Electricity and Control December 2023

RESKILLING, UPSKILLING + TRAINING

S outh Africa’s Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO) is a driving force in addressing South Africa’s skills shortages across industries. Positioned in the Post School Education and Training (PSET) sector, the QCTO has been charged, essentially, with shaking things up to address the inequalities of the past. As South Africa moves forward, all sectors, employers and employees need to be prepared to embrace the transformation already under way. For the QCTO, the goal is to ensure that occupational qualifications and programmes are accessible and credible to all, to meet the demand for the skills that will take South Africa into the future. A skills development ecosystem Looking at the country’s unemployment crisis, the need for change is clear. The current system is simply not producing the skills and technical competencies required at sufficient speed or scale. QCTO CEO, Vijayen Naidoo has said that we need to move people through skills development into employment as quickly as possible. Noting that the current qualification system is inadequate, Naidoo emphasises that we need to create path ways to employability. This requires a change in thinking – and the building of skills development ecosystems, leaving behind the old system that saw each industry operating as an island. For this, we need to understand how all industries, sectors and skills fit together and facilitate their alignment into responsive, agile, interconnected systems. A skilled and capable workforce The gazetting of the Occupational Qualifications Sub-Framework (OQSF) in October 2021 laid the groundwork for this change, a foundation for the QCTO’s vision to develop a qualified, skilled and capable workforce. The purpose of the OQSF is to facilitate the development and registration of quality-assured occupation al and trade-related qualifications, part-qualifications, and skills programmes from the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) Levels 1 to 8, to meet the needs of existing and emerging sectors. The aim is to provide a system through which all school leavers, learners, professionals, workers, unemployed individuals and those classified as NEET (not in employment, education or train ing), can be equipped with relevant, sustainable and transferable competencies to support lifelong employability. Alignment across industries and players The QCTO’s role, Naidoo says, is to establish and maintain occupational standards and qualifications for skills programmes, by industry for industry, with an emphasis on quality assurance of these standards and qualifications for the workplace. Skills Development Providers (SDPs) will need to align with other bodies in the PSET sector, including Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) across industries. Although the QCTO was originally intended to replace the SETAs, it seems this is unlikely to happen. The SETAs have an important role to play, and with their proximity to industries, are here to stay. However, there is a need for greater alignment between the different Moving forward with the QCTO Roland Innes, Group Chief Executive Officer, DYNA Training

SETAs. Where there are currently different accreditation policies per SETA, this makes cross-industry interaction difficult. Work has already begun on a single unifying accreditation policy, which the QCTO will be charged with auditing.

Roland Innes, Group CEO, Dyna Training.

The need for artisanal skills The National Skills Development Plan (NSDP) set a target for the country to produce 30 000 artisans each year by 2030, hav ing identified artisanal skills as critical for economic growth and social development. Naidoo says that although we are already producing about 20 000 to 21 000 artisans annually, ticking the numbers boxes is not enough when the quality of those qualifica tions is still questionable. In the transition from the so-called ‘old trades’ to the new, he emphasises the importance of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges and pri vate training facilities to support the quality component of occu pational qualifications and skills development. Simplified for effectiveness Integrated system planning is required to support a single, na tional, short OQSF that promotes synergy, simplification and ef fectiveness. This should guide the development and quality as surance of occupational qualifications for skills programmes that respond to South Africa’s developmental needs, and the work of learning organisations that are responsive to changing industry demands. The new OQSF allows vocationally trained graduates greater freedom of choice for further study, or direct access to the workplace. The system is designed to structure occupational qualifications that are directly relevant to the workplace with the clear goal of helping people secure employment. It also recognises skills programmes such as short courses or ‘micro-credentials’ and adopts a more systematic approach to incorporating programmes that are developed to address im mediate skills needs, making it easier for people to gain valua ble skills and improve their employability. Thus, it allows for such micro-qualifications to be systematically designed and quickly developed. This will support students with micro qualifications to progress towards a full qualification if they choose to do so. Accreditation Responsibility for SDP accreditation lies now with the QCTO and the SETAs. SDPs have to apply to be accredited for the various qualifications they offer; the QCTO handles the first phase of the process and then refers the programme to the relevant SETA for verification. The accreditation process is designed to ensure that SDPs meet the required standards for quality training and offer a curriculum, learning materials and assessment methods aligned with the relevant occupational qualification. Once approved, the QCTO will issue the SDP with a certificate of accreditation, which needs to be renewed every five years.

For more information visit: www.dyna-training.co.za

DECEMBER 2023 Electricity + Control

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