1.Chapter ONE: Executive Summary

Table of Contents

1.Chapter ONE: Executive Summary

2.Chapter TWO: Introduction

3.Chapter Three: Research Methodology

3.1.The Questionnaire

3.1.1.On-line submissions

3.1.1.1. Advantages of online submissions

3.1.1.2. Disadvantages of online submissions

3.1.2.Personal, fax and e-mail submissions

3.1.2.1. Reasons for receiving different WSP paper formats

3.1.2.2. Disadvantages of paper formats (hard copies)

3.2.Data Coding, Capturing, Analysis and Interpretation

3.3. Overall Challenges

4.Chapter Four: Sample

4.1.Participation by companies in ISETT sector

4.1.1. Expected Sample

4.1.2. Observed Sample

4.1.3. Expected Sample vs. Observed Sample (% of observed)

5.Chapter Five: Demographics

5.1.Geographic distribution of the sample

5.2.The Distribution of Sub-sectors in ISETT based on Response Rate

5.3.Annual Turnover in the different chambers

5.4.Business Activities of companies

5.5.Company Size of ISETT enterprises

6. Chapter Six: Skills Development Facilitation through SDF’-s and

Training Committees

6.1.Skills Development Facilitators (SDF’-s)

6.1.1. Functions of a SDF:

6.1.2. Skills Development Facilitator-s Training

6.1.3.SDF’-s who represent more than one company

6.2.Training/Skills Development Committee

6.2.1. Training committees and their members

7.Chapter Seven: Business Priorities

7.1.Strategic priorities of business

7.1.1. Business Priorities by Chamber

8.Chapter Eight: Skills Priorities and Recruitment

8.1.Development of Skills Priorities

8.1.1. Benefits of identifying skills priorities

8.2.Skills shortage as observed through difficultY to fill vacancies

8.2.1. Types of skills shortages

8.2.2. Critical skills shortages experienced by respondents

8.2.3. Reasons for difficulties in filling the above positions

8.3.Recruitment

8.3.1. Factors that influence recruitment

8.3.3. Available vacancies

8.3.4. Future vacancies

9.Chapter Nine: Training Plan

9.1.Summary of the Training Plan

9.1.1. Training beneficiaries by gender

9.1.2. Training beneficiaries by Race

9.1.3. Race vs. Gender

9.1.4. Training by Occupational Group

9.1.5. Occupational group vs. Gender and Race (Total number of employees)

9.1.6. Nature of Learning Intervention by occupational group

9.2Training interventions for planned activities (Internal vs External)

10.Chapter TeN: hiv/aids in the workplace

10.1.Anticipated Difficulties in Undertaking Training

10.2.The Facts about SA

10.3. Workplace Skills Development/Training vs. HIV/AIDS

11. cHAPTER ELEVEN: FINANCIAL ANALYSIS

11.1.Size of Employer Analysis

12.Chapter Twelve: Conclusion

13. CHAPTER THIRTEEN: RECOMMENDATIONS67

Table of Tables

Table 1: The total number of companies in the ISETT sector by chamber

Table 2: The observed number of companies (participants)

Table 3: The observed sample as a percentage of the expected sample

Table 4: Observed geographical distribution by Chamber

Table 5: Annual turnover by chamber

Table 6: The table below shows the derived information of enterprise size (Source: ISETT SETA SSP)

Table 7: Vacancies which companies were unable to fill

Table 8: Recruitment of additional persons

Table 9: Occupational groups to be recruited

Table 10: The amount of beneficiaries of training by gender and chamber

Table 11: The total number of beneficiaries by race in the three chambers

Table 12: Training beneficiaries by race and gender

Table 13: Occupational groups to receive training

Table 14: Training of occupational groups by gender and race

Table 15: External vs. Internal vs. Formal training

Table 16: The type of learning intervention by occupational group

Table 17: The number of disabled beneficiaries to receive training

Table 18: Year to date employers contributing by chamber

Table 19: Monthly contribution of employers in the different chambers

Table 20: Total Levy Received (80%)

Table 21: The total number of employers contributing by chamber and province

Table 22: The total of employers contributing by size

Table of Figures

Figure 1: Total number of companies by chamber......

Figure 2: Total number of observed companies by chamber......

Figure 3: The distribution of companies by geographic area......

Figure 4: The distribution of companies by chamber......

Figure 5: Observed Total Annual Payroll......

Figure 6: Total Annual Payroll by Chamber......

Figure 7: Types of Business Activities......

Figure 8: Skills Development Facilitator status in a company......

Figure 9: The availability of a training committee in a company......

Figure 10: Business priorities identified across all three sub-sectors......

Figure 11: Business priorities in the Telecommunications Sub-sector......

Figure 12: Business priorities in the Information Technology Sub-sector......

Figure 13: Business priorities in the Electronics Sub-sector......

Figure 14: Skills priories identified across all three sub-sectors......

Figure 15: Skills priorities in the Telecommunications Sub-sector......

Figure 16: Skills priorities in the Information Technology Sub-sector......

Figure 17: Skills priorities in the Electronics Sub-sector......

Figure 18: Difficulties experienced in filling vacancies......

Figure 19: Reasons for available vacancies......

Figure 20: Males vs. Females as training beneficiaries......

Figure 21: The total amount of beneficiaries by gender and chamber......

Figure 22: Training beneficiaries by race......

Figure 23: Training beneficiaries by race and gender......

Figure 24: Occupational group vs. Chamber......

Figure 25: Occupational group vs. Gender......

Figure 26: Occupational group vs. Race......

Figure 27: Occupational group vs. Race and Gender (Males)......

Figure 28: Occupational group vs. Race and Gender (Females)......

Figure 29: Types of Learning Interventions preferred by employers......

Figure 30: Nature of Learning Intervention vs. Occupational group......

Figure 31: Total number of employers registered vs. employers contributing......

Figure 32: Total Levy (80%) Received by ISETT SETA......

Figure 33: The number of employers in the three chambers who contribute......

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A: Questionnaire

APPENDIX B: List of Companies that Participated

APPENDIX C: ISETT SETA Website Functionality and Accessibility Survey Results

APPENDIX D: List of SOC codes used

APPENDIX E: List of SIC codes used

APPENDIX F: List of Business Activities by Chamber

1. Executive Summary

The ISETT SETA (Information Systems, Electronics and Telecommunications Technologies) is seta 12 according to the Skills Development Act of 1998. The Act allows the organisation to collect (through the South African Revenue Services – SARS) levies from employers who are in this sector.

The levies collected are re-allocated to different activities:

  • 20% to the National Skills Fund (NSF)
  • 80% to the respective SETAs

In order for the employers to claim back part of their levies from the SETA, they need to submit a workplace skills plan. In this plan they outline their training plan, beneficiaries of training and the method of training. This document contains the aggregated results of the submissions. The following trends are observed:

The sector is largely made up of IT companies although Telecommunications is the largest levy contributor. As expected most companies (86%) are based in Gauteng. The SETA is largely made up of SMMEs (<150 employees).

Strategic business priorities that most companies identified were in order of priority:

  • General training/skills development;
  • Technical skills development;
  • HR development;
  • Business development; and
  • Performance management

In terms of skills priorities the following were mentioned in order:

  • Technical training
  • Marketing and sales training; and
  • Management skills training and others

Vacancies that were difficult to fill included the following:

  • Systems engineers
  • Electronics engineers
  • Laser engineers
  • Optical engineers
  • Radio planning and optimisation engineers etc.

Other types of technicians include:

  • Informix support
  • SAP specialist
  • GIS Specialist
  • Software developers
  • Business development managers
  • Project managers etc.

The lack of suitable candidates is one of the critical reasons for the difficulties experienced in filling certain vacancies. Hence the skills shortages experienced in the sector, which is aggravated by the brain drain. When the candidates are available they do not have the right combination of skills required in the workplace. This was identified as the second most critical reason for the difficulties in filling certain positions. Other reasons include; ‘Due to technical nature of the positions’, ‘Commanding very high salaries’ and ‘Excess brain drain’.

Companies that anticipated recruitment points to ‘Technicians and associate professionals’ as being the occupational group to be mostly recruited. This occupational group comprises of the core positions in the ISETT industry.

Most people who are likely to become beneficiaries of training in the workplace are males and particularly white males. When females do get trained they are most likely to receive training in the lower level occupational groups (e.g. Service workers, Clerical and accounting personnel) as compared to higher level occupational groups (e.g. Senior officials and managers, Professional, etc.). White females are most likely to receive training (in the higher level occupational groups) compared to other females of other races.

External training (compared to internal and formal training) is mostly employed when implementing training of beneficiaries, especially those in the occupational group ‘Technical and associate professionals’. External training is mostly characterised by short courses thus quickly providing companies with skills they require to cater for the skills shortages created by rapid technological change.

The disabled persons are still marginalised with regards to training in the workplace. The reason might be that they are still mostly alienated from the labour market and not just with training per se. Telkom reported 75 persons with disability that will benefit from training programmes.

The two major difficulties anticipated (by employers) in undertaking training are time and budgetary constrains respectively. The two are perceived as problematic and thus have the possibility of hampering the planned training programmes. Other anticipated difficulties include; availability of suitable courses aligned to NQF/SAQA, company restructuring, operational requirements and dynamics of the IT industry.

The quality assurance measures identified by employers which will be used to control and monitor training programmes both internally and externally, include (1) the use of accredited institutions in external training (2) evaluate training institutions using SAQA quality standards (3) ensuring NQF alignment (4) ISO standards etc.

Of all the companies (5540) that registered with SARS 3735 (67%) contribute their Skills Development Levies. Most of these companies are small companies in the Information Technology chamber. The Information Technology chamber has the highest percentage (46%) of companies contributing compared to Telecommunications (37%) and Electronics (17%) chambers. Most levy contributors are Gauteng based as compared to the other provinces.

2.Introduction

The Skills Development Act, 1998 and the Skills Development Levies Act, 1999, sought to address two major over-riding priorities:

  • The first is the ever-present reality of the global economy and the imperative to increase skills to improve productivity and the competitiveness of industry, business, commerce and services.
  • The second is to address the challenges of social development and the eradication of poverty by increasing skills levels of the people. In addressing these two priorities these legislation introduced new institutions, programmes and funding policies designed to increase investment in skills development.

One of the funding policies is the Skills Development Levy (1% of monthly payroll) which employers must pay to the South African Revenue Services (SARS). The role of the levy is to facilitate and ensure that employers make a contribution to, and implement skills development for their employees. The skills developed have to be relevant to the skills demands of the industry. Hence the introduction of new institutions (e.g. SETA’s) as earlier mentioned. In order to claim back some of the paid levy which is in a form of a grant, the employers must fulfill certain criteria set by the relevant SETA. SETA’s are key to the implementation of the National Skills Development Strategy and identifying priorities for skills development and thus are knowledgeable in setting the criteria.

The submission of the Workplace Skills Plan (WSP) is one of the few criteria that employers have to fulfill in order to receive the relevant grant. The WSP must define the skills priorities that each workplace will pursue, the training programmes that are required to meet and deliver those priorities, the staff (beneficiaries) who will be targeted for training and the amount of money to be spent (internal vs. external training). The submission of a comprehensive WSP is important to the SETA, the employer, the employee and the Government in the following ways:

  • Employers provide a strategic basis for planning and implementing the development of the workforce and organisation
  • Employees to be provided with opportunities for enhanced job satisfaction and promotion prospects which lead to better quality of life
  • SETAs to assist in the identification of imbalances in the supply of, and demand for, skilled labour. This information can also be used by school leavers and unemployed people to inform choices about training options and accredited training providers
  • SETAs will be able to plan and implement learnerships skills development programs that are needed to fill gaps.
  • The Government to assist in the development and review of the National Skills Development Strategy, National Human Resources Development Strategy etc. that must be demand led and sensitive to the labour market’s needs.

It is therefore in this background that ISETT SETA through the analysis of WSP's seeks to generate, facilitate and accelerate the process of skills development and the subsequent economic growth.

The remainder of this chapter outlines the structure of the rest of the report.

Chapter 3: Research Methodology

  • The questionnaire as well as the challenges experienced with regard to different questionnaire formats.
  • Data coding, capturing, analysis and interpretation of the WSP data
  • Overall challenges experienced in both collecting the data and analysing it to generate trends.

Chapter 4: Sample

  • Expected sample based on the total number of companies that belong to the ISETT industry.
  • Observed sample based on the number of companies that responded.
  • Expected vs. Observed sample (% of observed).

Chapter 5:Demographics

  • Geographic distribution of the sample based on the companies that submitted WSP’s.
  • Observed sample as distributed amongst Information Technology, Telecommunications and Electronics chambers.
  • Observed sample distribution by the different provinces
  • Annual turnover of the companies focusing on the three chambers of ISETT.
  • Different types of business activities as per the different chambers

Chapter 6:Skills Development Framework

  • Functions of a Skills Development Facilitator (SDF) in an organisation
  • Skills Development Facilitator Training
  • SDF’-s working as contractors or employees for companies
  • Implications of SDF representing more than one company
  • Training/Skills Development Committee involved with training as per legislation

Chapter 7:Business Priorities

  • Strategic priorities identified by businesses
  • Business priorities identified by the different chambers

Chapter 8: Skills Priorities

  • Development of skills priorities based on the skills priorities
  • Available vacancies as well as the reasons
  • Skills shortages as observed through difficult to fill vacancies
  • Future recruitment based on the different SOC codes

Chapter 9:Training Plan

  • Training beneficiaries based on those being trained by race
  • Comparing training beneficiaries by gender
  • Training beneficiaries in the different occupational groups
  • Internal vs. External training as a form of training interventions undertaken by employers
  • Difficulties anticipated by employers in undertaking training
  • Persons with disability beneficiaries who will benefit from training

Chapter 10:Financial Analysis

  • Annual payroll
  • Turnover by Chamber

Chapter 11:HIV in the workplace

  • The facts about South Africa with regards to the HIV/AIDS endemic
  • Workplace Skills Development vs. HIV/AIDS

Chapter 12: Conclusion

  • Aggregate of all aspects covered

Chapter 13: Recommendations

Chapter 14: Appendices

3.Chapter Three: Research Methodology

3.1.The Questionnaire

In its Government Gazette, February 2000, No. 20865, Vol. 416 the Department of Labour released a semi-structured questionnaire to be used as a standard format for SETA’s to be able to release Grant B to individual employers. The purpose was to have a questionnaire format, which would serve as a guideline to the collection of the required information by the SETA. However, it was critical for every SETA to customise the questionnaire so that the information required as well as the layout is in accordance with the specific sector and information needs. (For ISETT SETA online and paper questionnaires, see Appendix A)

The WSP’s received by ISETT SETA from employers were submitted via different modes of submissions.

General challenges for the different modes of submission include:

  • Submission of Holding company information whereas our unit of analysis is a single registered company
  • Double counting of employees especially with regard to profile vs. training etc.

3.1.1.On-line submissions

Based on the original format from DoL, ISETT SETA identified sector information needs and thus structured the questionnaire to serve the particular sector information needs. The questionnaire was then put on the ISETT SETA web site for employers to be able to access it, complete it and then submit online. The purpose of online submissions was to cut down on the number of physical copies and the subsequent data capturing that would burden the SETA. The online submission also helps information access by SETA staff all the time, real time. However, the system did not go without its problems. Most problems experienced by employers in submitting WSP’s were because of submitting online.

ISETT SETA embarked on a research survey to try and identify particular problems experienced by employers when accessing and using the ISETT SETA Website (as far as submitting WSP’s was concerned) and try and solve them. A semi-structured questionnaire was designed and sent out to Skills Development Facilitators (SDF’-s) as branded e-mail for data gathering purposes. The data was captured on an Excel spreadsheet and the responses analysed. For the results of this survey, see Appendix C.

3.1.1.1. Advantages of online submissions

  • Same format for all employers
  • Reliable information received
  • Interactive tool – other info e.g. deadlines, postponements etc. can be easily disseminated

3.1.1.2. Disadvantages of online submissions

  • Large companies – time consuming
  • Cost implications
  • Ineffective Website
  • Bandwidth

3.1.2. Personal, fax and e-mail submissions

Most employers submitted their WSP’s via fax, e-mail and personally. These were in different formats. Most employers used a customised questionnaire from ISETT SETA, while some employers used the original format as was set out by DoL, mentioned earlier. Others used a format that dealt with Equity issues (also from DoL) and how they were going to address those issues.

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