Artisan training has finally become firmly entrenched as a national priority in South Africa on the basis of a burst of energy and innovation over the last few years. This new status was confirmed when Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande declared 2013 as the ‘Year of the Artisan’ and it appears that this may be extended in 2014 to become the “Decade of the Artisan”.

It is understandable that artisan training is in a state of flux at a time when the country faces major socioeconomic challenges as well as the balancing act between skills shortages on the one hand and high youth unemployment on the other. As is well known, the challenge has been compounded by problems in the general education system, coupled with inadequate linkages between institutional and workplace learning in the postschool sector.

Artisan training worldwide tends to be rather like the proverbial tanker on the high seas – slow moving and reluctant to change direction. In South Africa, the artisan- training system steamed slowly along for the last few decades, relatively impervious to changing labour market needs, changing demographics, as well as changing tech- nological and workplace demands.

The introduction of the Skills Development Act in 2000 and the establishment of the sector education and training authorities (Setas) proved to be a disruptive force as far as artisan training was concerned, as it led to a significant decline in apprentice intake as employers attempted to get to grips with the new obligatory levy/grant system. In addition, the focus of the Department of Labour on the new learnership model as the key route to a qualification served as a deterrent to artisan training, particularly for key training sectors, such as the metals and engineering industry, with a long history of apprentice training along traditional lines. Employers with extensive experience of the conventional two- to four-year apprentice training system tended to be reluctant to embark on training through a new and untried system that generally did not end in a qualifying trade test.

Starting in 2006, however, a head of steam began to build up as a number of innovative approaches to artisan training began to emerge as well as new training models.

The first of these was the Accelerated Artisan Training Programme (AATP) that was piloted and funded by the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa at its Fundi Training Centre, in Benoni. This model was premised on careful recruitment and selection of high-potential candidates who had already completed the theoretical component of their training at a further education and training college up to at least an N4 level to undergo an accelerated training programme that could potentially culminate in a trade test after 80 weeks of workplace training.

This model proved to be successful not only in terms of more rapid completion of training by the apprentices but also in terms of enhanced quality of training achieved through dedicated support and mentoring. The AATP model was subsequently adopted, managed and funded by the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Sector Education and Training Authority (merSETA) and is today regarded as a flagship training model which has garnered widespread national and international recognition.

A breath of system renewal was introduced in 2011, when the newly formed Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) assumed responsibility for the entire skills system, including the Setas, from the Department of Labour. When the DHET launched the new five-year strategy – National Skills Development Strategy 111 – there was not only an explicit focus on artisan training for the first time but, to underscore this objective, a concrete target was set for apprentice intake.

With the DHET at the helm of skills development and growing stakeholder commitment to the need for a fundamental rethink of the system, long overdue changes began to follow.

Common Standard
An important building block for the new dispensation was the establishment, by the DHET, of the National Artisan Moderation Body (NAMB) in 2010 as the statutory body to coordinate artisan development nationally with the objective of working towards a common standard across all sectors for artisan development.

One of the most important developments was the consolidation of the number of designated trades that had proliferated with wild abandon over the previous decades. This had resulted in a duplication of trades where there were six or more versions of the trade of electrician, or welder, or rigger in different industry sectors, with only minor differences of content, accompanied by the concomitant need for different apprentice training schedules and different trade tests.

In July 2011, a Government Gazette was published after widespread consultation with industry stakeholders that reflected a greatly reduced and consolidated list of 125 trades, or listed trades. This consolidation provided for the elimination of duplication as well as the development of a uniform system of training that would facilitate changes to curricula and trade tests.

A key element of the early work of the NAMB in 2012 was the launch of the so-called Seven Step Platform for artisan development, which succeeded in codifying the artisan training process in simple and understandable form. This was developed to enable both young people and employers to follow the process of artisan training through the seven steps, namely career guidance and management; general vocational/ fundamental knowledge learning; learner agreement registration and contracting; occupational knowledge learning; workplace learning; trade testing and recognition of prior learning; quality assurance and certification.

Social Accords
Against the background of the joint national commitment to create five-million new jobs by 2020, a number of social accords were concluded between the social partners during 2011 and 2012. Two particularly important accords which directly affected artisan training were the National Skills Accord and the Youth Employment Accord as vehicles to provide partnership opportunities to increase employment and the economic empowerment of the youth.

However, as stated by the National Skills Authority in the foreword to the recently published National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS) midterm review, “a great deal of work needs to be done in terms of delivering a high-level communication and advocacy campaign to communicate key issues on the goals of NSDS 111 and the commitments contained in the accords to a much wider audience of stakeholders engaged in skills development activities”.

The Human Resource Development Council, launched in March 2010, adopted a five-point plan, with one of the elements of the plan being to “produce intermediate skills (artisans, in particular) and profes-sionals”.

The council subsequently established the Artisan and Technician Development Technical Task Team (ATD-TTT) to identify system blockages and recommend solutions. Aside from the publication of the codified list of artisan trades as the foundation for a national artisan database and management information system, significant achievements included the development and subsequent Ministerial approval of a single, national artisan learner funding model as well as a learner administration and grant disbursement system. In addition, a pilot artisan recognition of prior learning project was launched. The work of this task team proved to be a catalyst for the decision to declare 2013 as the Year of the Artisan.

Once the task team had completed its objectives, it was closed down and transformed into the current Artisan and Technician Development Monitoring and Evaluation Team.

In tandem with these developments, a host of new regulations were developed and are in the process of final approval. These regulations, designed to simplify and streamline the system, cover key elements, such as new learning programme regulations; trade test regulations; recognition of prior learning policies; as well as new regulations regarding the accreditation of workplaces as training sites. “The new system is designed to be bureaucracy-light and cut loose the anchors that have weighed down the system in the past,” says Ken Duncan, CEO of the Swiss-South African Cooperation Initiative (SSACI).

WorldSkills Competition
An important question emerging is how the changes and improvements to the artisan training system will be measured and evaluated. One potential benchmark here is the WorldSkills competition, an inter- national platform for the showcasing of trade skills held every second year in a different host country where over 1 000 young competitors compete for top honours in a range of trade disciplines.

South Africa entered the 2013 competition held in Leipzig last July and it proved to be a magnet for technical and vocational experts worldwide. It was opportune that South Africa entered 16 competitors and these bright young future artisans will doubtless prove to be ambassadors who promote the image and profile of high levels of artisan competence and the wide range of job opportunities that open up for them.

The international competition was an important reminder that successful vocational education and training systems worldwide are based on a firm foundation of common agreement between the social partners – government, business and labour – on the objectives and outcomes of technical and vocational education and training (TVET).

It was interesting to note, at the World-Skills competition, the emphasis on the small and medium enterprises (SME) sector. A strong element of entrepreneurial training was included in all the training programmes to ensure that young people with a solid technical foundation as artisans are given a toolkit of skills to prepare them to start up their own businesses in the future and offer job opportunities to others.

As the changes to the South African artisan training system begin to gain traction, this should result in measurably enhanced performance of South African competitors at future WorldSkills competitions.

While South Africans engage in the process of attempting to reconfigure and enhance the artisan training system, it is important to continue to review the international experience and to distil useful lessons for our own system.

Key Role of Employers
The overriding impression that one gains from countries with successful TVET systems, such as Switzerland and Germany, is that employers play a key role in decision-making on training. The corollary to this, of course, is the need for commitment and determination at leadership level to develop a training system that is both responsive and demand-led.

A second lesson is the need for close linkages between companies and colleges that offer the theoretical basis of artisan training. This is clearly demonstrated by the Swiss and German models, where these linkages form the bedrock of the artisan training system.

A particularly positive spin-off from an examination of inter-national best practice is the imminent launch of merSETA’s new dual system engineering pilot project in South Africa based on the Swiss/German model.

In this model, apprentices are indentured to companies, then undergo training on an alter-nating basis by attending theory classes at a vocational college for two or three days a week, with workplace training in the company for the remaining days of the week. This integrated training model allows for immediate integration of the two facets of training as each element reinforces the other. The outcome is the development of the holistic competence of the artisan who is able to play a productive role in the workplace far more quickly than artisans trained through other systems.

merSETA CEO Dr Raymond Patel is confident that the pilot project will result in important insights into the benefits of enhanced college/industry partnerships designed to enhance training through a focus on “authentic workplace experience to ensure high levels of com- petence of the future artisans”.

An interesting new development over the past few years has been the surge of serious academic research studies into various aspects of TVET as well as high-level international symposiums. The fact that there is recognition that the subject is worthy of academic investigation is a cause for optimism.

The International Labour Organisation has also been active in supporting South Africa in policy and strategy formulation. There is no doubt that systemic engagement with the international TVET com-munity is needed to support the process of developing institutional capacity as well as monitoring and evaluation strategies.

Post-School System
The White Paper on Post-School Education and Training that will be published later this year by the DHET is expected to provide a platform for significant changes to the postschool system.

It is envisaged that the White Paper will spell out the new skills training system for the next 20 years and that it will place apprenticeships and other forms of work-integrated learning at the heart of the system as the basis for quality TVET.

There is no doubt that there are immense benefits to be derived from a vibrant, flexible and responsive artisan training system that is open to organic change and able to produce artisans with high levels of competence. Aside from the obvious benefits of training artisans in the scarce skills in demand by industry and the massive new strategic infrastructure projects, there is the additional and often overlooked advantage that artisan training plays a key role in easing the transition of young people from school to the world of work.

South Africa has a desperately inadequate SME sector compared with countries at a similar stage of development, including Brazil, so it is important to recognise that a skilled artisan is often in an ideal position to open his or her own business and so help to grow the economy and create jobs for others.

As 2013 draws to a close and the build-up begins to the develop- ment of the fourth national skills development strategy for 2016, it is apparent that there have already been many significant recent gains in the quality and relevance of artisan training but there is still a great deal of work that lies ahead. One of these tasks will be to change national debates from a focus on intake targets both in our colleges and in our workplaces to a focus on enhanced quality and successful outcomes.

A further key challenge is to promote and develop successful public–private partnerships. Government’s focus on expanding and developing public further education and training colleges, many of which are struggling, is understandable, but it is important to recognise that real workplace understanding and expertise resides in industry training centres. The symbiotic benefits to be derived from meaningful collaboration between industry training centres and public colleges across the spectrum, also in the vital sphere of lecturer development, are immeasurable.

A further element is the need to embark on research into the costs and benefits of artisan training, since much of the international research in this sphere contradicts the conventional wisdom that artisan training is an expensive exercise with limited financial return to companies.

South Africa has enormous expertise in developing sophisti- cated strategies, policies and action plans. As far as artisan training is concerned, however, the time has come to change gear from examining, investigating and reviewing to a new paradigm of implementation based on the solid gains of the last few years.

Certainly there seems to be immense scope for optimism that the tanker is finally beginning to turn on the high seas and travel in the right direction.