Page 67 of 91 ANNEXURE F Skills development in the Steel industry Annexure F
Challenges / Drivers
Recommendations
• The industry to meet the DHET, preferably with the universities of technology, the TVET colleges and the MERSETA, to discuss alignment of industry’s needs with the training. • Industry to recommend a review and standardization of curricula and equipment and retraining of trainers. There is an urgent need for the DHET, the universities of technology, the TVET colleges and the SETAs to sit down with industry to review curricula, equipment and career guidance strategies. • Industry to agree on the scarce skills and areas of scarce expertise and strategies to ensure capable students are recruited into these skills, with good and appropriate training and mentoring. • The industry should work with the SOEs and other companies which traditionally trained large numbers of artisans to see if it is possible to revitalize the training options. • Leading unions in the Sector to be included in the discussion. • South Africa’s technical and vocational education and training system is primarily supply driven, i.e., the skills imparted by TVET Colleges may not be in line with the industry requirements. This has resulted in a mismatch between the skill sets of graduates and the skill needs of industries. The country also faces challenges in terms of having inflexible and outdated curricula, shortage of qualified teachers and trainers and unavailability of proper, up-to-date infrastructure (workshops and equipment).
• There is no comprehensive or coherent, national strategy for skills development in the Steel Industry in South Africa. • There is little alignment between the industry and the DHET, the SETAs and the TVET colleges. • The DHET prioritizes an academic approach. The link between the workplace and occupational training has been lost and training has become too focused on the academic aspects. • The private sector does a lot of its own training, but not enough. There is a need for industry programmes across the steel and engineering industry sectors. • There is a mismatch between the skill sets of graduates and the skill needs of industries. • There is no focus on getting young people into the key skills that are required for occupations in high demand for the industry. • There is no standardization of curricula. They should be standardized in cooperation with the industry. The TVET colleges often teach an out-of-date curriculum with out-of- date equipment. Their graduates have to learn again from scratch when they get jobs on the shop floor. • The trainers themselves often don’t keep up to date and so are unable to teach the required new methods, skills and equipment. • As a result, industry often doesn’t have confidence in the TVET colleges and universities of technology and so won’t provide places for the work practice / on the job training sections of the course. Many firms now refuse to take trainees because they do not have the required skills. It becomes very difficult to place trainees, so many cannot complete their national certificate training. • .It is not clear that the SETAs, the TVET colleges and the universities have consulted with industry regarding the skill and expertise profiles required for the future and in particular for the 4IR. • There is a stigma against students entering TVET colleges. They all want to get university degrees. Industry and government have not done enough to inform young people about the jobs and careers available in artisan and technical training. • Access to empirical data from industry and complementary technological knowledge is not easily accessible without research in the Industry. • An increased output rate of research and development within sectors and a decrease in duplication of research. • Further exploration of synergies for scientific and technological skills development.
• Industry and the DHET or DSI to carry out a skills audit to identify the gaps of skills and of expertise / know-how. (Note that skills and expertise are not the same – expertise comes from working on challenging projects over some time and being mentored by experts). • Audit and research into training capacity within the country for the steel and engineering
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The South African Steel and Metal Fabrication Master Plan 1.0
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