Learnerships: help for small firms
Zibonele Ntuli
26 May 2004
The government has launched 21 pilot projects in an effort to remove the administrative burden from employers who take on unemployed young people for learnerships.
The Employment and Skills Development Lead Employer (ESDLE) agencies will serve as recruiting agencies on behalf of small companies that are willing to offer skills training to young people.
Each ESDLE will manage 540 learners, and will pay allowances to learners on behalf of those companies that receive R25 000 incentives.
Among the agencies are 10 new sectoral and 11 provincial ESDLEs, which are expected to recruit at least 11 000 learners in different sectors, especially in areas where there is a shortage of skills.
Speaking at the launch of the projects on Monday, Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana said the government had put aside R90-million under the National Skills Fund towards the ESDLEs' administration costs.
"We are piloting this concept by creating these
agencies to assume full responsibility for employer obligations under the learnership regulations under both the Skills Development Act and the Basic Conditions of Employment Act", Mdladlana said.
He said that employer obligation obstacles would be overcome and that a large number of additional new learnership opportunities would become available for young people.
Mdladlana said the agencies would help to address complaints by small employers that the administrative obligations associated with learnerships were too onerous, and that they were therefore discouraged from taking on learners.
In his State of the Nation Address on 21 May, President Thabo Mbeki said that only 64 000 learnerships had been registered since the Growth and Development Summit last year, adding that government would engage the Setas to increase their intake.
Mbeki urged the authorities to ensure adequate funding of technical colleges and the proper alignment of courses required for the
country's economy to grow.
Source: BuaNews
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