Chairperson, first please allow me to apologise to the Speaker. Earlier I was merely trying to offer assistance to the Leader of the Opposition, saying that we have a Sector Education and Training Authority, Seta, which can teach him how to send e- mails to the correct addresses. [Laughter.]
The department is confident that over 10 000 well-qualified artisans will enter the economy every year onwards. This is already the case for the financial year ending 31 March 2011, when we had a total of 11 778 qualified artisans.
This trend is set to continue, with an estimate of over 80 000 qualified artisans entering the job market over the next five years. These artisans will be well qualified to enter the job market because almost all of them will be artisans qualified in scarce skills trades needed by the economy. The competence of every artisan learner is tested through a trade test that is set by the industry itself, as well as through ensuring quality assurance.
At present the average Seta grant per artisan learner is R32 000 per annum. The provisional target is to register over 26 000 new artisan learners in this year and to keep training the over 50 000 that entered over the last two years. It takes an average of three years to produce an artisan. That amounts to a total of R2,4 billion that will be allocated to the training of artisans in 2011-12.
Minister, thank you for your answer. What are you up against? What is the backlog like? What are you chasing? What are your targets? How will you meet them? What are your indicators of success? How did you come about with the 10 000 per annum? What are you satisfying? What is the greatest need out there?
The 10 000 target is in my performance agreement with the President. That was based on a combination of factors. Firstly, it was the need to increase the number of artisans. Secondly, it was looking at what is possible and feasible. I'm very pleased to say, by the way, that we have exceeded that target. Instead we are now going after the target that is contained in the New Growth Path of 50 000 artisans by 2015.
There have been a number of blockages in the system. I will mention a few. First, there has been a misalignment between students who are doing vocational certificates at the Further Education and Training, FET, colleges, or what we call the N programmes, and their placement. What we are doing now is to redirect Seta funding for learnerships to make sure that for at least every student who has qualified in a vocational certificate at an FET college and who requires placement as an apprentice, Seta money is used to place those students. That has been one of the major blockages and we are quite confident that we are going to crack that, irrespective of some people who are trying to create obstacles in our attempts to redirect the Setas. I also hope that in a couple of years - a couple of months - down the line, the hon member will be able to answer these questions herself.
Hon Minister, now and in your budget speech you have referred to the fact that you have already exceeded your target, a target which was to apply only four years from now. My question is: How did government get to this figure of 10 000? You say it is in your agreement, but how was this number of 10 000 determined, taking into account that in 1995, when the economy was far smaller than now, this country already had 13 000 artisans qualifying every year? Also, a recent study showed that this country has 830 000 unfilled positions because we lack skilled, high- class, high-quality artisans and other senior managers. So, why only 10 000 if you are already exceeding that figure? How did we come to that figure? Was it a thumb-suck figure or was it the result of a scientific study?
Even when you are in the Opposition, give praise where it is due. We are doing the work. I would have expected that the member would at least have started by congratulating government that we are really doing our work. Siyasebenza. [We are working.] [Applause.]
At the time when we were finalising these targets with the President, we were using a lot of sources of information, including vacancies and research that had been done. The additional work that we have been doing enabled us to get more information about the number of artisans that had also been produced in other parts of the system. I must admit, though, that the challenge we have, which is my other agreement with the President, is that we don't have reliable data. That is part of the task I have been given. As you know, I have been tasked to create a credible skills planning mechanism in this country in order to be able to increase the number of artisans.
But don't take away our due, because we have done a lot. For instance, we have improved screening before trade tests - something that had not been done consistently across the system - at Indlela, previously called Olifantsfontein. We have put a lot of things in place to make sure that we increase the pass rate. This has been one of our biggest obstacles. The pass rate was too low because some of the people who come for testing were from fly-by-night artisan training initiatives. We are now beginning to actually stamp them out. We have put in a lot of work and we are also collecting further information in order to be able to ensure that we know exactly what we need. [Interjections.]
I think we need to acknowledge the response from the hon Minister and the strides and achievements that have already been made in this regard. However, we will ask what role the Setas are playing in assisting these qualified artisans with workplace placement. Will the department be able to track these qualified artisans? If so, for how long will they be tracked to see whether they have really entered the job market?
Thank you for your question, hon member. We are working very closely now with the Setas - save one. We are working very closely with 20 of them. We have mandated the new boards of the relicensed Setas to place this issue as a priority. But we are not going to end there. We are in the process of finalising service level agreements between the department and each of the Setas and will be able to set targets in terms of how many artisans they will be able to produce. In the meantime, we are also working at building a common standard or a common information and communication technology, ICT, framework within which to collect this data and be able to track the artisans.
In fact, I might as well say that in the discussions that I have had with the Setas regarding how many more artisans they are able to take, they have indicated that they can double this. The critical issue, on which we have been working with Minister Patel, is to get workplaces and employers to open up their workplaces so that we are able to place these artisans. For instance, we can place 26 000 in terms of our plans with the Setas, but the challenge is that we need employers to open up their workplaces so that we can train these artisans. From the discussions that we had we are confident that we will be able to achieve that. Siyabonga. [Thank you.]
Steps to be taken regarding the private interests within the housing and construction industry of certain persons at the NHBRC
58. Mr A C Steyn (DA) asked the Minister of Human Settlements:
(1) Whether he had been informed of the private interests within the housing and construction industry of certain persons (details furnished) at the National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC); if so, (a) when and (b) in what way has he been informed; if not, (2) whether he intends to conduct an inquiry into the matter; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details;
(3) whether he intends taking steps in this regard; if not, how are the private interests of the said persons reconcilable with the positions they hold in the NHBRC; if so, what steps?