Skills for inclusive growth in South Africa: Promising tides amidst perilous waters

Skills development is critical to South Africa's development. It has been argued that South Africa's twin post-Apartheid challenges, poverty and unemployment requires a level of skills development not undertaken before (RSA, 2008a and ANC, 2007). The creation of a separate ministry, the department of higher education and training (DHET), which has incorporated institutional entities from former Ministries of Education and Labour has engendered an expectation for the realisation of a co-ordinated and integrated post school education and training system. The establishment of this entity for the first time anticipates a coherent response to the education, training and skills development challenges faced by the country. The initial anticipation that this development will provide the basis for a coherent post-school education, training and skills development system, that is responsive to national development encapsulated by the notion of inclusive growth, have waned somewhat. In an attempt to link education and labour market more deliberately, it attempts to respond to both the education and labour market constituencies for greater synergy. The reality of success of a new institutional structure, within a wider structure embedded in the older pre-merged configuration, has proved more difficult than anticipated. The notion of ‘policy as boundary object’ is considered a critical missing element in the current re-positioning and the changed political circumstances represent a golden moment to do things differently. This paper explores the current structural re-configuration, as it has, and is likely to, impact on the skills development provisioning in the country. In particular, it focuses on the impact of current developments on the delivery of intermediate level skills, and the likely role of the beleaguered public FET Colleges (FETCs) in this regard. Whilst it is accepted that the current development is new and unlikely to have a track record, the current context is critically evaluated in terms of the potentials and challenges identified against the empirical experience of ten years of skills development in the country.

► The paper explores the impact of the new structural configuration in the post-2009 era.
► The establishment of the DHET has important implications for education provisioning.
► The notion of ‘policy as boundary object’ provides an important strategic policy imperative.
► There is real opportunity to enable synergy.
► The tendency of over-centralisation, bureaucracy and frustrated (non) delivery is perilous.
► The need to resolve the existing tension and avoid ‘silo-ism’ is paramount.