Management of Learnerships

The management and co-ordination of learnerships is central to the success of their implementation.

The critical management and co-ordination functions are located within various government departments and sectoral institutions. The relationship between these two major sets of role players is mediated through policy and implementation mechanisms, which include policy frameworks and regulations (including legislation) and funding and disbursement mechanisms.

Management of learnerships

Bridging the gap between theoretical education and skills training requires close co-operation between education and training providers as well as employers. And allowing learners to move across occupational contexts to acquire an optimal range of work experience requires partnerships between a range of employers.

A credit-based qualifications system requires administrative and other arrangements for recording the achievement of competencies. All of these will require specific management approaches for learnerships.

There are three key areas of management of learnerships that can be identified, namely:

    • the management of providers and learners
    • the management of learnerships and the development of quality in provision
    • the management of the learnership system vis-à-vis the meeting of the objectives of the Skills Development Act (No 97 of 1998)

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Learnership agreements

The purpose of the learnership agreement is to provide a legally binding description of the rights and responsibilities of each party in relation to other parties. It therefore serves as the mechanism through which the quality of learnerships will be ensured and appropriate labour relations are maintained.

As the Skills Development Act (No 97 of 1998) requires the agreement to be registered with the relevant SETA, it is imperative that a uniform framework governs the nature of the agreement. The following issues need to be addressed by the agreement:

    • rights and obligations of learnership parties (learner, employer, registered training provider and SETA)
    • entry requirements with respect to age, educational, physical and mental requirements
    • the registration office at which, and the period within which, learnerships must be registered at the relevant SETA
    • the period and terms of termination of the agreement, as well as variations to the agreement must be clearly stipulated
    • provision must be made for schoolgoing learners who want to enter the learnership system
    • parents of learners younger than 15 years, are required to sign the agreement on behalf of their children. (This will usually apply to the Voluntary Service learnership)

All learnership agreements will be binding once they have been registered with the relevant SETA which, in turn, must furnish a record of learnerships to the Department of Labour. This record should be a tabulation of the following information:

    • the number of applications received per occupational area in one calendar year
    • the number of learnerships offered in each occupational area in one calendar year
    • the levels at which these are offered
    • the categories of learnerships offered and their totals (formal/SMME)
    • the number of male and female learners per occupational area
    • the average duration (in months) of each learnership per occupational area
    • the completion rate by gender per calendar year in each occupational area
    • the cost per learnership for each occupational area

A pro-forma learnership agreement per occupational area must also accompany the record of learnerships.

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Learnership contracts

The Skills Development Act (No 97 of 1998, Section 18 (2)) requires that “the employer and the learner must enter into a contract of employment”. This applies only if the learner is not already in the employment of an employer.

The employment contract for these learners is a mechanism for formalising the terms and conditions under which the education and training are to be conducted. While the management of training is the responsibility of the Minister of Labour, the SETA and the employer, a greater part of this responsibility will be determined by the employment contract.

Special circumstances apply to the contract of employment that flows from a learnership agreement (learnership employment contract). The Basic Conditions of Employment Act (No 75 of 1997) affects the learnership employment contract in a number of respects:

    • the terms and conditions of the learnership employment contract will be negotiable with the Employment Conditions Commission (ECC)
    • the ECC will make recommendations to the Minister of Labour regarding the terms and conditions
    • the final determination of the basic conditions of employment lies with the Minister

Quality assurance

A second part of the management of providers will be met through the quality assurance functions that the SETA will use to monitor providers. These will ensure that the providers continuously improve their provision and that a quality system is developed.

Learnership system

The Department of Labour is responsible for ensuring the development and management of the learnership system.
The key instruments that will be used for managing the system will be the criteria for registering learnerships, and the post-implementation evaluation that will be administered periodically. The other important aspect of managing the learnership system will be through a comprehensive funding system.