ABET PROGRAMME IN MTUBATUBA


In August 2006, Stanley S Shire (Pty) Ltd started with the AgriSETA / MediaWorks ABET programme. All 18 staff members registered for the programme. At the end of the year one learner, aged 69, completed his Basic oral, passed and retired from the company. In February 2007, five more learners passed the Basic oral assessment. On the right, as you can see from the happy faces in the photo! Three more learners have written the IEB English Level 1 & 2 examinations and are anxiously awaiting their results. The remainder of the learners is due to write the Zulu Level 1 exams this year. When the programme started it was very hard for the learners as well as for me, says Smangele Mbhele. The learners work from 05h00 to 13h00 and attend classes at 15h00. Thereafter they leave at 16h30 to attend to the irrigation. It has been hard for them, but over time they are adjusted to it, and are now so dedicated to the programme. With the help of our employers and MediaWorks, this has been a success. An additional two new staff members are joining and as well as some of the wives of the employees. We hope that it will continue for a long time. Smangele Mbhele – a facilitator at Stanley S Shire (Pty) Ltd – Mtubatuba, Zululand.


NEW ADDITION TO THE ETQA DEPARTMENT

Mr Francis Senona is the new Quality Control Co ordinator: Monitoring: Accreditation in the ETQA Department. He will be assisting Mr Dominicus Yotwana, dealing with the Accreditation Processes. Contact details for him are francis@agriseta.co.za







WORLD DAY FOR SAFETY AND HEALTH AT WORK

The Department of Labour recently held its World Day for Safety and Health at Work at the Olimpia Stadium in Rustenburg hosting various guest speakers. Various companies exhibited highlighting the various safety issues. Speakers ranged from the construction sector, the Occupational Health and Safety specialist, International Labour Organisation as well as the General-Secretary of Cosatu, Zwelinzima Vavi. The Honourable Minister of Labour, Membathisi Mdladana also attended giving the key note address at the event.



RED MEAT ABATTOIR ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE

The Red Meat Abattoir Association held its annual conference and Annual General Meeting at the Diaz Strand Hotel in Mossel Bay. Speakers ranged from Professor Nick Vink of the University of Stellenbosch and Dr Florus Prinlsoo of the Department of Labour. Professor Vink focussed on the national and international perspective on the regulatory environment of the Red Meat Industry. Motivational speaker was Mr Don Wessels, blinded and injured in an accident while in Angola, sharing of his challenges faced in life after the accident.AgriSETA were also exhibiting at the conference and had the opportunity to emphasise on the scarce and critical skills shortage to the Red Meat sector.


LAUNCHING LITERACY TRAINING IN KOKSTAD

Kokstad municipality is giving its employees access to basic literacy training as a result of an initiative by a local rural development consulting firm, Scientific Roets, in collaboration with national training company Media Works. Scientific Roets Dr Merida Roets explains: "Last year, the local municipality put out a tender for an Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) provider. ABET was not, at that time, our core business. We had focused more on agricultural and business training in setting up integrated rural agri-businesses involving the emerging farming sector, but felt that we'd like to offer ABET training too as we had identified a very low level of literacy amongst residents of the Greater Kokstad area. Our main goal as a company has always been the development of rural and we are very much aware that without basic literacy, it is very difficult for further training to occur.

To this end, we contacted the well known adult education company, Media Works and it was agreed that we would provide Media Works with a footprint in this region. This gave us access to Media Works fabulous multimedia ABET programme as well as their expertise in implementing it successfully." Media Works financial director Rob Rees adds, "Although we have offices countrywide, we did not at that time have any representation in the Greater Kokstad area. We hope that our relationship with Scientific Roets will be the first of many such collaborations between Media Works and other training providers. Partnering small and/or emerging training providers is an alternative route for us in terms of provisioning. It enables us to provide our multimedia ABET programme to people living in remoter parts of South Africa The Greater Kokstad Municipality awarded the tender, which was for 304 learners, to Media Works, with Scientific Roets serving as the local service provider, using the Media Works ABET programme. It was decided to enroll 154 learners and allow each of them to do two levels each, either two levels of literacy or one level each of literacy and numeracy, depending on the level at which each of the individual learners were assessed. This project is being funded through the Local Government SETA (Sector Education and Training Authority).

However, now that the learners had been sourced, the next step was to set up a learning centre with computers, where they could receive training. Scientific Roets had already acquired new premises, the lovely Old Masonic Temple building at 96 Hope Street, which has now been renovated to include a state-of-the-art Learning Centre, a Small Enterprise and Agricultural Information Centre and offices for the Consulting Engineering and Agricultural Project Management teams of the company. It was decided to approach AgriSETA for assistance in setting up the training centre. AgriSETA has purchased a national site license from Media Works and is providing the Media Works ABET programme to members of the Agricultural industry free of charge and across the board. AgriSETA also assists farming communities to establish learning centres by helping them to source computers. Scientific Roets was already an accredited training service provider of Agri-SETA, albeit not in an ABET capacity yet.

Scientific Roets asked to be allocated a target number of farm workers to be enrolled on ABET, which would serve the dual purpose of entitling the company to receive computers for training purposes from AgriSETA, and initiating ABET training for the local farming community. Roets says, "The local farmers have been very receptive to the notion of giving their farm workers access to ABET and the farm workers themselves are very keen to get going." Situated as it is on the border of KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape, in the former Transkei area, Kokstad is a much-neglected area. Proper schooling was largely non-existent for local inhabitants older than 40, so there is a very high level of illiteracy. Roets says, "I am very excited about this project. The municipality has made the training available to all of its employees and we keep getting more people asking to be included in the training. As demand for the training grows, both within the municipal and agricultural sector, we'd also like to make the training available to other people who need it. Through our involvement with the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA) - we host the local SEDA Enterprise Information Centre), we surveyed the local informal traders and identified a strong desire and need for literacy and basic business training. We have approached the Wholesale and Retail Seta in this regard and hope to reach an agreement that will enable us to offer hawkers access to ABET later this year. Media Works has an ABET entrepreneurship programme that would be ideal for this purpose. There is an enormous need for literacy training in this area, and we hope to see our ABET project evolve to reach as many people as possible."


MANDATORY GRANTS

Stakeholders are once again reminded of the closing date for the submission of the Annual Training Reports 06/07 and the Workplace Skills Plan 07/08 which is 30 June 2007. Stakeholders can also submit via the online version via the following: Agriseta > Levies and Grants. Any questions regarding submissions, please contact Amandie Gerber on amandie@agriseta.co.za or Racquel Bergman on racquel@agriseta.co.za

DATES TO REMEMBER

JUNE 2007

MEETING: Thursday 28TH June 2007 Sub Sector Committee Meeting
Click here to download the Notice of SSC Meetings.
WHERE:Birchwood Hotel, KemptonPark
DIRECTIONS: Birchwood Hotel and Conference Centre | Directions

For further information, please contact Myra Hoffman on myra@agriseta.co.za or (021) 949 4885

JUNE

Saturday 30^th June - Submission of WSP & ATR’s
Agriseta > Levies and Grants

ETQA WORKSHOPS – NATIONALLY

Province	Venue	Date
Gauteng / Mpumalanga	Pretoria	12 June 2007
Western Cape	Stellenbosch	15 June 2007
Eastern Cape	East London	19 June 2007

For further information, please contact either Rita de Bruyn on rita@agriseta.co.za or Minah Matloa on minah@agriseta.co.za

OCTOBER 2007
National Skills Development Strategy Conference 18 – 19 October
Venue to be communicated to stakeholders

AgriSETA Annual General Meeting
Wednesday 24 October 2007

AgriSETA Conference
Thursday 25 October 2007
Venue for the AGM & Conference will be communicated to Stakeholders shortly.

CONTACT:

Tel:  (012) 325 1655
Fax: (012) 325 1624/77
Email: info@agriseta.co.za
Website: http://www.agriseta.co.za