. The Strategic and Annual Performance Plans 2013/14 of MQA were in line with the goals of the National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS III), National Skills Accord and other government priorities aimed at improving skills development. . In ensuring that funds allocated to the MQA were used for skills training, all board members agreed that they would not be paid board fees. . MQA embarked on a turnaround strategy to reduce utilisation of consultants in some of its core areas in the past two years. This was met with huge resistance from private service providers who benefited from the outsourced services of MQA. MQA had since increased its internal capacity to improve on the delivery of its mandate and the results had been positive. . The outsourced management of the bursary scheme of the MQA was also brought in-house. The outsourced bursary scheme was not well management and it cost the entity a lot of money in terms of administration fees. The previous provider did not have systems to track the funded students. MQA was also concerned about low pass and completion rate of the funded students at universities. . Through the request of the Minister of DHET, MQA established six (6) regional offices in Further Education and Training Colleges in the rural areas. The process of establishing the last two regional offices was underway. The offices would provide opportunities for continuous engagement with mining houses through on skills needs and planning.