R5 billion skills fund untapped

The bloated National Skills Fund, which is meant to be one of the main drivers of the training lay-off scheme to ameliorate the impact of the recession at affected companies, has hardly been touched, according to the Department of Higher Education.

Announcing the scrapping of three sector education and training authorities (Setas) that were not financially sustainable, Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande yesterday referred questions to his deputy director-general Percy Moleke. Moleke said about R1 billion of the fund – which now stands at about R5bn – had been earmarked for the amelioration effort.

Nzimande said a further R1bn had also been earmarked by the Unemployment Insurance Fund for this purpose

The money has accumulated since 2005 in the skills fund.

It was key that the skills fund was “not treated like an ATM” and that its resources were directed properly at raising skills levels, Moleke said. It was particularly important that money flowed for the training of engineers, where the numbers of graduates were lagging.

When Nzimande was asked whether the investment of public money by the transport education training authority (Teta) – one of the 20 Setas to survive the shake-up – would be prevented in the future, he appeared not to know about the investments made in J Arthur Brown’s failed firm Fidentia Asset Management.

But Moleke said the matter was still before the courts and the department could not comment further at this stage.

The case against Brown and others will be held in January in the Western Cape High Court. Teta originally invested R250 million in Fidentia.

Nzimande then commented that it would “not be business as usual” for the Setas – which are meant to drive the country’s learnership programmes in various sectors. He pledged that his ministry would be working closely with the Setas “to ensure that there is minimal wastage or no wastage at all in terms of these funds”.

The minister also said that it was important to co-ordinate the work – and have in-depth access to the skills database – by co-ordinating the information technology systems for the universities, further education and training colleges and Setas.

Meanwhile, Nzimande said it would be incorrect to say that the Setas had generally failed. “What everyone accepts (is that) there has been unevenness overall… we could have made a much better impact.”

He pledged that a ministerial task team would be looking at co-ordinating the work of the Setas. In “a couple of months” they would be able to tell his ministry “how better to align and improve the capacity of the Setas to respond to the challenge of skills development”.

The minister announced that from April next year to March 2016, 12 Setas would continue without change. Six Setas would be re-established with minor changes to their mandates, while two would receive sub-sectors from other Setas and three would be abolished.

The clothing, textile, footwear and leather Seta, the media, advertising, publishing, printing and packaging Seta and the forestry industries Seta would be abolished. - Donwald Pressly(Business Report)