The Civil Engineering Contractor February 2019 | Page 6

POLICYMAKERS
In the German dual system, a partnership exists between the industry and the education system.
The apprentice — aiming for more hiring than firing
Artisanal development is a priority in
the Construction Education and Training
Authority (CETA).
Robert Semenya, CETA senior manager: Projects, says:
“We are at the moment approaching the end of our license
period, on 31 March 2020, with just over one year left,
when a new skills development regime will be announced.
There are a number of activities taking place, including
consultations with stakeholders, facilitated by the National
Skills Authority.
“For the CETA, the codes and areas we need to deal
with have been recommended not to change, so our sector
industrial codes are going to remain as we know them. The
sector will remain divided into five legislated subsectors:
the building construction; roads and civil construction;
the built profession; materials manufacture; and electrical
construction.
“What we want to do from a construction sector
point of view, is re-introduce the chambers for each
subsector at the CETA. What we have been doing well
is implement projects, but we have not been able to
facilitate internal discussion with stakeholders per
subsector. We have been using other platforms to engage.”
4 | CEC February 2019
Five strategic priorities of the CETA
The five strategic priority groups of the CETA are: youth,
women, rural township communities, disabled people, and
military veterans.
Semenya says, “CETA desires to partner with infrastructure
developments because these are where workplace opportunities
exist. The most critical challenge facing the industry is work
placement. The previous Minister of Higher Education and
Training from 2009 to 2017, Blade Nzimande, brought this
issue up at BUSA, asking construction firms to open their
workplaces for CETA to place learners. This re mains a
struggle, so I once again call upon stakeholders to allow us to
fund learners on either learnerships, apprenticeships, or short
skills programmes.”
Creating employment in the construction sector has
been a challenge in recent years, and Semenya said CETA’s
objective is to ensure that people placed on training courses
get absorbed into employment. “One of the ways in which
we can assist with this is to provide quality education.
It doesn’t help to have fly-by-night training providers;
one of the things we are picking up through our industry
engagements is questions about the quality of the training
we offer. A major construction company informed me that
one of the training providers that was appointed to provide
its training didn’t have a clue about training.”
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