Felleng Yende making the difference in how our youth see Education
Government and its departments face daily criticisms for failures to meet their mandates. However, we are seldom as willing to hand out praise. BBQ magazine sat down with the CEO of FP&M SETA, Felleng Yende to how she has turned around the fortunes of the organisation and achieved clean audits since her arrival.
You have spent a number of years at the helm of FP&M SETA, could you please tell us about your journey within the role?
It has been a long, challenging and rewarding journey. Turning around the performance of an under-performing organisation required inner strength, dedication and determination.
When I was appointed to the position of Chief Executive Officer in May 2013, the organization already had two qualified audit opinions by the Auditor-General of South Africa, I inherited a demoralised staff component, dysfunctional IT systems, failed policies and procedures that could not withstand audit performance standards, no quality management system in place and in the last two financial years ie in 2011/12 and 2012/13 the overall performance of the organisation was 49% and 64% respectively.
Upon my appointment I immediately undertook a SWOT analysis of the organization with a view of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the entire organization.A new business model was developed by myself and there was a shift from a centralized to a decentralized model of skills delivery to improve skills delivery. When I look back and reflect, it was through perseverance and leadership that I was able to rejuvenate staff to immediately turn around the organization and during my first year as CEO, the SETA received an unqualified audit opinion and this announced a new beginning for the FP&M SETA.
Skills Development is so important within the South African sphere—what is FP&M SETA doing to improve the skills shortage in South Africa?
It is our impact on the lives of learners that is at the heart of everything we do. Over the years since 2011, approximately 102 290 individuals have encountered FP&M SETA at different stages of their career journey. Among these are approximately 62,422 learners who entered FP&M SETA occupationally-directed programmes and approximately 39,868 learners who have successfully completed occupational qualifications.
I am delighted to report that an increasing number of learners are registering and completing FP&M SETA occupationally-directed qualifications, more specifically in learnership and apprenticeship programmes that are aligned to occupations-in-high-demand (scarce and critical skills). Since establishment in 2011, just under 21 800 learners have registered for learnership programmes.
How has the Fourth Industrial Revolution changed the way FP&M SETA operates and goes about up-skilling people?
I am glad to report that a number of FP&M sub-sectors are embracing and engaging with Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies and aligning themselves with the new digital technologies in order to maintain a competitive edge in an increasingly global market.
This would require that more attention should be paid to research and development and the skilling of existing employees to remain relevant in the future.
Is enough being done at school level to ensure the kids of today are ready for the workplace?
I think that much more must be done to promote Mathematics and Science, especially amongst our female learners. Mathematics and Science subjects are key subjects if we are going to empower our youth to become future leaders and thinkers.
It is these subjects that are the core for future and emerging Fourth Industrial Revolution occupations and trade related occupations that would lead to direct jobs. It is important for basic education to keep pace with the needs of industry and current technologies. School curricula should be reviewed and subjects must be promoted that will assist learners to become future data analysts and scientists, AI and machine learning specialists, big data specialists, digital transformation specialists, robotics specialists and engineers. We need to expand the DBE Maths, Science and Technology (STEM) project.
We are also producing too many learners that become dependent on formal employment. There are huge opportunities for learners that have an entrepreneurial flair. Entrepreneurship and business skills must be prioritized at school level.
As we near the end of 2019, what would you say you are most proud of in 2019 and what were some of your greatest challenges
The FP&M SETA received its third unqualified clean audit-opinion in the 2018/19 financial year, which is testament to our pursuit of total compliance, good corporate governance and service delivery excellence.
In the last five years and since my appointment in May 2013, the FP&M SETA had 5 consecutive unqualified audit outcomes from the Auditor-General of South Africa and included in the 5 are 3 clean audit opinions. This was also accompanied by a drastic reduction in audit findings, with the last audit in 2018/19 having just one administrative finding.
The FP&M SETA recorded an overall performance of 100% achievement by meeting all 40 of its performance indicators and targets as contained in the Annual Performance Plan and DHET SLA. Year-on-year the SETA has been on a positive trajectory with regard to its overall performance The FP&M SETA has implemented a number of high level and strategic projects which had catalytic impact outcomes for the FP&M sector eg. Richmond-Indaleni Project with a view of transforming people’s lives addressing gender inequality, poverty alleviation and rural development.
Although I have received many prestigious awards and accolades during my tenure as a SETA CEO, the honour that I will cherish for the rest of my life, was the recognition FP&M SETA received by the National Skills Authority (NSA) and the Honorable Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Naledi Pandor, as the most outstanding SETA for its exceptional performance and I being recognized for my outstanding contribution to the National Skills Development Strategy in March 2019.
Moving towards 2020, what are some of your goals for the year, what would you like to achieve along with your FP&M SETA team?
Looking ahead to 2020, we are looking forward to closing the chapter on the NSDS, with the introduction of a new strategy – The National Skills Development Plan (NSDP). The NSDP and the new SETA landscape will be ushered in on 01st April 2020. The focus will be on greater co-operation between education and training institutions and the workplace, expanded access, improved quality and increased diversity of provision, and a PSET system that is responsive to the needs of individual citizens and to employers in both public and private sectors, and that meets broader societal and developmental objectives.
The NSDP seeks to ensure that South Africa has adequate, appropriate and high quality skills that contribute towards economic growth, employment creation and social development. There are eight outcomes of the NSDP that the FP&M SETA needs to focus on—and for me outcomes relating to employability of unemployed learners and entrepreneurship and business training initiatives must be prioritised in the coming years. In order to achieve some of these outcomes, I have pro-actively had focused engagements with industry for employment-based training, thus committing employers to guarantee job placement post training:
- National Clothing Bargaining Council Sector Project in Partnership with Clothing Manufacturing Employers and Labour – Vison 2025 delivering over 6 000 jobs. In light of the outcomes of the Jobs Summit of 2019, the creation of decent, quality and sustainable jobs is a Government priority and a human rights issue.
- The Celrose Clothing 600 Job Creation Project Celrose Clothing is a large clothing employer that manufactures branded clothing for large retailers such as Edgars, Truworths and Woolworths. This project is also aligned to the “Buy Local” and “Proudly South African” campaign.To date, Celrose Clothing has already gainfully employed 600 new workers over the last two years. Most of the new workers were selected and recruited through FP&M SETA training interventions.
Talk to us about your partnership with Forestry SA and where you hope this will lead?
In order to motivate and excite the youth, it is critical that we become innovative utilising Fourth Revolution technologies and virtual reality training interventions to address occupationally-directed learning.
Forestry South Africa, in collaboration with the FP&M SETA and industry partners, developed a ‘virtual reality’ application that gives trainee chainsaw operators a chance to test the skills they have learned in the classroom in a virtual forest. The entire virtual programme was developed on the basis of the current South African Chainsaw Safety and Operators’ Handbook.
Training in many potentially dangerous fields, like the training of pilots and heavy machinery operators, has adopted virtual reality and augmented reality technologies in order to enhance its effectiveness. The Forestry industry in South Africa has been using training simulators for the past decade but this is a first for chainsaw operators.
The chainsaw operator and chainsaw mechanic are some of the few critical and scarce skills in the forestry sector that could be filled by an averagely educated person from the rural landscape of South Africa.
Felleng Yende
