PRESS RELEASE FOR MEDIA BRIEFING ON THE OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF The Policy for a Generic National Artisan Learner Grant Funding and Administration System WEDNESDAY - 10 April 2013 The training of artisans is a national priority. The national performance outcomes of Government, the Human Resource Development Strategy for South Africa, the National Skills Development Strategy, the Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP2L the New Growth Path and its related National Skills Accord for economic development, the National Development Plan, as well as almost all of the Strategic Infrastructure Projects (SIPs) announced by the President in his State of the Nation address in January 2012 all affirm the importance of this. A national artisan development programme including all components of artisan development, driven by all social partners in a coordinated and integrated manner, is therefore a critical need for the country. In recognition of this, the Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Blade Nzimande, on the 4 February 2013 declared 2013 as the Year of the Artisan. This policy is therefore approved for by the Minister of Higher Education and Training for release by the Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training as a key component of the 2013 Year of the Artisan. This policy has been developed to guide the SETAs and the NSF to embed within their systems a permanent annual process that will address the need for sustainable funding and artisan learner administration, a key blockage for national artisan development as identified by the Human Resource Development Council of South Africa. The advantages and benefits that will be realised by implementing this standardised annual process across all SETAs and economic sectors for a single guaranteed funding and learner administration policy for all artisan trades listed in the Government Gazette 35625 published on 31 August 2012 are numerous and include: • A systemic, logical, pragmatic approach to removing a primary blockage to the national artisan development programme; • A programmatic multi-project approach to artisan development that is implemented on an ongoing annual basis that replaces the current single project approach used by SETAs and NSF for artisan development; • Systemic, standardised and common approach to developing a system that can be automated and improved upon by leveraging lCT technology; • A systemic and ongoing method of progressively determining the actual, real annual prevailing demand and capacity of national artisan development requirements as determined by the inputs of qualifying employers directly; • A process that ensures all artisan development stakeholders in the country collaborate to drive a single national artisan development system to practically remove the current sector and/or employer based approach to national artisan development; • A process that ensures that all artisan trade occupations as listed in the Government Gazette 35625 receive equal opportunities for development but subject to prevailing scarcity and economic demand. The policy requires the annual implementation of five very simple steps that are linked to very specific annual deadlines and in the case of the fifth and final step of disbursement of funds, governed by very clear criteria that employers need to adhere to receive the funding. For an employer to qualify for funding, they will need to comply with a set of national workplace approval criteria that will soon be issued by the Department that will replace the fourteen or so different sets of workplace approval criteria that are used by each SETA, creating huge disparities in how employers qualify to take in artisan learners. A major advantage of this process is that once established, these national criteria will be published by the DHET in hard copy and on its web site to create awareness among all employers in South Africa of what is necessary to qualify to take in artisan learners, irrespective of what sector(s} the employer operates within or which SETA the employer is registered with. The policy has fixed, predetermined annual new learner grant of R 139 350 per learner payable over four tranches to employers. This fixed amount across all SETAs and sectors will be huge boost for employers as they can now plan with certainty for the future on what the artisan learner grant will be, not waiting for a SETA to announce a different grant at the beginning of each financial year. The policy also has an incentive mechanism built into it in that it rewards employers that take up the total allocated number of learners with possible extra learners the next year as a result of penalizing employers that do not take up their full allocation. The policy also allows the NSF to fund employers either through SETAs or directly should they wish to do so in order to achieve specific national, strategic developmental goals that are determined by the Minister of Higher Education and Training. However the level of the grant is the same ensuring a consistent approach to funding of artisans. Implementation is from 1 April 2013 which means that that SETAS and the NSF must start immediately to implement planning and budgeting processes to meet the deadline for each of the five step processes during the 2013 - 2014 financial year. Although this means that the fixed grant of R 139 350 per artisan learner will only be enforced by this policy from 1 April 2014, SETAs and the NSF may wish to already adjust their artisan learner grant to this level during the 2013 - 2014 financial year should they have the necessary funds to do so. The Director-General has included the Generic National Artisan Learner Grant Funding and Administration System in the Service Level Agreements for all relevant SETAs. The Auditor General will also be made aware of the policy and be requested to include implementation of the policy as an item in their annual compliance and performance audit processes with all relevant SETAs and the NSF.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Jul 2013 08:30:22 +0000
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