Govt pressures Setas to deliver
17 September 2003
The department of labour is determined to meet its commitment, made at the recent Growth and Development Summit, to increase the number of young people engaged in learnership programmes from the current 37 797 to 72 000 by May next year.
According to Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana, this will be achieved through the 25 Sectoral Education and Training Authorities (Setas), which were established in 2000 to provide training to workers in all sectors of the economy in order to broaden the skills base of the country.
"I am placing considerable pressure on the Setas to meet the objectives for which they were created," Mdladlana said.
Mdladlana said that apart from the 37 000 youths currently undergoing learnerships, the Setas were funding an additional 10 872 apprentices.
The government will also place a further 10 000 people in learnerships, over and above the 1 000 learnership commitments made by the labour department, the
minister added.
"The government will continue to encourage employers to create an active learning environment for their workforce and to create opportunities for new workers to gain experience in the workplace," he added.
The minister said 24 Setas had submitted their annual reports to Parliament. Of these, only two - the Police, Security, Legal, and Correctional Services Seta, and the Secondary Agriculture Training Authority - had audit qualifications, and their representatives would be appearing before the Standing Committee on Public Accounts. The financial statements of the Tourism and Hospitality Seta were rejected by the auditor-general.
Source: BuaNews
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