 Training on
right path with quality council
Blade Nzimande,
Business Day, Johannesburg, 26 February 2010
IF SKILLS development
and training hold the answers for so many of our social and economic
problems, why don’t we just do it? The reason is poor-quality training
can prove just as deadly as no training, and could be the difference
between unemployment and decent work.
The launch of the
Quality Council for Trades and Occupations this week is an important
step in the skills development revolution we have initiated in
government by ensuring high- quality workplace training and by bringing
the needs of industry closer to the education and training system.
Learning at and for
work is essential if workplaces are to become more productive, if
workers are to rise to more decent jobs, and if the unemployed and
community members are to initiate and improve ventures in the informal
economy. This dimension of learning is also vital for graduates who,
without workplace learning, are more likely to remain unemployed.
My department aims to
improve entry points into and pathways through the learning system, and
enhance the quality of learning wherever it takes place. The council
will ensure training and skills development initiatives respond
adequately to social and economic needs. It will ensure qualifications
are not only linked to labour market needs but are also linked to, and
build on, qualifications from other institutions. More learners need to
proceed to the skills development system and the workplace seamlessly,
with easy pathways across different learning sites. We see the council
as the glue in this.
The council will also
have to develop and sustain public confidence in the quality assurance
of skills development. We have some fine traditions that we must
cherish and nurture, and we have some bad habits to weed out. The
council must act as a guide as we strive to improve the quality of our
skills development system and ensure the competence of learners who
have been certified through the Occupational Qualifications Framework.
We must continue to develop a National Qualifications Framework that
includes recognition of prior learning.
It is evident that too
little research has been done on workplace learning and its theoretical
underpinnings. The council must help to reverse this. It must also find
ways to recognise the skills of those who have worked for years and
learnt a great deal.
Critically, the
council must work with other industry players to assist young people to
undertake workplace learning so they can achieve employment. In this
way the council becomes the gateway in ensuring workplace learning gets
its proper credentials, and the lives of ordinary workers are
revolutionised.
Building a culture of
ongoing learning in our workforce is critical for a vibrant economy
whose benefits are shared by all.
We are much clearer as
government today that our education and training policy needs to serve
the youth as they have a lifetime ahead of them and much to contribute.
The statistics of young people not in education, training or employment
— 2,8-million people — provides a stark reminder of the urgency of this
task.
College training is
not enough. If it is not complemented by workplace learning, we could
find the youngsters we work so hard to train remain unemployed. Finding
ways to align the workplace qualifications with those provided at
institutions will be a major help in addressing this problem.
The council can also
help by ensuring workplace learning is of a high quality so those
taking trade tests and similar exit assessments pass at an increasing
rate and swell the ranks of our skilled workforce.
With the launch of the
council, we will for the first time since the advent of our democracy
be able to say: we are doing training and doing it right.
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