Presentation to the INSETA CONFERENCE

25 February 2004

Presentation

• Standards of Effective Practice• Tension: Quantity vs. Level of Skills• Exit Strategies and Job development• A message from the Youth of South Africa

Standards of Effective Practice

• Standards are about developing and documenting principles of “what works” (w.r.t. programme & learners)

• Answer the question: What are those things that good programmes do and invest in?

• Example of principles:– Organisation and management: leadership, staff development,

continuous improvement– Youth development: adult relationships, responsibility &

leadership, age/stage appropriate (drivers license), services/ opportunities, sense of self & group (beyond life skills)

– Evidence of success: descriptive & outcome data, comparative measures

Standards of Effective Practice

• Principles should be shared widely & frequently – need to create space for surfacing learnings– E.g. a discussion on pregnancy, retention, placement.

• Encourage learning amongst implementers (Setas & Providers) – communities of learning

• Takes focus beyond qualification (unit standards) and the process

• Skills training is not necessarily Youth Development

Tension: Quantity vs. Level of Skills

• SA needs a vanguard of black people with high level skills (Actuaries, CAs, IT professionals, etc)

• Need to keep a balance between focusing on numbers and the level of skills attained

• Measure of the overall impact of the Skills Strategy must include an assessment of impact on scarce skills by programmes

• Will help firms achieve employment equity targets• Concern on sharing intellectual capital/ loss of people is

unwarranted• It is not cheap and takes long!!!

Exit Strategies & Job Development

• Exit strategies– Employment– Self – employment / entrepreneurship– Further Education and Training

• Employment has to be the primary goal• Prepare learners for entrepreneurship as part of the overall

offering of the programme. Avoid introducing the concept after the core skills training. There are creative ways of integrating the subject.

• A clear strategy and link between DoE’s FET and HE platforms and DoL‘s Skills Programme – especially for those not employed post training (“life long learning”)

Exit Strategies & Job Development

• Target of 70% placement• How is it going to be achieved? What strategy have is in

place to achieve this?• Job Development is about providing placement support

by developing capacity for identification of placement opportunities, introduction of candidate, follow-up and support to both employer and learner.

• Capacity needs to be developed especially by SETAs

Conclusion

• Shift in mindset: – from: management + capital = output + labour

– to: management + capital + labour = output

• Young people in South Africa are very keen to be part of these developments to seize the opportunities

Contact details: (011) 651 7000

info@uyf.org.za