Latest news with #SETAS
IOL News
30-07-2025
- Business
- IOL News
Navigating the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: A call for respectful dialogue
Dr Sheetal Bhoola is a lecturer and researcher at the University of Zululand, and the director at StellarMaths (Sunningdale). Image: Supplied The continued youth unemployment in South Africa is becoming a crisis and the government has not been adequately proactive in implementing measures to curb these ratios. 2024 statistics have been bordering close to under 50% and this has been the trend in the last few years. In the first quarter of 2025, the ratio recorded was over 60%. Between the years of 2014 and 2024, youth unemployment increased from 39% to approximately over 60%. The need to educate our youth with appropriate skills and knowledge has become an urgent economic measure, yet there have been 21 SETAS put in place to address this need. The SETAS were established in the year 2000 and 25 years later we still struggle with the same challenges that we had at the outset. Initially, the launch introduced 25 SETAS which were then streamlined into 21. This was in alignment with the Skills Development Act of 1998. The big intended impact was to bridge the gap between the identified skills required and the correct related training facilitation. This was supposed to be achieved through work-based learning opportunities that were intended to teach and groom South Africa's youth. The primary challenge has been and still is whether the correct scarce skill developmental needs have been identified and if the programs have been effective. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Since the launch in 2000, the SETAS have been criticised for various inadequacies, such as lack of proper implementation processes as well as governance issues. Some of these issues are not only challenges within government structures but also private corporations as well as various non- governmental industries as a result the ideal objectives are yet to be achieved all these years later. Journalists have recently reported incidents of youth who have shared their personal experiences of being involved in one of the many SETA programs. Some SETA-funded trainees have successfully completed their training programs and remain unemployed. In addition, other trainees have indicated that the stipulated program/work-based learning opportunity does not always allow them to learn the appropriate skills that are aligned to the certificate or the program title. Sometimes, the learnerships move the trainees around from sector to sector in one industry and this has hindered the trainees from developing a specific and niche area skill. The work-based learning opportunity should ideally facilitate an expertise skill in one niche area. In other instances, trainees do not have the full experience that they are promised. They end up gaining only partial experience relevant to their certification. These trainees feel very cheated about a proper training experience. In 2013 and 2014, an audit revealed that the SETA performance management systems were dysfunctional and there was no follow up process to determine whether the SETA graduates have been employed post the training completion. How does one measure success rate without critical information such as this? The challenge at present is the quality assurance and evaluation analysis of all these work-based learning opportunities. Some SETA trainees have also shared their experiences where their learnership ends abruptly and often without any compensation for the months that they were supposed to be employed. The financial strains thereafter impact their capacity to spend time and energy to find alternative suitable employment. One female SETA trainee is now a food hawker in central business district of Durban. The hindrances of corruption play a pivotal role in the SETAS not meeting the desired outcomes. Money misappropriation, embezzlements as well as fraud lurk in every sector and in some cases, money has been allocated for training purposes and the youth are not trained. The other concern is that the SETAS are not aligned with global market demand labour forces. The onset of the 5th Industrial revolution and the utilisation of Artificial Intelligence have also reshaped the skills required for employable people. The SETAs need to urgently reassess if their training programs are on the verge of redundancy and if they are equipped to skill young South Africans to engage in employment with international corporations. We need to regularly reassess and identify what the required skills are and then align them to the economic needs of South Africa. Unfortunately, this process is not being conducted regularly or very accurately as well. A new pace of assessment of SETA skills and the country's required skills need to be determined in order for us to address high youth unemployment appropriately. The regulations around SETA programs also need to be re assessed, as SETAS need to be focused on the imparting of skills and knowledge that is appropriate to workforce sectors. The regulations can become hindrances for private sectors to consider contributing towards training South African youth. Twenty-five years later and yet there are similar trajectories that we experienced when the SETAS were established. An external audit needs to be implemented to ensure that these SETAS follow conduct of good governance. Youth unemployment needs urgent focus. *The opinions expressed in this article does not necessarily reflect the views of the newspaper. DAILY NEWS
IOL News
25-06-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
Addressing Nepotism and Irregularities in South Africa's SETAs
Dr Sheetal Bhoola is a lecturer and researcher at the University of Zululand, and the director at StellarMaths (Sunningdale). Image: Supplied The recent SETA debacle in South Africa once again highlights the prevalence of nepotism and the continuation of irregularities in South Africa. The long-term vision of the role of these SETAs seems to be forgotten. Their purpose is closely aligned with minimising the economic gap between citizens through skills development and employment creation thereafter. However, the choices some individuals have made to manage these sects with no application of good governance principles, and a lack of ethics, these national objectives are yet to be met. At the onset of our democracy, both the Congress of the South Africa Trade Union (COSATU) and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) demanded a new approach to skills development. Their stance brought about the establishment of SETAS. South Africa has 21 SETAs established in line with the Skills Development Act (SDA) 97 of 1998 to develop and implement the Sector Skills Plan (SSP). The purpose of SETAs is to identify skill shortages in their respective sectors. Over the last decade, cases of maladministration, mismanagement of funds, and procedural irregularities have been numerous and have gone unaddressed, benefiting many. The recent decision by The Higher Education Minister to appoint prominent ANC officials (politicians) as board members was scrutinised, yet the scrutiny and the public awareness do not achieve the desired outcome which should entail modification, transparency in appointment processes as well and unbiased decision-making processes. The nomination process has been flawed and lacks a structured framework like many other boards in South Africa. The minister then indicated that she would nominate an independent panel to manage the new appointment and take responsibility for eliciting suitable candidates for these positions. The present appointees' qualifications were made known, but we question the relevance of their academic qualifications to the skills and training sector in which they are expected to govern and oversee efficiently. As indicated by numerous journalists, many of these new appointees have not had relevant work experience that is aligned with these board positions and the associated responsibilities. We can then also question if they have adequate knowledge and expertise in the relevant skills and training area and if they have professional experience to guide and offer timeous and relevant measures to manage conflicts and challenges within these SETA sects, yet their present political positions became a core rationale for their appointments. Amidst the appointment of persons to these boards, we have experienced numerous incidents of fraud, embezzlement, and corruption within all the sects of the SETAS, and yet the lack of accountability and transparency continues. SETAs are designated as public enterprises under the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) 29 of 1999 which means that all financial expenditure needs to be declared to the national government through annual reports. Central to their responsibilities is their ability to identify the skill shortages among South Africans, so that appropriate training and skilling take place to empower our people and eradicate poverty as well as build our economy. But more importantly, years later we are still unaware of the technique and methodology employed by these governing bodies to identify the various skill shortages within the different sects. A research study conducted by academics (Matha & Jahed) in 2024 stipulated that the methodology employed to identify skill shortages needs to be reassessed and re-evaluated. Their rationale is that the principles and criteria are unclear and lack an appropriate systematic analysis that can effectively reveal what the measures and criteria are. In addition, the workplace is becoming increasingly complex, which means that job portfolios as well as employment opportunities are being continually modified and evolving to meet the new requirements of a globalised economy that is functioning in the realms of a 5th Industrial revolution, which is predicted to be conflated with technological advancements such as robotics and coding. In addition, job descriptions have also become far more broad and complex in multiple ways. South Africans have had to improvise and multi-task within their places of work. The challenges lie at the very top, where board members need to meet stringent criteria to be selected. Central to these criteria is their capacity to really look at new ways of developing an accurate approach to identifying a skill shortage in South Africa. Traditionally many of these boards have been relying on identifying skills scarcity in job descriptions that are labeled as 'difficult to fill'. The debacle lies in how these portfolios have evolved, whether are they still termed correctly, and how other educated or skilled persons fill these gaps. Board members who are nominated to govern SETAS need to be aware of the multiple facets that need to be addressed in South Africa. Their roles too have to be as holistic as possible to address all of the above pending challenges.
