[YCLSA Discussion] Setas endorse Nzimande’s new vision

[Dominic Tweedie]

Setas endorse Nzimande’s ‘new vision’     Sue Blaine, Business Day, Johannesburg, 10 May 2011   HIGHER Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande and SA’s 21 sectoral education and training authorities (Setas) yesterday agreed at a meeting in Johannesburg to pursue the minister’s controversial plans to transform the Setas.   "The forum fully endorses the minister’s new vision. We reiterate that we will co-operate with the minister and continue to engage him on all transformation matters, including the proposed changes to the Seta landscape," the parties said.   The meeting came against the background of a damaging tussle between Mr Nzimande and Services Seta CEO Ivor Blumenthal and the Seta council under which Mr Blumenthal operates, which resulted in Mr Nzimande losing two court battles last week.   Mr Nzimande is appealing both judgments, made by two separate Johannesburg Labour Court judges.   Several Seta CEOs contacted by Business Day refused to comment on the record, but all said the meeting went off well. Mr Nzimande indicated at the meeting that work on reforming the Seta system would continue , one CEO said.   Changes that Mr Nzimande made to several pieces of legislation, out for public comment, were highlighted at the meeting, another CEO said.   This includes changes to how Seta boards were appointed, one of the points of contention between Mr Blumenthal and Mr Nzimande.   Mr Nzimande rejected the notion that only one Seta was performing optimally. He said whereas Services Seta was one of the few that had a high income from the skills development levy, the quality of its training programmes left much to be desired. This was in contrast to those Setas with smaller revenue that had managed to perform excellently, he said.   Reforming skills training is in Mr Nzimande’s performance agreement, signed in 2009 with President Jacob Zuma. It commits him to produce 10000 artisans a year by 2015 from about 8000.   blai...@bdfm.co.za   From: http://www.businessday.co.za/Articles/Content.aspx?id=142221   -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to yclsa-eom-forum@googlegroups.com or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email yclsa-eom-forum-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): yclsa-eom-forum-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com .