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Industry matters
Are competitions for a certain body only?
World Skills South Africa( WSSA), after disappearing from the scene some years ago, revived itself a few years ago, under the motivation of the CEO of MERSETA. This initiative was welcomed, as many of the trades fell under this SETA. The Services SETA had also played an important part and may well continue to do so.
By
Rory Macnamara
Soon after the Department of Higher Education and Training( DHET) came onto the scene, the minister pushed some skills levy funding WSSA’ s way and declared that TVET colleges had to be the beneficiary of this largesse in terms of the regional and national competitions, which happen every two years somewhere in the world. We have sought clarification on this issue regarding TVET colleges only, but with no response, as WSSA now falls under the DHET! Across the world, industry bodies run these competitions as governments have shown themselves to be inefficient in handling these things. After all, it is not their business to do this.
Notwithstanding this, skills is everyone’ s problem and not the exclusive domain of any one body, be it government departments, official bodies, or industry. The sooner we all learn this small, but important fact, the better. We are in the Year of the Artisan and this type of disjointedness does nothing to raise the skills level.
So, in future— and should we be lucky enough to get answers from the head honcho— let us hope that World Skills can rise to the centre stage as it was with pride and encouragement and not some poky‘ let’ s do this because we have to’ type of attitude. PA
A little bit more transparency as to who runs WSSA and the structure— including management and whether industry is in fact represented in some way— would go a long way to garnering some respect for this competition that used to be the highlight of every trade. Certainly, there are trades that take the bull by the horns and involve themselves, but when one hears of the frustration in dealing with WSSA, credit should be given to them for their perseverance.
Industry bodies run these competitions as governments have shown themselves to be inefficient.
April 2017 Volume 23 I Number 2 www. plumbingafrica. co. za