COVER FEATURE: INSETA
Your career has spanned auditing, academia, entrepreneurship, and governance. What drew you to INSETA? Each part of my career has shaped how I think about leadership and service. Accounting grounded me in accountability and governance. Teaching showed me how education can change the direction of a person ' s life, and entrepreneurship taught me the practical challenges people face in creating opportunities.
INSETA brings those strands together because its work connects learning with participation in the economy. Every decision we make should come back to what difference it will make to the people we serve.
What are your main priorities as Chairperson? The first is to embed impact in how INSETA plans and decides. We should be clear from the outset about the problem we are solving, who needs to benefit, and how we will recognise meaningful change.
The second is stronger relationships across the skills development ecosystem, because the quality of information we receive determines how relevant our programmes are.
The third is accountability. We must be able to explain our decisions and show what value we created with the resources entrusted to us.
You return often to the idea of impact. What does it mean in practice? We can report how many people received funding, entered programmes, or completed qualifications. Those indicators matter, but progress cannot end with the numbers. We must ask what happened afterwards. Did the learner find work or progress in a career? If we supported an entrepreneur, where is that business now? Did the programme meet a real need in the sector? Answering those questions means tracing beneficiaries, evaluating programmes, and using what we learn to make better decisions.
You have given considerable credit to the Board. How are you building its culture? One of the issues I identified was that Board members did not really know one another or understand the depth of expertise around the table. We introduced a 20-minute impact and learning session at the start of each meeting, where members present short masterclasses on subjects they know well, including artificial intelligence and retirement funds. We learn about the sector, and we learn about one another, which helps members contribute beyond their own constituency.
It matters symbolically too. As a SETA, our purpose is learning and skills development, and the Board should live those values. We cannot promote lifelong learning outside the organisation without practising it ourselves.
How is change in the insurance industry reshaping the skills INSETA must support?
Technology is changing how insurance products are designed, sold, administered, and assessed. Insurers need people who can work with artificial intelligence, data, automation, and cybersecurity, while climate risk and regulatory change place further demands on the workforce.
INSETA has to recognise those developments early enough to respond. That depends on strong industry relationships and credible research, so that qualifications, short programmes, and workplace learning stay relevant and South African professionals can compete confidently in a global market.
" INSETA... connects learning with participation in the economy. Every decision we make should come back to what difference it will make to the people we serve."
Why do stakeholder relationships matter so much in that response? No single organisation has a complete view of what the sector needs. Employers understand the skills they struggle to find. Education institutions understand learning and curriculum design. Researchers identify emerging trends, and learners and graduates can tell us whether a programme led to a real opportunity. Our job is to connect those perspectives.
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