Skills Planning for SIPs:

Methodology used & reflections on possible implications and issues for ‘a credible institutional mechanism for skills planning’

As at 19th March 2014 By Adrienne Bird, DDG: Special Projects Unit, DHET

Introduction

This is as much about ‘our future’ as about ‘yours’.

SIPs planning to become part of ‘mechanism’

The document therefore has two purposes:

to describe the methodology being used by the SIPs team

Delivery pressure

building model as we go Lessons and convergence to reflect on the possible implications of the methodology being used for the ‘credible mechanism’ The PICC is impatient of delays – wants numbers

SUMMARY OF METHODOLOGY Occupations required Occupations in demand Inform DHET institutions Occupational Teams Engagement with SETAs

Engagement with

Engagement with Institutions

Reporting

M&E & Reports

•

Occupations required

All PICC projects have been grouped under a list of sectors and sub sectors • A typical size project has been selected for each sub-sector • A skills prototype has been developed for each typical project

•

Occupations in demand

Prototypes have been used to estimate the skills required for all real projects • Technical experts have also been asked which positions are hard to fill • List takes into account supply & nat. demand • These estimations have been used to generate a 'occupations in demand' list

Critically scarce: (50-100% scarcity)

SIPs Skills Plan: Occupations in Demand

Surveyor 500 (incl land and eng. surveyors) Materials Engineer 450 Grader Operator Programme/ Project Manager Electronic Eng Technician 450 350 300 Gap 1 – broad estimates Significantly scarce: (20 – 50%) Concreter Bricklayer Civil Engineer Electrician 2500 1700 1400 1200 Electrical Engineer 1100 Construction supervisor /clerk of works 1100 Electrical Engineering Technician 950 Millwright (incl. electromechanician) Safety, Health, Environment and Quality Practitioner 550 Boilermaker 500 600 Carpenter and Joiner Mechanical Engineer Ind. Machinery Mechanic Construction Project 500 450 450 Manager / Site Manager 450 Plumber Painter Mech. Eng Technician Draughtsperson Excavator Operator Environmental Eng Chem Eng Technician Pipe Fitter Concrete Plant Worker Earthmoving Plant Operator Plasterer Welder Quantity Surveyor Rigger Crane or Hoist Operator 0 – 20% scarcity not shown 250 250 220 200 200 200 400 400 350 350 300 300 300 300 250 6

Inform DHET institutions

• The 'scarce skills' list was given to DHET institutions for bottom up planning • Institutions infuse into overall institutional priorities (e.g. SSPs for SETAs, univ/college plan) • Data collected from other data sources

Occupational Clusters

•

Occupational Teams Managers (primarily public sector) Professionals & Associate Professionals Service and Clerical Workers

Intermediate Bodies Occupational Teams (OTs)

Trades

(IBs) set up to establish

Elementary and non-trade production workers

• DHET prepares standard reporting template • Theory

convener Theory Intermediate Bodies

Department of Public Service and Administration Council for the Built Environment Services SETA INDLELA, DHET Transport/Construction SETAs Construction Industry Development Board

Practical

• Training

Centre convener

• OTs generate reports which include problem analysis & proposed solutions • Workplace

convener Structure d workplace learning Final assessm ent

• Assessor

Example Mechanical Engineer Occupational Team and Network

Occupational Team

University University of Technology Professional Body Work Placed Training

SharePoint and Reporting per Occupation

Reports Consolidated Occupation Information Occupations required over time per location SharePoint

Occupational Teams

Example of OT Report

From Entry to Expertise – learning pathway

Land Surveyors OFO 216502 Occupation Theory Workplace Building capacity Land surveyors

Land and engineering surveyors are in short supply, but to increase the numbers more equipment and the development of more academics is essential.

MSc Scholarship for 10 @ R 100 000 per post grad p.a. PhD Scholarship for 5 @ R 150 000 per post grad p.a. R180 000 per candidate over 3 years. A total of 40 new candidates to be taken on annually Increase enrolment, in all degrees through marketing: R 100 000 p.a.

Postgraduate research project support for UCT: R 250 000 p.a

Post graduate research project grant for 15 @ R 50 000 Equipment required for increased enrolment UCT - R 2 755 000 UKZN - R 1 182 136

CHIETAs Commitments to SIP Scarce Skills – Feb 2014 Theory (Post-graduate / OFO Occupation No.

Bursaries) Unit cost

DHET engages one-on one with SETAs asking them to respond to OT reports; 212908 Quality Manager (Employed) 14 3 R 142,000 R 10,500

Total R 906,000

R 592,000 R 14,000 214501 Programme and SETAs interrogate

Professionals and associate

their SSPs and make commitments engineering (WIL) 10 149 R 30,000 R 294,200 R 300,000

R 12,421,900 No.

20

10 10

796

R 5,198,200 153 311601 Chemical SETAs locate workplace learning sites thru’ engineer employers 11 R 7,000 R 5,198,200 153 R 77,000

Workplace Unit Cost

R 288,000 R 30,000 R 2,074,800 R 2,074,800

Total R 660,000

R 360,000 R 5,619,600 R 5,619,600 R 300,000

R 28,813,000 Other (see definition above) R 0 Key R 0

•

Engage with institutions

DHET engages one-on one with institutions (or groups of institutions) asking them to respond to OT reports • Institutions interrogate report in the light of their plans & make commitments integrated into enrolment, PQM and earmarked funding plans Minister signs off Final plan Linked to funding allocation Institutional plan OT plan

Key issue: Planning cycles Centres of specialisation (Differentiation - occupations

•

Reports and M&E

Reports prepared 'up' to PICC and 'down' to institutions • Monitoring and evaluation of commitments built into mainline reporting system back into DHET INNOVATION ‘New Skills for New Jobs’ with EU NB. Role of ESSA

Reflections

Central language:

‘Occupation’

 Enables planning to migrate from ‘single employer’ needs to skill sets which will give learner maximum labour market mobility  Address debates:  Occupations and tasks  Occupations and sectors  Occupations and discipline knowledge  Occupational Teams – interface between demand and supply, built on Advisory Committees of UOTs/Technikons, extend model to other clusters. Note: Networks with ‘theme 4’ intermediate agencies.

 Pathways (NCAP) is another way to map OFO to CESM. NLRD has data.

 DANGER: If occupations are used exclusively, there is the danger that they become ‘islands’ and that progression is undermined. This danger could be managed by introducing the notion of the National Occupational Pathway Framework (NOPF) structures where the experts that interface with the sectoral specialists are responsible for pathways of occupations and not ‘islands’.

O*NET

http://www.onetonline.org

• • We are eager to tangibly demonstrate the benefits of detailed occupational information and to explore the ways it might inform human-resource development in South Africa. As a way to kick-start our involvement and to give you an occupation-centric resource to point to, I am contemplating asking Alex to develop profiles of the occupations on South Africa’s critical skills list based on information in the O*NET database. We could combine these occupational profiles with existing research in our field on how best to train and develop the various knowledge, skills, and abilities that O*NET identifies as critical to these scarce occupations. All of this could be packaged into a report and presentation that we could deliver to DHET and/or the Human Science Research Council.

Prof. Lori Foster Thompson

Reflections

 Could ‘prototype’ model be used in other non-SIP contexts e.g. predictable service delivery contexts (government departments & entities own skill needs?) [Could be regularly reviewed]  If yes, this would be useful, inter alia, for workplace learning planning in public spaces.

 Best results gained when prototype builders have specialist knowledge or at least some relevant technical expertise. This has implications for capacity of proposed Unit. (NOPF??)  Use standard tools e.g. ‘toolkit’ will make consolidation of data much easier. Will need standard ‘languages’ e.g. sector definitions