Abstract
D.Ed.
A skills revolution was launched in the South African workplace by the
Department of Labour in 1998. Various skills development legislation were
introduced to meet international standards, redress skills imbalances, curb skills
shortages and improve the general skills in the current workforce. Training
providers were the drivers of workplace training, yet are now displaced by skills
authorities, such as the SET As, the ETQAs and SAQA. While the custody of
skills development is placed in the hands of employers and employees, training
providers must become frontline soldiers in the skills battlefield.
Rapid technological advancements, complex skills legislative requirements and
ineffective internal management frameworks challenge workplace training
providers. Training providers need to upgrade to OBE and NQF principles,
provide and assess learnerships and skills programmes, and ensure that skills
programmes allow employees to gain national qualifications and credits.
Empirical research, undertaken in the midst of the skills battlefield, voices the
opinions of managers, employees, training providers and skills authorities on the
effectiveness and improvement of training providers to improve skills
development. This research employed the multimethod approach using
quantitative survey questionnaires and qualitative interviews to gather data on
the management factors essential to providing training and improving workplace
skills. Action field researchers, the skills legislative framework and current
successful workplace management frameworks directed this socio-educational
research.
Empirical evidence reveals that training providers are challenged by workplace
and skills legislation. The skills levy-grant system burdens workplace managers
and training providers, yet creates incentives for annual skills grant recoveries.
Training providers must provide job relevant training, continuous assessment and
SAQA/NQF accreditation to be effective and improve skills development. The
empirical research concludes that training providers must 'identify each training
programme as a project and manage it well'.
Basic management of workplace training entails managing skills development
holistically, initiating and sustaining various skills projects and developing
workplace skills plans in annual cycles. Implementation of skills projects include
seeping, scheduling, cost, HR, quality and risk management.
Research conclusions recommend an internal skills management framework for
improving training providers to improve workplace skills development. The skills
management framework integrates ten basic steps for SETA and SAQA
compliance and nine operational elements of project management. The aim of
this framework is to arm training providers, the skills soldiers, so that they can
effectively revolutionise workplace skills development.