The Civil Engineering Contractor February 2019 | Page 8

POLICYMAKERS
A veteran of the former armed wing of the South African ruling party’s African National Congress — one of CETA’s five priority groups.
“We also have an international workplace programme whereby if
there are no local jobs, we look abroad for jobs for young South
Africans. From 2019, it looks as if we will have the opportunity
to provide about 300 TVET graduates with positions in China.
“There is the Thapelo Madibang Bursary Scheme, which
aims to attract 2 000 high-achiever students (and especially
girls) in rural areas, to the tune of R160-million. And finally,
we have established our own CETA skills development
academy to upskill our own people,” says Semenya.
The German way
The apprenticeship system has gaps, and studies have looked
at the German model and what makes it so successful. CETA
is now participating with funding in a pilot scheme called
Centres of Specialisation, run by the Department of Higher
Education, based on the German model of apprenticeship,
also called the ‘dual system’.
“One of the elements of this dual system is that students
spend part of each week at the school and part at the
company. The department has identified three trades
— electrician, plumber, carpenter & joiner — as well
as a number of TVET colleges and 10 companies. The
CETA has set aside about R6-million for 105 learners
to participate. If this pilot programme is successful,
the department will devise a revised apprenticeship
programme in South Africa.
“The CETA, on top of providing this money, has been
invited by the German government to begin a dialogue in
terms of how we can develop a partnership with them to
ensure knowledge development. Thirteen skills centres
and 8 300 people have been recruited into this pilot
6 | CEC February 2019
apprenticeship programme to address the question of how
we can ensure quality training.
“When we went to investigate the model in Germany, we
discovered there’s a social pact behind its success. There’s
a partnership between the industry and the education
system — the skills development is led and facilitated by
the industry, not the other way around. In South Africa,
this apprenticeship model was previously the way skills
development was in fact done, but we moved away from it.
Now we want to move back,” says Semenya. Iopsa (Institute
of Plumbing South Africa) has more member companies
that want to participate, and Semenya also invited any South
African Forum of Civil Engineering Contractors (SAFCEC)
companies which may want to participate.
“It is a matter of numbers — how can we get a company
that has one apprentice to have 100, and who is going to
mentor them? These are the issues we need to discuss.”
SAFCEC projects
R100-million is to be spent by SAFCEC on various
programmes, bursaries, and candidacies, reaching 850
people in total. There is also a partnership with Wits
University, because one of the mandates of this programme
is to produce a sector skills plan, and the partnership
agreement will produce the sector plan.
“This plan, which is for the sector rather than CETA,
becomes a blueprint for the construction sector. There’s
going to be stakeholder engagement, and the aim is to
conclude this plan before March 2019. This will be part
of the process of re-establishing subsector chambers in the
CETA,” says Semenya. nn
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