Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction: The second phase – tragedy or farce?
- PART 1 Party, Power and Class
- PART 2 Ecology, Economy and Labour
- PART THREE Public Policy and Social Practice
- Introduction: Public policy and social practice
- Chapter 10 Understanding the persistence of low levels of skills in South Africa
- Chapter 11 Equity, quality and access in South African education: A work still very much in progress
- Chapter 12 Health sector reforms and policy implementation in South Africa: A paradox?
- Chapter 13 Cadre deployment versus merit? Reviewing politicisation in the public service
- Chapter 14 Traditional male initiation: Culture and the Constitution
- PART 4 South Africa at Large
- Contributors
- Index
Chapter 10 - Understanding the persistence of low levels of skills in South Africa
from PART THREE - Public Policy and Social Practice
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 May 2019
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction: The second phase – tragedy or farce?
- PART 1 Party, Power and Class
- PART 2 Ecology, Economy and Labour
- PART THREE Public Policy and Social Practice
- Introduction: Public policy and social practice
- Chapter 10 Understanding the persistence of low levels of skills in South Africa
- Chapter 11 Equity, quality and access in South African education: A work still very much in progress
- Chapter 12 Health sector reforms and policy implementation in South Africa: A paradox?
- Chapter 13 Cadre deployment versus merit? Reviewing politicisation in the public service
- Chapter 14 Traditional male initiation: Culture and the Constitution
- PART 4 South Africa at Large
- Contributors
- Index
Summary
A shortage of skills is widely believed to be a major factor inhibiting economic growth in South Africa. Extremely high levels of unemployment are frequently attributed to our poor education system (Bloch 2009) and to the weaknesses of our ‘skills development’ system (National Planning Commission 2011). Standards of training for artisans and other mid-level skills are low (Mukora 2009), as are the numbers enrolled in vocational and occupational education programmes. The quality of provision is erratic, and throughput rates of the colleges are at a low level (Taylor 2011). The institutions set up through the levy-grant system, the sectoral education and training authorities (Setas) and the National Skills Fund (NSF), have been much criticised. Many employers simply treat the skills levy as an additional tax: although 65 per cent of employers who should pay the levy are doing so, by 2004 only 10 per cent of levy-paying employers were participating effectively in the system (Kraak 2004a). Some blame overly bureaucratic and incompetent Setas, and others argue that employers do not want to train their staff. Setas are also criticised for their ineffectiveness in mediating between training and economic and social requirements, with one weakness seen as the fact that their labour market analysis is based on reports from workplaces and not on research (Erasmus 2009). Public perception, as reported in the media, suggests concern with the large amounts of money in the system, particularly where this has remained unspent, as in the NSF. Corruption and poor governance in the Setas have received copious media coverage.
Has anything been achieved through the skills levy? André Kraak (2011: 98-99) provides one of the few pieces of research arguing that there have been positive achievements:
The Learnerships system has survived its bad publicity rather well over the past ten years as some of the HSRC 2008 survey results show. Completion rates were 65 per cent, and 57 per cent of completed learners found employment (HSRC 2008a). In a difficult youth labour market, these are extraordinarily good outcomes and they should be embraced and built upon.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- New South African Review 3The second phase - Tragedy or Farce?, pp. 201 - 220Publisher: Wits University PressPrint publication year: 2013