Key issues in the assessment of SETA performance in South Africa's National Skills Development Strategy

This paper begins by making four recommendations for South Africa: first, national priorities in skills training should focus on the strategic gaps in the evidence base that underlies policy, rather than on marginal adjustments; second, there is a need for comprehensive enquiries about employers' use of schooled and skilled labour and about their routine training activities, most of which occur on-the-job; third, a skills-alone approach to the devising of policy is unlikely to be successful and the policy and its underlying research net needs to be cast wider; and fourth, more research is needed about the training model under which government and the skills training industry operate. The paper then outlines the constraints that apply to all national skills systems, describes the levy-grant system adopted from international examples, discusses issues in the regulation of training, and describes the integration of skills training strategies with initiatives to accelerate industrial growth. The paper concludes by summarising the principle actions for policy makers. Show less