Annual General Meeting and Conference

The Annual General Meeting was held on Wednesday, 24th October 2007 at the Kopanong Hotel and Conference Centre in Benoni. Elected Governing Board members at the AGM were:

Name		Name of Organisation

Mr Ben Mtshali		South African Food and Allied Trade Union (SAFATU)
Prof Daan Prinsloo		Transvaal Agricultural Union of South Africa
Ms Di Goodwin		South African Green Industry Council (SAGIC)
Mr Phillip Mokoena		Food & Allied Workers Union (FAWU)
Ms Elizabeth Manoto		Food & Allied Workers Union (FAWU)
Dr Gerhard Neethling		Red Meat Abattoir Association (RMAA)
Mr Jack Van Dyk		Agri (Western Cape)
Mr Jacques van Niekerk		Henwil Chickens
Ms Jacquie Bhana		Tongaat Hulett Sugar
Mr Kammie Strydom		Grain South Africa
Mr Len Hansen		Astral Operations Ltd
Mr Mbu Jolisa		Food & General Workers Union (FGWU)
Mr Mzomtsha Jonase		Food & Allied Workers Union (FAWU)
Mr Otto Mbangula		National African Farm Workers Union (NAFU)
Ms Pulane Maine		Food & Allied Workers Union (FAWU)
Mr Riaan Gerritzen		Vrystaat Koöperasie Beperk
Mr Sipho Khumalo		Food & Allied Workers Union (FAWU)
Mr Willie Marais		Solidarity
Mr Zacharia Mohanoe		National Union of Farm Workers (NUF)
Mr Zola Nkomo		Food & Allied Workers Union (FAWU)

Mr Sipho Khumalo representing FAWU was elected as Chairperson of the Board ,

and Mr Jack van Dyk was elected as Vice Chairperson of the BoardOutgoing Vice Chairperson, Ms Elizabeth Manoto welcomed Mr Khumalo and confirmed that the Board will support him.

Dates for the Board meetings are:
Friday, 28 March 2008
Thursday, 03 July 2008
Wednesday, 22 October 2008

Outgoing Vice Chairperson, Elizabeth Manoto welcoming incoming Chairperson, Sipho Khumalo at the AGM

The Executive Committee members are:

Name		Name of Organisation
Mr Sipho Khumalo		Food & Allied Workers Union (FAWU) - CHAIRPERSON
Mr Jack Van Dyk		Agri (Western Cape) – VICE CHAIRPERSON
Ms Jacquie Bhana		Tongaat Hulett Sugar
Mr Kammie Strydom		Grain South Africa
Ms Elizabeth Manoto		Food & Allied Workers Union (FAWU)
Mr Zacharia Mohanoe		National Union of Farm Workers (NUF)

Gala Dinner and certification ceremony

Stakeholders were also treated to a Gala Dinner on the evening of 24th October. A “night in Paris” was the ideal theme for the dinner, after the Springboks victorious win. Guest speaker at the event was Deputy Director-General: National Department of Agriculture, Ms Vangile Titi.

Certificates were also awarded to members who completed the Agricultural Leadership Development Programme (ALDP) at the University of Pretoria. With funding provided by AgriSETA the employer members of the AgriSETA Board sponsored the full programme fee. The programme fee included all course materials, books and notes. To optimise commitment each learner was required to enter into a written learner contract between him/her and the nominating institution or organisation.

Farmer Representatives	Organised Labour	Unions
Abi Messelaar	Andre Dirks	Allan Govindsamy
Harry Olpherman van der Merwe	Annirooth Singh	Ben Mtshali
Hennie Seyffert	Elroy Le Kay	Connie Badenhorst
Johannes van Zyl	Emmanuel Lebohang Mokiba	Frank Mashimbye
John Mathews	Jacques Grobbelaar	Johnny Burger
Mamabolo Raphesu	Johan Bezuidenhout	Joseph Mafuwane
Marthinus Johannes van Dyk	Lourens Johannes Humphries	Mbu Jolisa
Mpuru Amos	Nadine Scheepers	Phillip Mokwena
Otto Mbangula	Nhlanhla Ntuli	Pulane Maine
Pieter Eugene Swart	Selva Vadivellu	Puseletso Mpitso
Priscilla Modise		Raymond Mnguni
Richard Antoine Rouillard		Rein Wessels
Stephanus Nel		Willie Marais
		Zacharia Mohanoe
		Zandisile Tshambu

Conference

A conference was held on Thursday, 25th October, focusing on “What is Quality Learning”. Presentations were made by Dr Florus Prinsloo, Mr Shaafig Fredericks and Ms Gail Elliott and Mr Sam Isaacs.

A summary of the presentations can be found on our website under the menu AGM & Conference, Agriseta > AGM & Conference
The report on the status of qualifications can also be found on the website as well as the research report on the funding model and its implication for the agricultural sector. This research was executed by Professor Nick Vink of Stellenbosch University.

Department of Agriculture Seminar

A two day seminar was held at the Birchwood Hotel with top performing high schools attending and being made aware on agricultural careers.

Various speakers and academics attended.

Mr Mankazana, Chief Director: Sector Services giving his presentation

Mr Mankazana, Chief Director:Sector Services spoke on the topic of the “elimination of skewed participation in the agricultural sector”Click here for the presentation. Topics ranged from Agricultural Biotechnology, Agricultural Economics, Food Science, Viticulture and Oenology. AgriSETA also made a presentation emphasizing on the scarce and critical skills within the sector.

Various top performing high attended the two-day seminar

ABET – Adult Basic Education and Training

AgriSETA funding helps deaf, blind programme development

SUCCESSFUL BASIC EDUCATION PROGRAMME FOR FARM WORKERS LEADS TO DEVELOPMENT OF PROGRAMMES FOR DEAF/BLIND ADULTS

Thousands of farm workers around the country have benefited from education specialist Media Works’ adult basic education and training programmes since 2004, and now, assisted with R500 000 funding from AgriSETA, deaf, partially sighted and blind people in rural communities and elsewhere will be able to improve their English literacy and Numeracy skills.

AgriSETA, which oversees skills development in South Africa’s 900 000-strong

permanent and seasonal workforce in the agricultural sector, offered to fund Media Works with the development of programmes for the blind and the deaf. This development process commenced eighteen months ago and is now ready to be rolled out to farming communities in various parts of the country.

“While there are not that many blind or deaf farm workers, there are a lot of people with these disabilities in farming communities and we want to assist them to become more literate and numerate,” said Johann Engelbrecht, AgriSETA’s Skills Planning Manager.

Media Works and AgriSETA have been working together for the past four years since Media Works was awarded a tender to assist in the improvement of literacy and numeracy levels on farms. Currently 9 000 agricultural workers are benefiting

from education material designed by Media Works and funded by AgriSETA, whilst 15 000 farm workers have already been approved to participate. Due to the seasonal nature of farming, some workers have to wait until the peak season has passed before they are put through the computer-based education programmes.

Engelbrecht who says that AgriSETA has invested more than R30 million in its project to boost literacy and numeracy in agriculture, estimates that of the total agricultural workforce, between 30% and 50% of farm workers are illiterate or poorly educated.

Over the past few years, AgriSETA has supplied selected agricultural enterprises (mainly farms) with one computer per 10 learners, funded workbooks and exam fees, and funded Media Works’ software and project management of the training process. Employers have to provide and fund a programme facilitator from their family or from their staff.

“We believe we have a huge responsibility to improve agricultural workers’ ability to read and write as without this ability their mobility is hampered as is their ability to progress in the work environment,” says Engelbrecht, adding that ABET Level 1 English literacy programmes have now been translated into all of the official languages.

“When Media Works approached us to fund programmes specifically aimed at deaf and blind people, we decided that although the programmes might not be all that applicable to farms, they would certainly be of great value to communities in rural areas.”

Assessing the impact of adult basic education and learning programmes to date, Engelbrecht said workers who have been on the courses have substantially improved their literacy levels although numeracy remains a challenge. Many of the workers well past their youth making numeracy concepts fairly difficult to grasp.

“A feature of the programmes is that it is computer-based and extremely user-friendly. Workers with little or no education are able to go home to their families after a learning session and say they have been working on a computer rather than saying they have been learning to read, write and count,” adds Engelbrecht.

At the event, a poem was written by one of the learners

A poem by Chalon Farmer, ABET Numeracy Level 2 learner at Graaff Packing (AgriSETA Project)

In the beginning we were so nervous,
And it all seemed so hard.
But with your help and inspiration, we
decided to take part
We started our first classes with the
little
Knowledge we had
With doubt, yet excited, we took the
Challenge and thought, hey this isn’t so
bad

To our teachers who took the time to
Teach us when we hadn’t had a clue
You were so patient and helpful, and
We’d like 2 say thank you!

Abet, thanx for the opportunity and
Computers u’ve sponsored
Now we can tell and inspire others to
Join us, with ease and comfort
You’ve taught us so much more, than the
Bit we knew
You motivated us to get more involved, be
More interested, grow bigger, from
Where we started as just a few

You gave us a chance to get educated
And be the best that we can be.
We just, wanna say, much appreciated, and
thank you
A. B. E. T.

Fruit Packing and Exporting

AgriSETA is proud to provide feedback on the successful presentation of learnerships in the ‘Fruit packing and exporting’ industry, as well as in the ‘Fruit processing and exporting’ industry.

During the course of the last two years, AgriSETA has joined forces with the National Training Institute to present the learnerships, ‘National Certificate: Fruit Packing and Grading Processes: NQF Level 3’ and ‘National Certificate: Mechanical Engineering: Fitting: NQF Level 2’ at various fruit pack house across South Africa.

217 Learners completed the learnership, ‘National Certificate: Fruit Packing and Grading Processes: NQF Level 3’ in 2006 and 133 learners are currently enrolled for this qualification in 2007. 15 Learners completed the learnership, ‘National Certificate: Mechanical Engineering: Fitting: NQF Level 2’ in 2006 and 43 learners are currently busy with the 2007 version of this learnership.

The respective learnerships are based on the establishment of a good theoretical background and learners are encouraged to share their views in group discussions in the classroom.

Subject matter experts are invited to explain the finer detail, of specific functions, to the learners.

In addition, learners are given the opportunity to apply what they have learned, in the theoretical sessions, in practice in the workplace.

Attempts are also made to give learners a holistic view of the overall process (that they make part of) by taking them outside their immediate environment to, for example, the harbour to witness the loading of a ship.

The learners seem to enjoy the courses; their excitement and gratitude are evident in the feedback that they provide. Some of the learners had the following to say about the learnerships:

“I was feeling so happy and realized that I’m a person who still has a chance of improving my life through education and I also realized that the company is taking me into consideration which means I have to work hard for the company. I feel like I can now run the company as I am already gaining a lot of knowledge through this Learnership.” - Bongi Shikwambana

“Dit is vir my baie lekker om hierdie leerlingskap te doen en om daarvan te leer. Ek werk nou al ‘n jaar by hierdie pakhuis, maar het die kennis nou van ‘n ou werker by hierdie pakhuis. Die rede hiervoor was omdat ek die kennis en mag by hierdie leerlingskap op gedoen het...” - Olivia Snyders

“It is important because I learn many things. I didn’t know it was important, because I knew nothing about it. Now I know everything and it is very interesting.” - Beauty Senama

“Die learnership course is vir my iets goed. Ek het byvoorbeeld op skool nie verstaan van breuke, desimale breuke, ens nie... Ek het ook bv. nooit ‘n begroting opgestel nie, want dit was nooit vir my nodig nie, maar vandag is dit vir my ‘n gereelde ding. Ek geniet die klas want niks is onmoontlik hier nie...” - Zenobia Brand

“I am feeling very happy because I learn something.” - Nester Ngobeni

AgriSETA and The National Training Institute want to congratulate all the learners who completed, or are in the process of completing, the above-mentioned learnerships successfully. We trust that the newly acquired knowledge and skills will contribute to the facilitation of a better quality of life for all these employees.

Hello and Goodbye

Hello to the new face on the block – Skills Delivery Manager

Joining the services of the AgriSETA, is Mr Shaun Starr. Shaun is employed as the Skills Delivery Manager.

Shaun was born in Kimberley, where he schooled and was educated. Once completing his studies, he taught at a secondary school in Vryburg where he stayed until 1995. He relocated to Johannesburg to further his career at a private school for remedial learners, servicing the Alexandra area. Within a year, he became the Vice Principal.

In 1996 the excitement of corporate training appealed to him and he joined a national service provider for ABET as a Project Leader. In 1998 he was appointed the National Training Manager for ABET projects. At the end of 1999 he joined another ABET service provider as Director of Training where he remained until 2004, working as a Training consultant, dealing with SETA`s,
parastatals and various companies in a consultancy role. Project Management, training audits and reports as well as structuring training projects were his main focus areas.

Mr Shaun Starr, Skills Delivery Manager

In September 2007 he joined AgriSETA as the Skills Delivery Manager. He has had exposure to the agricultural training sector and looks forward to servicing this dynamic sector of our country.

This active Skills Delivery Manager has also participated in numerous sports at provincial level and still remains active in sport, with a special passion for motor sport. (Unfortunately he rides a Suzuki)

Working alongside him in the department, is Ms Thobile Mahlalela, the Skills Programme Co ordinator and Mr Koos Sihlangu, the Learnership Administrator.

Shaun can be contacted on shaun@agriseta.co.za

Goodbyes

At the end of September 2007, Chief Financial Officer, Ms Cathy Salmon left the employ of AgriSETA.Also leaving us in the Skills Planning department was Myra Hoffman, the Sub Sector Committee Co ordinator, who serviced the Western Cape stakeholders.

All queries of the Western Cape can be forwarded to Mr Johann Engelbrecht the Skills Planning Manager on johann@agriseta.co.za

Staff treated Cathy and Myra (who could not join us) to a farewell lunch at the AgriSETA Offices.

Cathy Salmon opening her farewell gifts

Mr Fano Luthuli, the Project Coordinator in the Skills Planning Department also resigned at the end of October.

CONFIRMATION OF APPLICATIONS FOR SKILLS PROGRAMMES

The awarding of Skills Programmes has reference: Click here for this important notice

Contact:
Tel: (012) 325 1655
Fax: (012) 325 1677/24
Email:info@agriseta.co.za
Website: www.agriseta.co.za

Quote for the day
“Be the change that you want to see in the world.” – Mohandas Gandhi

Unsubscribe