The Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Blade Nzimande, released a media statement on 29 April 2010 outlining the proposed new Seta landscape and NSDS III for the next 5 years. All Setas and Seta stakeholders have been given the opportunity to participate in the process of finalising the proposed landscape and NSDS III. Fasset would like to encourage all of our stakeholders to take an active part in this consultation process to ensure that the skills needs of our sector are well represented in the final decisions that are made.

As part of this participation process Fasset will be facilitating input from our sector so that we can make the necessary submissions to the Department of Higher Education and Training by the necessary deadline dates. We encourage all stakeholders to provide feedback to Fasset in accordance with the action plan outlined below so that we are able to represent your inputs effectively in our submissions.

ACTION PLAN

1. SETA LANDSCAPE PROCESS
   
   The proposed new Seta landscape document has been released. In the proposal it is indicated that Fasset will remain in its current format and will not be amalgamated with any other Setas. This proposal is supported by the Fasset Management Board and we encourage all stakeholders to indicate their support of this proposal as well. It would be appreciated if you could forward a letter, on your company letterhead, to me by 21 May 2010 if you are in support of Fasset remaining as is. Contact details listed below.
   
   The National Skills Authority will also be holding public hearings from 14 to 18 June 2010 to enable stakeholders to provide input into the proposed landscape. Fasset will be applying to make a submission at these public hearings on behalf of our sector and we encourage all stakeholders who would also like to make individual submissions to consider doing so. These submissions can be verbal, during the hearings themselves, or in writing up until 30 June 2010.
   
   The contact details for all submissions are indicated on the Notice for Public Hearings.



2. NSDS III


The Framework for the National Skills Development Strategy 20011/12 – 2015/16 has also been released for comment. Please click here to download the document for your information. Once again Fasset has been asked to submit comment on the framework by the end of May 2010. In submitting our comments we would like to include input from all of our stakeholders. We therefore request that you submit your comments to us by 21 May 2010 so that we are able to consolidate our submission by the end of the month.

When considering your input we would like you to focus on a number of significant proposed changes (in the downloadable document). These include:


• The reduction of the Mandatory Grant payment from 40% to 50%,
• The linking of the new PIVOTAL Grant to the Mandatory Grant and the fact that employers could claim
back more than the previous 50%,
• The introduction of a Code of Decent Conduct,
• The need to recognize a wider spectrum of learning programmes beyond just Learnerships,
• The strong focus on public sector delivery partners, and
• The introduction of Catalytic Grants.