LMIP-DHET Skills Planning Week 2016

The LMIP-DHET Skills Planning Week 2016 consisted of a research colloquium and five specialist workshops. On the agenda was 'How to plan to meet South Africa's skills needs'. 

 

Research Colloquium on Skills Planning

29-30 September 2016

Birchwood Conference Centre (King Shaka room at the Domestic Centre) Johannesburg

 

Background

The Department of Higher Education and Training and the Human Sciences Research Council convened a research colloquium to create a new space for researchers, policy makers, planners, educators and trainers to engage, by sharing frameworks, approaches and practices of skills planning. 

In a global and local economy it is important to understand what types of key occupations, and accompanying qualifications and skills, are required to support inclusive social development, economic growth, trade and investment. Since 1994 there have been efforts to plan for skills development in South Africa, but skills planning mechanisms have failed to operate as effectively as anticipated.

The DHET’s commitment to lead a process to establish a credible institutional mechanism for skills planning represents a coherent attempt to develop a centralised approach to skills planning that links decision making to the outputs of an embryonic Labour Market Intelligence System. The complexity of the task, starting on a weak and fragmented base, is well recognised, and it will take time to establish and strengthen the necessary institutional conditions and capabilities for skills planning.

The Labour Market Intelligence Partnership (LMIP) has produced significant research over the past four years, to strengthen the evidence base over the medium to long term. Researchers have proposed an architecture and framework for decision making, skills planning indicators and methodologies, skills forecasting, and piloted new labour market information datasets and systems that need to be developed over time.  They have also contributed critical labour market intelligence, on the changing nature of work and occupations, on attitudes to employment, on institutional responsiveness and interactive capabilities, and on transitions to the labour market. Such research is critical to develop approaches and methodologies appropriate to South African contextual realities. 

The DHET and its entities are faced by immediate questions to determine where there are skills mismatches, shortages and gaps, and their researchers and planners have developed ways to inform planning and funding decisions across the post-school education and training system.

The colloquium thus provides an opportunity to share the emerging evidence, and engage with what is possible and desirable.  The main purpose is to inform and support the skills planning policy and practice of DHET and its entities, at varying levels and in varying spaces.

Presentations made at the colloquium can be accessed here using the keyword "colloquium". 

 

Specialist Workshops

27-29 September 2016

University of Witwatersand & Birchwood Conference Centre, Johannesburg

Background

Five specialist workshops took place on 27 and 28 September.

These were aimed at promoting in-depth and more technical engagement between researchers and practitioners around skills planning data, methodologies and practices, informed by evidence from research conducted over the past four years by LMIP teams. 

Tuesday, 27 September

University of Witwatersrand

Workshop 1

09h00 to 16h00 

Asghar Adelzadeh, ADRS

LM-EM: A Linked Macroeconomic skills forecasting model for South Africa
  • Review of the Linked Macro-Education Model’s purpose, architecture, methods, and forecasts
  • Demonstration of how to use LM-EM’s web-platform to produce projections of occupation and skills demand and supply

Wednesday, 28 September

Birchwood Conference Centre

Workshop 2a

09h00 to 13h00

 

Hersheela Narsee, DHET

 

Methodologies to identify skills needs

 

 
  • Review of the methodologies that DHET  plans to use to identify skills needs
  • The potential gains from a proposed OECD cross-country study to identify skills imbalances
  • The potential gains from ILO methodologies

Workshop 2b

09h00 to 13h00 

 

Mike Rogan, Neil Aggett Labour Studies, Rhodes University 

 Institutionalising mechanisms to track transitions from education and training, into the labour market

Focus on tracer studies from TVET, HE and workplace learning programmes:

  • How can mechanisms to track transitions from education and training into the labour market be institutionalised?
  • Who should be responsible and at which levels should this process be tundertaken?

Workshop 3a

13h30 to 16h30 

 

Mariette Visser, HSRC

Mampho Khuluvhe, DHET

Data and information needs for skills planning to create more credible labour market information
  • What indicators do we need for skills planning?
  • What are the data challenges and gaps? 
  • What are the data sources?
  • How can DHET coordinate relevant data for skills planning on a web platform?

Workshop 3b

13h30 to 16h30 

 

Glenda Kruss, Education and Skills Development, HSRC

 Partnerships and networks to support SETAs and TVET colleges

Research guides to inform SETA and TVET strategies:

  • SETA / TVET guides to map sectoral systems for skills development and strengthen capacities to interact with firms, colleges and universities
  • Guide for TVET colleges and SETA’s to enhance curriculum responsiveness to local skills needs

Presentations made at these workshops can be accessed here using the keyword "colloquium".