HR Pulse

Blade’s bold plan to nationalise training by grabbing Setas funds

Moneyweb reports that Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande recently gazetted proposals that would effectively allow the national government to grab most of the R13 billion companies pay each year into the National Skills Fund (NSF).
Some have called this the nationalisation of training. The NSF is funded by a 1% levy on employers’ payrolls, which is then directed to one of 21 Sector Education Training Authorities (Setas) that are supposed to provide sector-specific training to raise the overall levels of skills in the country and reduce unemployment.

Under Nzimande’s plan, which is likely to come into effect in 2018, the bulk of the levy will go to the Department of Higher Education and Training to be disbursed as government sees fit. Companies will see a drastic reduction in the amount of levy money returned to them for undertaking training. Setas will be recast as “advisory boards” (or Setabs), with just a fraction of the funding they currently receive.

So, have the Setas failed? Yes, and no. Nzimande is right in saying most are not performing to standard. But some are doing quite well. The new plan seems to have no space for private training providers (who currently do most of the work). Nor is there any real plan to provide training for the unemployed. This report includes a snapshot of some of the key changes that Nzimande has in mind:

Source: SA Labour News