Further education and training (FET) colleges will run the risk of being more focused on quantity than on quality, resulting in the emergence of artisans who will be qualified on paper but “simply not employable”, according to black-owned private artisan training academy the Artisan Training Institute (ATI) director Sean Jones.

He believes that FETs are trying to provide a solution for everyone and that, while some colleges are well run by appropriate manage-ment teams and have industry support, these examples constitute less than ten out of fifty registered FETs that provide sufficient ground-ing for apprentice training in the engineering trades.

“There are claims being bandied about that there is a shortfall of between 40 000 and 50 000 artisans in South Africa. But, besides this questionable number – which I believe is very much on the high side – the question we are faced with is not quantity, but quality.”

Jones argues that this problem is attributable not only to FETs but also to “unscrupulous training providers” that train learners to pass only trade tests. He also points to the sector education and training authorities (Setas), which modelled qualifications on their specific industries instead of on industry in general.

“This should never have happened, as it made it difficult to transfer skills between industries. Most employers no longer trust the Setas’ red seal anymore and assess all the short-listed artisans before making them an offer of employment.”

Jones adds that the biggest underlying factor is that the Department of Labour no longer has a connection with industry. He points out that South Africa has drawn the “age-old battle lines” between the departments of labour and education, which are in constant dispute over whose responsibility education is.

He further believes that the solution is for the Department of Education to take charge of learning at schools, FETs and universities, with a focus on academic curricula. “The Department of Labour should look after learning that is directly related to business requirements, especially technical training. Academics have been meddling with artisan training for too long and we are currently paying the price for this,” he says.

Jones further highlights the need for a structural overhaul of South Africa’s vocational and occupational training sector, citing South African Qualifications Authority (Saqa) CEO Joe Samuels, who mentioned at the African Education Week and Career Indaba in June that improving vocational education and training was “key to taking the economy forward”.

Samuels stated at the indaba, which pro- vided a turnaround strategy for FET colleges, that there was little awareness and under- standing of the vocationally focused counter-part to South Africa’s matric certificate, otherwise known as the national certificate (vocational), or NC(V), which was adapted from an Australian model in 2007, one year after the introduction of the better known South African national senior certificate (NSC).

“One finds that employers ask for an NSC qualification, instead of the NC(V),” said Samuels, adding that industry did not fully recognise the benefits of its National Qualifi-cations Framework-registered qualifications.

“This shows the need for advocacy within industry and in the broader community on the quality of the NC(V) and other occupational qualifications,” he added.

Jones agrees that vocational training pro-grammes need to be promoted to improve productivity and reduce unemployment, but believes there is a structural issue in South Africa, with academics and the Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further Education and Training – or Umalusi – misunderstanding industry’s requirements.

“We already knew how to develop a good artisan – all we needed was for the course to be updated and made relevant. Instead, academics chose to import the NC(V) artisan training system from Australia, which has no relevance in our context.”

Jones adds that, while some of the NC(V)’s content is resourceful, the structure of the training programme is designed for wealthy First World countries and not for South Africa.

“There has been lots of change [in recent years] and I believe industry cannot keep up. Still, efforts are being made to introduce the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations, as well as the standardisation of artisan qualifications. We welcome this back-to-basics approach to cleaning up artisan training.

“Moreover, I would love to see the Depart-ment of Labour have more influence and get closer to business, instead of academics dictat-ing to business what it needs,” he concludes.