REFERENCE DOCUMENT TO DISCRETIONARY GRANT GUIDELINES

2011 – 2012

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The overall purpose of the Funding Programme is to shape the foundation for Skills Development within the Chemical Sector and to stimulate meaningful participation in the skills development process. This ‘Reference Document’ is provided as a means for understanding and focussing on the key deliverables associated with the four Strategic Funding Categories outlined in the Discretionary Grants Guidelines for 2011-2012.The intention here is to provide enough clarity so that applications can target their proposals to the intention of the Funding. This seeks not to limit, but clarify the deliverables the CHIETA requires in terms of the outcomes that must be achieved through the Funding Categories.

  1. Establishing a credible institutional mechanism for Skills Planning:

The CHIETA’s strategic objective here is to provide a mechanismthat will provide credible information with regards to the supply and demand for skills within the CHIETA & communicate emerging trends to inform planning to meet the Chemical Industries skills needs.Priority will be given to proposals to provide the following:

  • Proposals to professionally conduct research on the SSP and provide a sound analysis of the Chemical Sector and then articulate an agreed Sector Strategy to address these skills needs. There is currently no integrated mechanism that provides credible information and analysis with regards to the supply and demand for skills. Research must be mandated to gather these data and to analyse and interpret the data for a meaningful report on trends so that a logical prediction of future trends in the sector can be provided.
  • Research Identified on Mid-Level Skills Needs to ensure continuous upgrade of skills in the workforce & ensure a measurable increase in the intermediate skills pool.
  • Proposals to develop a framework for determining skills supply, shortages and vacancies and developing an integrated information system for skills supply and demand.
  • Proposals to develop solid baseline indicators that can document and communicate recent and emerging trends so that essential planning is in place to meet the skills needs and guiding the investment in education and training provision.
  • Proposals to develop a credible Management Information On-Line (real time)System that is widely accessible to all stakeholders as an institutional mechanism for skills planning as contemplated in the NSDS 3 that will assist the CHIETA in the following areas :
  1. A system to track and trace all learning programmes, learners entering and exiting workplaces,learnerships,artisans trades,etc.
  2. A system to analyse and measure the impact of Skills Training on the economy and provide a framework for the measurement of the Return on Investment.
  3. An electronic system to provide accurate reporting and analysis on Discretionary Grants , WSP / ATR and strategic projects data

The CHIETA’s vision is that all of the above elements are integrated in to a comprehensive Management Information System for the Chemical Industry that is aligned to the National Institutional Mechanismfor skills planning.

2. Partnerships

The partnership and the collective responsibility between stakeholders are critical to achieving our aspirations of a higher economic growth and development, enhanced productivity, creating a skilled and capable workforce to support skills development and creating mechanisms to provide work integrated learning and workplace experience. The CHIETA needs to establish innovative partnerships of working together with stakeholders to improve efficiency, quality, and most importantly the impact of education, skills development and training. These partnerships require that we improve the linkages between universities, universities of technology’s and FET Colleges, SETA’s and employers. This includes promoting training to meet the needs of both the public and private sector employers and increased research collaboration with our industry partners. Partnerships and collaboration must also be extended to support the role of community partnerships in planning and delivering local employment and skills support services. The following partnership agreements and memorandum of understandings will be considered:

  • Proposals to prepare graduates with the appropriate scarce and critical skills
  • Proposals that will contribute to the research development as is indicated in “Establishing a credible institutional mechanism for Skills Planning” deliverables above.
  • Partnerships with organisations to develop ISoE’s for the 5 Chemical Industries Chambers
  • Partnership agreements with universities, universities of technologies and FET’s to provide work integrated learning and provide workplace experience
  • Partnerships with HEI’s to broaden access to post-secondary educationand improve the higher educationthroughput rate including access for people with disabilities
  • Partnerships that ensure training and skills development initiatives in the country that respond to the requirements of the economy, rural development challenges and social integration. The main aim would be to increase the number of skilled staff in the priority skills areas aimed at equipping the unemployed and vulnerable with the requisite skills to overcome poverty and unemployment.
  • Partnerships to strengthen the capacity of public FET Colleges in programmes that create and nurture small enterprises within the Chemical Industries Sector.
  • Partnerships with public FET’s to FET will play a significant role in providing a second-chance education to those who do not succeed in the completing their secondary education
  • Partnerships with Research Institutions to undertake research and development commissioned by the CHIETA for each sub-sector.

3. Encouraging and supporting Cooperatives

The CHIETA must support the training needs of cooperatives, including relevant capacity building for the secondary, apex and cooperative sector as a whole. The CHIETA will work closely with the DHET, Dti, Land Reform and Rural Development to support the training needs of cooperatives. The ultimate goal is to support the Dti with the establishment of a CooperativeTrainingAcademy to deliver customised skills development programmes to cooperatives.

The following proposals will be considered:

  • Co-operative training programmes that are aligned with registered unit standards and make use of outcomes based learning materials that incorporate South African co-operative management principles, which have been adapted for local relevance.
  • Programmes must be designed to capacitate co-operative members working across the chemical related types of co-operatives
  • Proposals that will provide organisational and management skills training programmes for Cooperatives
  • Education and training practitioner (train-the-trainer) programme
  • Development of unit standards based learning materials for both co-operative members as well as facilitators
  • Capacitation of facilitators and assessors to provide and quality assure training interventions

4. Building Career and Vocational Guidance

There is a lack of guidance to direct young people to programmes for which they have an aptitude.

A funding category of the CHIETA discretionary grants programme is dedicated to support career and vocational guidance. The following programmes and proposals will be considered to address this category:

  • The development of Career Guides that addresses the scarce and critical areas of the CHIETA qualifications and their associated career paths that will be contributing to the relevance of training, mobility and progression
  • The development of a Graduate Guide that will create opportunities for these graduates within the Chemical Industries Sector
  • The development of a Maths and Science Career Guide to address the skills demands of the growing economy
  • The development of a Post Matric Career Guide to provide choices for young people especially from disadvantaged backgrounds and rural areas
  • A national CHIETA Career Guide that will assist learners careers within the chemical sector that will have potential for employment or create employment. This Career Guide must provide the different career opportunities within the sector and explain the occupations that make up the sector to indicate the potential growth areas and training opportunities
  • All Guides must be informed by research that is linked to all Occupational Learning Pathways including the academic learning areas and the career mobility areas relating to the workplace training.