Sector Skills Plan

SASSETA SECTOR SKILLS PLAN

An economic, labour market analysis and forecast of the policing, private security, legal, justice, correctional, defence and intelligence sectors.

2011 – 2016

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This document reviews the economic and labour market that falls under the scope of the Safety and Security Sectoral Education and Training Authority (SASSETA). The sectoral analysis will form the basis for the Sector Skills Plan (SSP) to facilitate the identification of the sectors’ skills shortage, gaps and supply; and identify the relevant strategies and activities effective to address the constrains within the sector that will hamper effective utilization and development of skills crucial to achieve the government’s priorities.

The document defines the scope of the SASSETA, the role of the subsectors and their demographic and equity profile, the implication of the equity profile on skills development as the base to outline strategic intervention to promote an ‘inclusive society’, ‘economic growth’ and improve delivery of public services. To compile the document SASSETA relied heavily on the information that was readily available as of the 31st March 2010. Data sources include the Workplace Skills Plans and Annual Training Reports submitted in June 2009 and the Annual Reports for the financial year 2009/10.

1PROFILE OF THE SECTOR

SASSETA’s constituent economic entities are government, business and personal service industries geared towards the maintenance and promotion of safety and law and order within and outside the borders of South Africa. These entities include private and public enterprises that are grouped into seven subsectors: Policing, Corrections, Justice, Defence, Intelligence, Legal Services and Private Security and Investigation.

Disaggregated data to profile race and gender was only available for five of the subsectors and the data indicated that the sector is generally dominated by Africans and with a generally higher proportion of males to females.

In the analysis of each subsector the following can be highlighted:

Corrections subsector is shifting its focus to become effective rehabilitation centres. The workforce profile indicates that African are the dominant racial grouping (about 70%) and about 73% of the workforce is male.
Defence subsector is downsizing and the SANDF now comprises 74596 employees. This trend is likely to continue as the DoD actively seeks to realise an optimal force size of 70000 full time personnel. The sector is predominantly male (75%). Ongoing transformation has ensured the demographic profile is representative of the South African population.
Legal services subsector is disproportionately dominated by whites who make up just over 60% of the total subsector workforce. This skew can be attributed to the private legal firms as the Legal Aid Board is predominantly African. Transformation still remains an issue of concern.
Justice subsector employs more females (58%) than males and the workforce is predominantly African.
Policing Subsector is 68% male and SAPS has slightly surpassed its policy ideal target of 30% female representivity by 2010. People with disabilities form only 0.6% of the total workforce.
Private Security subsector is expanding with an increased number of active security services businesses from 6392 in March 2009 to 7710 active registered businesses as of May 2010. The subsector is concentrated in Gauteng (36%).
Intelligence subsector has not been profiled; owing to the nature of their services data was not available regarding their employment and demographic data.

The sector profile highlights possible areas where interventions can be introduced to redress inequalities with regard to race, gender and disability.

2DRIVERS OF CHANGE

The drivers of change focus on policy and legislative issues, social influences impacting on the subsectors, economic effects, technological developments, labour organizations and explores the urban-rural divide. In the analysis of each subsector the following can be highlighted:

2.1Corrections services

Budget cuts that government departments are experiencing will affect its ability to execute key strategies.
Changing trends within the sector will have a direct impact on the functioning of the Department of Correctional Services such as the ever changing nature of crime, new crimes and the increasing influx of young offenders
The department’s current training does not focus on how to manage the new trends and developments in the profile or types of crimes.
Knowledge of basic technology is still a challenge among employees and overcrowding and the current design and structures hamper easy implementation of technology.
The rural / urban divide offers challenges as urban areas continue to attract employees thus resulting in difficulty in finding and retaining staff in rural areas.

2.2Defence subsector

HIV and AIDS continues to be a problem especially for members of the forces who are deployed outside the borders of South Africa.
The aging workforce means skills are not being retained and there are no mechanisms to efficiently transfer skills.
Access to basic technology and the training of employees to use technology is still low.

2.3Justice subsector

The training budget is not adequate to execute the Department’s full training plan.
Loss of skills is being experienced as trained employees leave for better prospects.
Increased crime levels are being experienced in courts as a result of recession and the tough economic environment.
There is a slow response to increasing HIV / AIDS cases.
Systems within the department are being computerized, however training is not being rolled out fast enough. Fear of technology is leading to resistance of the acceptance of technology.

2.4Legal subsector

The recession has lowered the demand for legal services affecting profitability of firms.
The structure of the subsector continues to be a barrier to entry for previously disadvantaged groups.
IT developments will result in downsizing of paralegals but will necessitate increased demand for IT professionals.
Rural attorneys are not exposed to latest developments.
There is a general lack of transformation which needs to be urgently addressed.

2.5Policing subsector

Increased crime levels as a result of tough economic times have a direct impact on policing.
HIV / AIDS levels are quite high. Health promotion and HIV/AIDS programmes have been introduced to reduce risks.
There is a high staff turnover as a result of for instance high resignation rates especially among white males, high personnel deaths and new employees leaving the service after 2-3 years for better prospects.
Technology will enhance crime prevention and detection but will require skilled personnel to operate.
Rural areas experience challenges such as inferior technology, scarce and top up skills worse in rural areas, training institutions are inaccessible.
There is a continued drive by the department to achieve the 2% target for people with disabilities.

2.6Private Security subsector

The requirement (if legislation is enacted) that every security officer be firearm competent may offer a challenge to the industry.
The industry relies on contracts, when employee contracts expire they are let go with no other skills gained. They need to be upskilled and empowered.
Common social factors that plague the industry include high training costs, high incidences of HIV/ AIDS and TB cases, drug and alcohol abuse and poor remuneration.
Technological advancement is gradually taking over previously human functions resulting in increased unemployment. However technology improves job efficiency and will require higher level skills.
Disparity in remuneration rates between rural and urban areas and the long distance from training institutions for rural employees affects employment and service delivery.

3DEMANDS FOR SKILLS

Understanding the demand for skills is important so that existing supply can be analysed in the context of what skills are required. Where there are mismatches, the result is critical or scarce skills which in turn affects service delivery.

Demand for skills is influenced by:

Current employment. What skills are currently demanded based on existing and funded posts?
Replacement demand. This is the demand for skills that is created as existing employees leave the sector as a result of employees moving to another sector, illness, death or retirement. Measurement of replacement demand is difficult but can be proxied by replacement demand due to retirement or terminations.

The above factors were analysed to provide an indication of the pattern of skills demanded as well as those skills that are considered scarce or critical.

3.1Corrections subsector

Sixty four percent of posts are security officers while only 0.4% are classified as management.
The professional category consists of 1086 posts and this is primarily where the critical and scarce skills are experienced.
There is an average vacancy of 33% in key professional occupations.
There were 1088 employees (2.6% of employment) terminated 2009/2010. It is reasonable to expect a similar proportion of personnel will be leaving the employ of the department per year over the next 5 years.
Attrition in the largest occupation in the department will create demand for roughly 4 500 correctional officers between 2011 and 2016.

3.2Defence subsector

The largest contributor to employment is soldiers (Service and Sales Workers) making up 30918 (41% of filled posts).
Only 3024 out of 74596 employees (4%) are professionals.
A total vacancy rate of 15% is currently being experienced in the department. The most affected areas are administration (33% of posts unfilled) and force employment (vacancy rate of 30%).
The 1998 Defence Review recommended an optimal size of 70000 employees which means that true demand over the 2011 – 2016 period is unclear.

3.3Legal subsector

Attorneys’ practices and Legal Aid SA employ approximately 57 000 and 2476 people respectively. No profile data is available for the sheriffs.
Employees consist predominantly of professionals and supporting administrative staff, these two occupational categories comprise 89% of all employees. Management make up 7%.
Professionals employed in attorneys practices consist of 37% of total employment
Legal Aid board has a similar breakdown with 41% professionals, 51% admin and support and an 8% management band.
Scarcity is driven more by the quality of graduates and employment equity concerns.
The sector is heavily weighted towards white males (75% of all advocates are white) and since this is where the majority of wealth is generated in the subsector, it represents a gross imbalance.
The demand for African, Coloured, and Indian (ACI) professionals will continue to outstrip supply.
Replacement demand was unavailable for legal services but according to Legal Aid SA’s WSP, the workforce is relatively young with only 3% of current employment aged 55 or above.
Sixty percent of employees are under the age of 35 and the ability of the remaining cohort (37%) to impart skills to the next generation needs to be considered carefully.

3.4Justice subsector

The biggest contributor to employment is the clerical occupations accounting for 57% of filled posts, followed by professionals with 3 640 (20%).
Seven percent of total posts are reported to be contract posts drawing from all skills levels.
Total vacancies stand at 16%. This includes IT skills at 80% and cleaners at 22%. This however is not consistent with prevailing labour market conditions, and may be attributable to other factors inherent to the Department itself (e.g. those occupations may be outsourced).
There are areas that are critical to the technical functioning of the department that are more likely to be experiencing genuine shortages. These include advocates (16%), attorneys (16%), judges (20.5%) and magistrates (10%).
Replacement demand can be determined from extrapolating terminations (excluding temporary work). A total of 2492 employees left the department in 2008/2009. Of those 1643 were temporary or contract workers and 849 (34%) were permanent employees.
More employees were appointed and transferred in than terminated and transferred out in 2008/2009. If this continues over the next 5 years, the scarcity as reported may be greatly reduced

3.5Policing subsector

The South African Police Service (SAPS) demands skills from a vast array of categories.
As of 31 March 2009 the department had a total personnel complement of 182 754 (up from 131 500 in 2003) and as of 1 April 2010, the total number of SAPS employees had increased by a further 3741 staff members to 186495.
Skills demanded fall primarily in the category of ‘Service and Sales Workers,’ representing the 135783 police officers. Roughly 17% of the force are clerks and a further 5% are professionals.
Police officers carry out the wide array of functions such as detective services, flying squad, inland water policing, etc. Each of these functions demand a unique package of skills, many of which are not offered by public or private training institutions. Therefore in many circumstances the SAPS itself needs to meet its own demand for skills.
Only 0.2% of all posts are vacant which means that existing systems are working well to meet the growing demand of the subsector.
More specialised occupations are experiencing scarcity evidenced by higher vacancy rates.
Employment growth will likely be in a similar proportion to the current profile with three quarters of new employees being police officers, 17% being clerical and 5% professional.

3.6Private security subsector

There are currently 387544 registered and active security guards in South Africa.
If the organisational structure is used to extrapolate to all occupations, total employment could be as much as 545000 people.
The subsector has a relatively low demand for skills as 71% of the employment is for security guards. These guards perform the security functions such as guarding, armed response, personal security, etc.
The vast majority of people (71%) have an educational qualification no higher than matric, 24% of employees have a diploma, 0.3% have a degree and 0.2% have a post graduate degree.
Similar to the experience of the SAPS, the private security sector is likely to continue to grow until such a time as the crime rate in South Africa is brought under control

3.7Drivers of Scarcity

A number of key factors drive scarcity in the demand for skills. While there are unique factors from subsector to subsector, cross cutting issues that need to be acknowledged include:

The image of the public sector as an employer. In key professional occupations, the public sector is usually not the first employer of choice.
Remuneration packages are often not competitive in the public sector.
Difficult working conditions in departments such as corrections makes it difficult to attract professional skills.
Quality of graduates from tertiary institutions. Legal services in particular bemoaned the falling standards in the quality of graduates (stakeholder consultation 2010).
Lengthy recruitment processes in public sector departments create difficulties in filling posts.
Demand for skills in rural areas outstrips supply.
Employment equity. Huge strides have been made in transforming the sector however legacies of apartheid still remain with whites being generally over represented in managerial and professional positions. This is most pronounced in the legal subsector.

4SUPPLY OF SKILLS

The supply pipeline for the sector is derived from both public and private institutions.

4.1Output of Public Education and Training Institutions

The sector requires a broad range of competencies from workers entering employment, ranging from a school leaving certificate to university degrees but the quality of provision remains a concern, particularly at school level.
Many of the scarce skills cited in Chapter 3 on demand require a basic foundation in maths and science in order to pursue further studies to gain the requisite qualifications yet less than a third of candidates sitting maths and science examinations received a mark above 40%.
The available programmes are not linked to the needs of employers. They meet a very small proportion of the needs identified as scarce skills. At present, most of the training offered in the sector is offered through private providers.
The range of offerings at FET and HE institutions is insufficient to meet the needs of the sector. Private providers are perceived to be more responsive and better able to tailor their programmes to the client.
In higher education institutions, with the exception of Black Females (African, Coloured, and Indian), enrolment in law and public administration is trending downward since 2007. This suggests that public providers are not currently able to respond adequately to changes in the labour market.
The SETA can play an important role not only in facilitating the links between providers and industry, but also in supporting the development of capacity within the institutions to be able to respond to labour market requirements.
New areas of specialisation such as environmental law, cyber crime investigation, and other occupations that may be driven by innovations in technology or in the law are the main areas of concern as learners are often not sufficiently informed about these career options to pursue studies relevant to them. This is an area that the SETA can play a role to address the problem.

4.2Training needs identified within the workforce in each sub-sector

4.2.1Correctional Services

Many of the identified skills relate to the routine management of the Department, rather than hard technical skills, with only one or two exceptions.
The Department’s workers are mainly drawn from new matriculants and the development and promotion of the existing workforce. There is therefore a need for constant up skilling to maintain a corps of appropriately skilled workers.

4.2.2Defence

The DoD has a greater capacity for training and development than most employers, as this is an ongoing responsibility to maintain readiness of the defence forces. The defence forces invest heavily in developing specialist skills for its workforce.
However, many of these skills are in high demand in the private sector, and the armed forces have difficulties retaining highly skilled workers.
Strategies are being considered or implemented in an effort to retain skilled personnel such as Introduce medium term employment contracts for the scarce occupations, Offer staff incentives, Offer an enlistment bonus for completing training, then a contract for the next 5 years
Employees tend to stagnate at certain levels causing frustration however this issue is already being addressed at management level.

4.2.3Department of Justice

As with other government employers, the Department competes with the private sector for skilled personnel.
A number of retention strategies have been put forward by the Department such as counter offers, rewarding excellent performance, career pathing, etc.
The silo mentality that currently exists in the Department needs to be addressed in order to facilitate transfer of skills and sharing of information.
The Department of Justice is currently utilising 65% of private institutions compared to only 35% of public institutions for up skilling its personnel.

4.2.4Legal