taking - In an article published in the South African Sunday Times newspaper, on 25 March 2001, the Central Bureau of Statistics was quoted as saying: “as many as 1.6 million people in skilled, professional and managerial professions have left the country since 1994, and at least one in every five South Africans with a tertiary education now lives abroad.  The cost of this mass exodus is believed to be about R2.5-billion a year.�  But the irony is that whilst overseas agencies are queuing up to recruit such people, South Africa does not have the jobs on offer.  Too few have to service the majority.

The South African government is now talking about immigrants to come and fill these positions, and to do work in areas where professionals are reluctant to work.  Already we are beginning to see a backlash from teachers in this country.

The proposed scheme

What is proposed is a scheme whereby, through an alliance between the state and professional bodies, a wide range of para-professional occupations are designed and developed as learnerships under the Skills Development Act. 

It is envisaged that the majority of these schemes would require no more than a basic matriculation to enter (and indeed lower level entry could also be facilitated in some areas) and would be principally targeted at young school leavers, although unemployed graduates could also enter the schemes.  These programmes would 'sub-divide' professional training into a number of steps or stages with meaningful exit points signifying competence up to a specified level.  So for example it is envisaged that in the teaching profession - teaching aides at say a basic level and an intermediate level could be designed; in the medical professions - nursing aides and counselling aides similarly could be designed. 


The proposed scheme

What is proposed is a scheme whereby, through an alliance between the state and professional bodies, a wide range of para-professional occupations are designed and developed as learnerships under the Skills Development Act. 

It is envisaged that the majority of these schemes would require no more than a basic matriculation to enter (and indeed lower level entry could also be facilitated in some areas) and would be principally targeted at young school leavers, although unemployed graduates could also enter the schemes.  These programmes would 'sub-divide' professional training into a number of steps or stages with meaningful exit points signifying competence up to a specified level.  So for example it is envisaged that in the teaching profession - teaching aides at say a basic level and an intermediate level could be designed; in the medical professions - nursing aides and counselling aides similarly could be designed. 

People trained to an intermediate level (below the level of a full professional but still with a meaningful and useful skill) would be able to do much of the routine work of the professional and assist where workloads are untenable or where special problems arise (such as students who need to practice their reading, or who have special needs).

It is envisaged that there would be a nationally determined ratio of para-professional learners to professional for each context.  For example, no nurse would have more than say five nursing aides, no teacher would have more than one and so on.  In each case the qualified nurse or teacher would have to play the role of mentor and supervisor.

Such para-professionals would be less marketable internationally and hence would be more likely to stay in the country and make a contribution after their studies.

How would it work in practice?

Clearly there would be a great need to discuss the proposal at great length with a range of interested parties.  But in essence, what is proposed is the following:

A framework would be developed nationally, such as has been indicated above:

Any national, provincial or local government Department can identify areas of service delivery in which there are serious shortages or needs and where para-professionals could assist to provide services especially to the poor;

A Department would form a partnership with the relevant professional body or Sector Education and Training Authority and the qualification structure should be developed to meet the identified need.  Curriculum and courseware would have to be developed.  Professional registration to the appropriate level would be a matter for discussion. Funding would be allocated for this development work from the National Skills Fund.

Where there is no professional body, or where the work is not of a professional nature, then competent practioners would have to be engaged to develop the qualification to ensure that standards are set.

The role of the mentor would have to be designed and training for mentors conducted. SETAs or professional bodies could accredit providers to provide such training.

Training providers would have to be identified and supported and their quality assured.

Any Department could secure funding to support a specified number of learners at each level.  These would be granted on the basis of the availability of funds from, it is proposed, the National Skills Fund.  Targets could be set against which Departments would have to perform in some cases.

The grant, if issued, would cover training fees as well as an allowance for a specified period or until the learner qualified at the required level, whichever was the sooner.  A process for extensions would have to be developed. 

The Department would be responsible to manage the learners and their placement both during periods of study as well to various work stations. 

Oversight of the assessment of learners could be a matter for the professional body or for the Sector Education and Training Authority, depending on the specific circumstances and agreements reached.

Professional training institutes could be assisted to develop new ways of facilitating the re-entry of these learners into the system.

What would these para-professionals do once they have qualified that the specified level?  It is recommended that there be some kind of points system where the clients which have been served assess the learner's performance from a client service point of view. 

The best performing learners could qualify to proceed to the next level and effectively have their contracts extended for the next phase.

The very best students could be trained in this way all the way to full professional status.  Such students would be in a position to emigrate at this stage, but they would already have made a major contribution.

Those that do not progress could be put on a register and they could either become 'professional service providers' to the relevant Department or,

They could be assisted to continue to provide the service to the community on a basis of self-employment.  Their charges could be regulated for a specified period to prevent exploitation of the public.

The public service may restructure to take account of this new layer of the workforce. 

How would the scheme be financed?

Clearly the state would have to fully fund the scheme.  However, it is recommended that it be funded in a way that does not directly add to the state's permanent personnel budget. It could be managed separately from the Medium Term Expenditure Estimate process through a process linked to the National Skills Fund.  Departments could 'bid' for learners on an annual (or multi-year) basis.

An innovative form of payment could be developed - whereby the communities served are in some way involved to ensure that service delivery remains the central focus.

Public Service trade union negotiation

There are many aspects of such a scheme that may concern the trade unions, and most importantly, they may want to know why the personnel budgets of affected Departments are not simply extended to provide for more permanent posts.  The point will have to be made that this is a scheme that is specifically intended to provide an alternative route to young school leavers and unemployed people to enter the labour force.  As a new group of learners would be accepted each year, it would spread the benefits to a larger group of people.

The unions would have to accept a number of associated conditions:

such learners would earn a lower wage;

such learners would have no automatic right to employment after training;

such learners would have to be mentored by existing staff (and the question of whether staff are compensated for this work would have to be negotiated and agreed up front.

Ratios would have to be agreed

To limit replacement of existing staff by learners, there would have to be a clear agreement of the size of the existing establishment and agreements that these would not be reduced as a result of learners.

Issues of travel and accommodation would have to be agreed.

National priorities

Over-riding national priorities could be identified - such as training people to care for people living with HIV/AIDS or caring for AIDS orphans.  These schemes could be managed by people who themselves are on learnerships, but at a higher level than those they are managing.

Advantages of such a scheme

It is linked to meaningful skills development and service delivery and hence should not be seen as 'make work'.

It will assist the government to extend its capacity without extending its permanent personnel establishment.  It could eventually become a significant part of the state.

It will meet the needs of those who are not in a position to pay for services that they desperately need.

Because it is linked to serving the poorest and neediest in the society, it would be a form of national service.  It can include ethics and life skills.

Disadvantages of such a scheme

 No sooner will people begin to be competent than they will leave.  This could be frustrating (but if posts are available, they clearly would be in a good position to be recruited).  Perhaps arrangements could be made to allow for an additional year of work in specific circumstances to be funded out of unexpended personnel budgets for example.

It would be expensive. (But surely no more expensive than a wage subsidy scheme for the private sector or a basic income grant scheme but it would have the advantage of giving people real skills which they can hopefully use to enhance their prospects of work.)

It will require management, which will further strain the management overload of existing Departments (this cannot be avoided - although perhaps special permanent management posts especially for this scheme could be created in targeted Departments so that it is consistently and carefully controlled.

Such a scheme would compliment an aggressive marketing of the general learnership scheme to the private sector.  The private sector would earn grants from the Sector Education and Training Authorities for taking on learners.

Social Entrepreneur Scheme

This scheme is targeted at improving the rate at which local economic development is designed and delivered. 

Social entrepreneurs are envisaged to be specially trained project managers capable of working with various communities to design and present to government proposed programmes for economic or social upliftment in their communities.

It is envisaged that such people will satellite around local government offices or Department of Labour labour centres. 

How could the scheme work in practice?

A responsible Department of group of Departments agree to collaborate on the scheme e.g. Department of Labour and Provincial and Local Affairs.

They would conduct research to establish the range of projects for which finance is available to local communities.  Included on the list would be the skills development funding available from the Department of Labour.

The scheme would essentially include:

Unemployed (young) people, probably those with a matric or higher qualification, recruited for a period of approximately one year for funded training and mentoring.

The selected people would undergo an initial period of training on development and project management.  They would also be introduced to the range of support available from government to local communities.  Various components of communication and negotiation, as well as life skills and HIV/AIDS counselling could be added.

They could then secure a placement with local government or a Department of Labour labour centre.  Whilst on placement, their task would be to identify and prepare, and then present, a given number of community projects.  These would have to be accepted for the learner to earn credit.  This initial phase would be under the mentorship of the training provider or competent government official (when available).

They would receive a basic wage for the duration of training (both theoretical and practical phase). 

Once qualified (and a maximum time could be allowed for this), the person could become a 'social entrepreneur', in other words they could continue to work in the communities and continue to present projects to the local agencies.

From the Department of Labour's perspective, an agreed proportion of the grant awarded to the community (or a set rate) for skills development could be allocated to the social entrepreneur each time they present a successful project.  This should provide sufficient incentive for the person to continue with this work i.e. an effective practitioners should be able to live from the proceeds.

Each local agency could maintain a list of qualified social entrepreneurs so that they can call on them to assist with project delivery too.

Such people could greatly assist the government in networking with the community they seek to serve.  It would also lower the cost of such networking as the payment would be for delivery - and so the costs of transport and accommodation would not need to be separately covered.

Such a proposal is a precondition for the delivery of Employment and Skills Development Services by the Department of Labour, as there are currently too few Employment Services Practitioners to undertake the scale of work required.

Mentorship Scheme

Of all of the three schemes, this is the least well developed, although discussions between the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Labour have commenced and a project is being discussed.

The case for such a scheme has been made in various forums, including the Job Summit, and will not be restated here.

It is proposed that there are three different components:

Mentorship learnership scheme

South African Solidarity Bank initiative

Incentives for firms/ individuals to take on role of mentor.

1.         Mentorship learnership scheme

The Mentorship learnership scheme is simply a variation of the other mentorship schemes proposed above.  In essence there would be a theoretical and practical set of requirements in order to be qualified as a mentor - this would include demonstrated success at mentorship in practice i.e. mentors would have to work under the supervision of a more experienced person until they achieve success.  (In Tunisia a similar scheme gives such people placement abroad as part of their training.)

The scheme would essentially support improved service delivery by the already wide array of service providers - some of whom have already been accredited by Nstika.

The scheme would promote integrated services to entrepreneurs - including skills, business planning, market scanning, marketing, technology, credit and the like - and hence would require inter-Departmental collaboration.

Government officials in advice offices could qualify if appropriate.

Payment for the services of qualified mentors could be addressed within the framework of the National Skills Fund (or possibly the Umsobomvu Fund).

The scheme would be backed up by a high quality call-centre and Rapid Response Team - to support not the end entrepreneur, but the service provider.  (The role of Indlela is currently being reviewed and one option is for it to become the 'home' of such a call centre and back-up service.)

South African Solidarity Bank Initiative

This would be a South African equivalent to the Tunisian Solidarity Bank.  Further research needs to be undertaken in this regard.  However, it is linked to the proposal for a mentorship scheme - as successful applicants would need to be partnered with mentors as part of the conditions of the loan.

Mentoring incentive

This would be some form of financial incentive to firms (or queue jumping in the case of public procurement) whereby larger, more successful firms enter longer-term partnership arrangements with smaller firms (BEE firms), in order to measurably lift their quality, sustainability or level of value add.

The scheme could be managed by the Sector Education and Training Authorities as they already are positioned to hand out grants to firms for training.

Resources could be from the skills development levy/grant managed by SETAs or the National Skills Fund.

People trained to an intermediate level (below the level of a full professional but still with a meaningful and useful skill) would be able to do much of the routine work of the professional and assist where workloads are untenable or where special problems arise (such as students who need to practice their reading, or who have special needs).

It is envisaged that there would be a nationally determined ratio of para-professional learners to professional for each context.  For example, no nurse would have more than say five nursing aides, no teacher would have more than one and so on.  In each case the qualified nurse or teacher would have to play the role of mentor and supervisor.

Such para-professionals would be less marketable internationally and hence would be more likely to stay in the country and make a contribution after their studies.

How would it work in practice?

Clearly there would be a great need to discuss the proposal at great length with a range of interested parties.  But in essence, what is proposed is the following:

A framework would be developed nationally, such as has been indicated above:

Any national, provincial or local government Department can identify areas of service delivery in which there are serious shortages or needs and where para-professionals could assist to provide services especially to the poor;

A Department would form a partnership with the relevant professional body or Sector Education and Training Authority and the qualification structure should be developed to meet the identified need.  Curriculum and courseware would have to be developed.  Professional registration to the appropriate level would be a matter for discussion. Funding would be allocated for this development work from the National Skills Fund.

 

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