Abstract
The research aimed to investigate the ineffectiveness of the Local Government Sector Education and Training Authority (LGSETA) and Health and Welfare Sector Education and Training Authority (HWSETA), in addressing the skills shortages in their respective sectors in the South African economy.
This study used an exploratory approach to investigate the factors that affect the effectiveness of the LGSETA and the HWSETA in solving the skills shortages in South Africa (SA). The choice of using the above SETAs was informed by the researcher’s subjective experience with them. SETAs construct their sector skills plans (SSPs) and implement interventions to address the skills shortages highlighted in their SSPs on an annual basis, yet the skills shortages in SA continue to worsen. This sparked an interest in investigating why the country continues to suffer skills shortage difficulties, despite SETAs identifying skills shortages and interventions in various sectors on an annual basis. The need for comprehensive knowledge of the reasons for the ineffectiveness of SETAs in addressing skills shortages in diverse sectors of the SA economy guided the decision to use an exploratory approach. Purposive sampling was used in the study to select the respondents based on their area of expertise and policy responsibility in their respective organisations. Data collection methods included semi-structured interviews and document analysis. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven key members from the selected SETAs using a semi-structured interview schedule with open-ended questions.
The research found that SETAs are bodies that are responsible for the identification and addressing of skills shortages in SA. This was cited in number of legislative frameworks and policies, such as the White Paper on Post-School Education and Training (WPPSET) (2013), which emphasises that SETAs should work with key stakeholders to evaluate scenarios from the key process of skill planning in providing sector-specific and verifiable quantitative data to the national planning process, and plan to support the provision in priority areas. The other legislative mandate includes the Skills Development Act (SDA) 97 of 1998, which indicates that the SETAs should develop and implement the SSP and document the skills shortages. In addition, SDA 97 of 1998 emphasises that SETAs should approve workplace skills plans (WSPs).
The National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS) II emphasises workplace fairness, effective training, and skill development, aimed at providing a broad national direction that should be followed for skills development by the SETAs and other institutional structures. Moreover, NSDS III emphasised the need for SETAs to conduct labour market intelligence to understand skill shortages in their sectors. The National Skills Development Plan (NSDP) (2018)
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envisaged education and training institutions as critical contributors to interpreting the skills’ demand in the labour market and national priorities into suitable solutions. Furthermore, the research findings highlight that SETAs have not been living up to these roles by analysing the labour market. The mismanagement of funds and strategies have been identified as the challenge for SETAs not living up to their mandate, which may be attributed to management’s lack of policy knowledge. This demonstrates the need for SETAs to algin skills demand and supply in order to address the skills shortages so that they can actively respond to their core legislative mandate of addressing the skills shortages.
The findings also revealed that the LGSETA and HWSETA were unable to provide a comprehensive labour market analysis of skills shortages; this was a contributing factor to unresolved skills shortages. This result of relying on the analysis of only one data source, i.e., the WSPs as the method used by the two SETAs to address the skills shortages, had limitations and was not fully representative of the entire sector. This indicates that utilising the WSP analysis to identify skills shortages does not produce the desired results since it does not take into consideration the ever-changing labour market, as well as other economic and socio-political elements in the economy. This contributed to the SETAs’ ineffectiveness in addressing the skills shortages. Also, the findings revealed that private corporates needed to be fully involved in identifying and addressing skills shortages in SA. Often, they are at the back end to receive the recommendations and interventions planned by the SETAs in addressing skills shortages. The research findings revealed a need for a standardised and formal framework to identify and address the skills shortages. The research framework will guide how to identify and address skills shortages. Based on these findings, the research arrived at the initial objectives. Lastly, the systematic identification and addressing the skills shortages model was developed. The new model is developed which will assist with addressing skills shortages by SETAs.
Keywords: Skills shortages, Skills development, SETAs, labour market, Hard-to-fill-vacancies.