Friday 5th December 2008 was a big day for Phillip Henry, a Millwright apprentice at Meadow Feeds Delmas! After successfully completing his Fitter and Electrical modules at FUNDI training college in Apex, the year was closed with a certificate ceremony at the college on Friday. What a wonderful event, with lots of singing, cheering and awards for all of the top achievers.

Besides winning the coveted Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa (SEIFSA) floating trophy for “Best Student – 2008”, Phillip also received the award for “Best Apprentice - Millwright” in his intake and “Best Apprentice - Millwright” for 2008! Although all of the apprentices across the region have done exceptionally well in 2008, we are very proud of him and this wonderful achievement (as is his manager, Jaco Pretorius!).

Phillip has also recently received his National Diploma: Junior Management after successfully completing the SuperVision Learnership through ODI, presented at Meadow Feeds Delmas also from an AgriSETA grant. Definitely a young man to keep our eye on!

NSF RELATED INFORMATION

After a very long delay, the National Skills Fund (NSF) has finally approved and completed the administration with regards to an application for financial support to engage a further 227 apprentices. The NSF contribution to this project is R8 million whilst AgriSETA contributes R9 million. Whilst we were awaiting the funds from the NSF, AgriSETA commenced with the project in January 2008 from its own funds. All learners have now been enrolled and most of the apprentices are now in their second year of study.

Following on this, during March 2009 the NSF publicly advertised for interested parties to submit project proposals for strategic projects. The main criteria were that a minimum of 1 000 learners should be targeted and the maximum amount to be applied for is R100 million.

AgriSETA and the Commissioner for the Restitution of Land rights (in partnership) prepared a comprehensive submission and submitted it on the due date of 30 April 2009. The total value of this application was R108 million of which the AgriSETA will contribute R20 million. The objective of this intervention is to enable agricultural land reform beneficiaries to be trained, mentored and coached over a long period (minimum three years) to build their farms into sustainable commercial enterprises. We all know the extent to which land reform projects fail. One of the reasons is that beneficiaries are not sufficiently prepared to manage a farm as a business. The tendency is to provide a beneficiary group a short course and then expect from them to farm successfully. This intervention, if approved, will provide us with the opportunity to engage with such a beneficiary group over a long period of time and inputs will not only be limited to training but most importantly, beneficiaries will be supported by mentors.

Should this project application be approved, it will enable the Commissioner and AgriSETA to engage very extensively with at least 50 large land reform projects.
As soon as the application has been considered by the NSF and the result communicated to AgriSETA, we will update stakeholders

ABET NEWS

ABAGOLD CELEBRATES YET ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL YEAR OF ABET TRAINING

ABAGOLD GRADUATION

With the programme initiated in 2005, Abagold is one of the first farms in South Africa to have embarked on the Department of Agriculture and AgriSETA’s ABET projects in partnership with training specialists Media Works. Targeted at employees occupying elementary, semi-skilled and supervisory positions, effective communication in English is expected to enhance on-the-job training at Abagold. The sophisticated and intricate nature of mariculture and abalone rearing is often a challenge for the typical employee who may have little or no experience. This is further complicated by low levels of literacy amongst the work force, making ABET a priority.

Training is conducted during working hours at two training sites. The company has successfully managed to balance training and operational requirements through effective time-tabling. “The importance of management’s support cannot be over-emphasised when implementing any training,” advises Media Works’ Western Cape Branch Manager, Michelle Stanfield. “Because of the time allocation required, management has to be fully supportive as in the case of Abagold, in order to successfully introduce such training interventions.”

A market leader in canned and dried abalone, Abagold produces and exports over 220 tonnes of product in the Far East’s premium seafood market annually. Reiterating the company’s commitment to skills development, Van Dyk said: “Given that we operate in the international market, we aim to develop a more skilled work force and create an environment for continuous learning. Our employees are our greatest asset and our combined success will positively impact on our community.”

ABET UPDATE

As for the past five years, AgriSETA is continuing this financial year with its extensive involvement in ABET. An amount of R10 million has been budgeted for this (2009/10) financial year. Two modes of delivery are implemented. With the assistance of the service provider Media Works, ABET learners participate in a computer assisted programme. Most importantly AgriSETA supplies computers, printers, traininig of facilitators, learner workbooks, etc. The client will have to provide the facility and take the responsibility for the remuneration of the facilitator. The second mode of delivery is the well-known traditional classroom type training (also referred to as face-to-face training).

Over the past years AgriSETA succeeded in engaging more that 20 000 learners. However, ABET remains problematic. Learners drop off at a very high rate and do not progress to higher levels of learning. Once the learner can read and write at the most basic level, they lose interest. Very few progress and even less tackle numeracy.

Employers who participate in the AgriSETA ABET programmes on their farms or other enterprises, are urged to become directly involved in the programme. Too frequently employers allow the programme to be implemented but keep their distance once the learning process starts. The direct involvement and interest of the employer will contribute largely to the motivation of learners.

Shereen Wentzel (face-to-face) shereen@agriseta.co.za or Marissa Kok (computer aided) marissa@agriseta.co.za can be contacted at our offices for more information with regards to ABET.

MANDATORY GRANTS

AGRISETA INFORMATION SESSIONS

The Agriculture Sector Education Training Authority (AgriSETA) recently held its annual national road shows throughout eight provinces. This was attended by 560 stakeholders. It was an information sharing session for stakeholders, accredited training providers and skills development facilitators informing them of the latest developments and changes. Training providers
were informed of the new Quality Council for Trades and Occupations which will affect them in the long term. Skills Development Facilitators were informed of the completion of the Workplace Skills Plan and the Annual Training Reports which is to be submitted by 30 June 2009.

In Cape Town with the highest attendance the meeting was opened by the AgriSETA Chairperson, Mr Jack van Dyk and Durban having the honour of hearing Mr Sipho Khumalo the Vice Chairperson. The new Chief Executive Officer, Mr Jerry Madiba also attended, meeting majority stakeholders for a first time and giving them a warm AgriSETA welcome.

The information sessions acted as networking sessions with stakeholders, and topics such as the Skills Development Amendment Act, passed on 1 December 2008 pertaining to the QCTO and OFO, the passing of the NQF Act in February 2009, were discussed. The new formats of the Workplace Skills Plan and Annual Training Reports were also discussed.

The new Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO) was explained by the newly appointed Project Manager, Mr Herman van Deventer. He is there to assist in preparing the sectoral structures like the industry captains, community of expert practioners and partners to develop occupational qualifications and assessment models.

The process of developing occupational curricula, new occupational qualifications and assessment has been prioritized to minimize the possibility of the gap between the outgoing National Qualifications Framework (NQF) qualifications and the introduction of the new occupational qualifications. The process of identifying teams which are made out of industry captains, has also taken off. This process will run parallel with preparation of workplaces for the experiential component of the prospective occupation(s). The immediate step after curriculum development will be to identify the partners to develop assessment model for such curricula which will mainly focus on:

• Providing inputs to development of Qualification Assessment Specification
• Setting national standard - National bank of assessment tasks, instruments
• Establishing assessment centres / sites
• Registering constituent assessors
• Monitoring, auditing assessment sites and conducting the external moderation.

Mr Johann Engelbrecht, the Skills Planning Manager gave a brief overview of the strategic focus on skills for the AgriSETA for 2009/2010, once again emphasizing the scarce and critical skills within the sector.

The submission of the Mandatory Grants and Annual Training Reports were presented by Ms Amandie Gerber, the Grants Co ordinator, who informed of the new guidelines for the Organising Framework of Occupations (OFO). New guidelines were explained and particular emphasis was placed on where sections were affected by the OFO. The full list of OFO’s can be found on the website under the Mandatory Grants menu.

For all presentations made at the workshops, please click here.
The latest Occupation Framework of Organisations – please download here.

RECERTIFICATION

Stakeholders were informed of the application for the recertification of the AgriSETA. Every five years the SETAs have to do submissions to the Department of Labour (DoL) for the next five year National Skills Development Strategy. The AgriSETA handed their submission to the Department of Labour on 31 March 2009. The recertification process and new landscape discussion will be held in May 2009 of which the DoL will inform all SETAs at the next National Skills Development Conference which is usually held in October. We aim to keep all stakeholders informed of this process and will also update all at our Annual General Meeting which will be held on 22 October 2009 at the Kopanong Hotel and Conference Centre in Benoni.

SURPLUS PROJECT

Over and above our normal discretionary funding, AgriSETA was able to, towards the end of 2008, allocate an amount of R40 million to the benefit of interested stakeholders to engage in learnerships and skills programmes. The response to the intivation to submit proposals were overwhelming to such an extent that a large number of applicants were disappointed in that their applications were turned down as applications exceeding R110 million were received.
A total of 170 project applications were approved. Beneficiaries ranged from employers, community cooperatives and commodity organizations. A total of 6 000 learners will either attend a learnership or skills programme.
Due to the sheer size of this project, a Project administrator was appointed. This was an internal transfer for Ms Cynthia Nkabinde. A process was then started to employ a Project Manager. We are very proud to have secured the services of Ms Morongoe Nkabinde as Project Manager. She is well versed in SETA processes as she worked previously for the Transport SETA. The Nkabinde Nkabinde team is performing excellently and within the short period of implementation most projects have commended and a total of R6 million has already been paid out to employers and service providers.

SKILLS DEVELOPMENT AMENDMENT ACT

On 1 December 2008 the Skills Development Amendment Act was gazetted. Click here for the latest updates.

NATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS FRAMEWORK ACT

On 17 February 2009 the National qualifications framework act was gazetted. Click here for the Act

FAREWELL FUNCTION – MACHIEL VAN NIEKERK

After 8 years of hard work in the SETA environment, Mr Machiel van Nierkerk has retired.
Hard work and keeping the head high of the AgriSETA van Niekerk left the AgriSETA at the end of March. He was asked to stay on and assist with site visits as well as introducing the incoming CEO, Mr Jerry Madiba to the SETA environment and stakeholders of the AgriSETA.

Ms Thobejane of the DoL

Dr Goodwin presenting Machiels gift at his farewell dinner

A farewell party, was arranged for Mr van Niekerk attended by Board members, Department of Labour, Department of Agriculture, CEO’s of SETAs and staff. We had the pleasure of hearing from the Department of Labour, represented by Ms Elizabeth Thobejane who gave a word of thanks toward Mr van Niekerk.

A themed farewell party “ Around the world in 80 day” was chosen as Machiel will be living out his dream,by travelling the world on his boat. We wish him well in his travels and thank him for bringing the AgriSETA thus far.