Department of Higher Education and Training

In 2012 when President Jacob Zuma announced the commencement of theNational Infrastructure Plan in his State of the Nation Address, he stated that 'the massive investment in infrastructure must leave more than just power stations, rail lines, dams and roads. It must industrialise the country, generate skills and boost much needed job creation.' The National Infrastructure Plan is made up of eighteen Strategic Integrated Projects (SIPs) each of which consists of a large number of projects drawn from a wide range of economic sectors and stretching across all nine provinces of the country. These projects are outlined in the first chapter of this report.  The report has a number of purposes which are detailed in the Introduction and Overview Chapter they can be summarised as follows:  To inform education and training planners of the occupations in demand for the SIPs To invite researchers and key partners to assist in improving the methodology that has been used to derive this list, so that it can be increasingly useful over time To direct the attention of education and training planners to specific interventionsrequired to attend to projected scarcities in future, so that they can begin to attend to them now To encourage all those with the resources and expertise to support the interventions identified To report to South Africans about the work that has already been done and still needs to be done to gain the optimal benefits of the new infrastructure investment of government in terms of generating South African jobs and developing South African skills.

Numerous reports have drawn attention to the problems experienced by Government, as well as the private sector, in implementing planned growth strategies, fast-tracking service delivery and producing high quality products and services owing to a lack of skilled people.It is evident from the above that information about scarce skills is of vital importance for a variety of reasons. These imperatives have necessitated the Minister of Higher Education and Training to produce this National Scarce Skills List. This document provides a list of the top 100 occupations in the country that areconsidered to be in short supply, accompanied by an explanation of the methods and processes followed in compiling the list. The purpose of the list is to inform, inter alia: human resource planning anddevelopment; resource allocation and prioritisation; the development of relevantqualifications, programmes and curricula; and international recruitment strategies.

Vision:The vision of the skills plan is: ‘Skilling South Africans for SIPs and through SIPs’ indicating that training should take place not only in advance of the SIPs but also on the projects themselves.   Core Principle:  A core principle was also adopted: ‘Building people is as critical as building physical assets’. The core principle guided the discussions.  A plan built on focus areas 

The key driving force of this strategy is improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the skills development system. This strategy represents an explicit commitment to encouraging the linking of skills development to career paths, career development and promoting sustainable employment and in-work progression.NSDS III seeks to encourage and actively support the integration of workplace training with theoretical learning, and to facilitate the journey individuals make from school, college or university, or even from periods of unemployment, to sustained employment and in-work progression.Emphasis is placed on training to enable trainees to enter the formal workforce or create a livelihood for themselves. The emphasis is particularly on those who do not have relevant technical skills or adequate reading, writing and numeracy skills to enable them to access employment.Promotion of basic numeracy and literacy is a project led by the Department of Basic Education; DHET is primarily concerned with post-basic literacy and numeracy. Nevertheless, the two departments will need to cooperate closely on this front, but without confusing or conflating the leadership roles of these departments in their respective areas. 

The Research Agenda sets out the research needs of the Department for the period April 2014 to March 2017. It has been developed to inform planning processes within the Department; inform research stakeholders of the Department’s research priorities; signal to funders and development partners what research areas require investment; and assist the Department to guide resource allocation for research. The priorities will also be used to guide research on PSET undertaken by academics and independent research institutes and organisations. The Research Agenda will also help to optimise the use of research resources by avoiding unnecessary duplication in terms of the same areas being researched many times.

The compilation of this Strategic Plan was informed by the strategic imperatives enshrined in the White Paper forPost-School Education and Training, the priority areas in respect ot education and training identified in the National DevelopmentPlan (NDP) as well as the Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF). The MTSF, in particular, is a comprehensive plan for implementing the NDP and the commitments in the manifesto of the ruling governing party over the five-year term, form 2014 to 2019.The delivery targets of Outcome 5 of the 14 Outcomes of the 2014-2019 MTSF, which focusses on the creation of “a skilled and capable workforce to support and inclusive growth path“ forms the basis for our delivery focus of the next five years.

The Annual Performance Plan (APP) presented is built from the work undertaken in 2015/16 and serves to implement the vision for the Department as contained in the electoral mandate of the current administration and in the White Paper for Post-School Education and Training.The strategic objectives are to:1) Establish credible institutional mechanisms for the labour market and skills planning2) Increase access and success in Programmes leading to intermediate and high-level learning3) Increase access to- and efficiency of high-level occupationally directed Programmes in needed areas4) Increase access to occupationally directed Programmes in required areas and expansion of the availability of intermediate level skills, with a special focus on artisan skills.The Strategic Plan that was tabled in Parliament in 2015/16 explains the trajectory the department will be undertaking in the next five years to 2019/20 in the quest to achieve the afore-mentioned. The journey began in 2015/16 when specific interventions aimed at steering the Post-School Education and Training system were initiated.The department remain focused on increasing access to Post-School Education and Training opportunities. In this regard, nine Community Education and Training (CET) Colleges, in each province have been established. This new institutional type complements the 50 Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Colleges and the university sector that has in the past two years increased by three more universities to make a complement of 26 spread across all nine provinces.Alongside these institutions, there are 21 Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) which are responsible for both understanding sectoral economic skills needs and support education and training initiatives.