The Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) was established in March 2006 as a high level partnership between government, business and organised labour to accelerate the acquisition of priority skills in order to meet the demands of Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA)Migration of JIPSA into the Human Resource Development Strategy for South Africa.
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In March 2009, Cabinet approved the revised Human Resource Development Strategy for South Africa (HRD-SA). Cabinet’s decision marked the migration of work initiated under JIPSA into the HRD-SA and the incorporation of the JIPSA secretariat into the Human Resource Development Support Unit. With the migration, the JIPSA secretariat will be known as the Human Resource Development Support Unit. |
The role of the National Business Initiative The National Business Initiative (NBI) is a non-profit, business based organisation, whose role is to enhance the business contribution to a thriving society.Since the inception of JIPSA, the NBI has provided JIPSA with a small, full time secretariat in the form of
assisting the Joint Task Team and the Technical Working Group with the development of the priority skills plan, budget and implementation strategy;
providing ongoing administrative and project-management support, as well as policy analysis, research and research management capacity;
preparing reports and documents as required; and
assisting with tracking and monitoring of projects.
The HRD-SA
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The HRD-SA is managed by the Department of Higher Education and Training under the leadership of Deputy Presiden t Kgalema Motlanthe. The Deputy President is in the process of establishing a Human Resource Development Council, which will ensure that the lessons gained from the JIPSA experience are institutionalised and inform the implementation of the HRD-SA. |
The JIPSA model
The JIPSA model rests on four propositions:
It is constructed as a joint initiative of the social partners;
Its focus is on limited number of ‘priority skills’;
It is based upon the voluntary ‘self binding’ of autonomous ‘project owners’ (line departments in government or players in the private sector or organised labour); and
Its approach is practical and problem-solving.
The key JIPSA structure is the Joint Task Team which reports to the AsgiSA Task Team and Cabinet. It is supported by the Technical Working Group made up of senior leaders in government, business, labour, academic and research institutions and civil society. The process is supported by the Jipsa Secretariat, advisory groups and experts.
The JIPSA strategyThe JIPSA strategy had rested on the assumption that skills acquisition was not merely a numbers challenge, but a systems challenge. It involves broadening the training pipeline, retaining people in skilled employment, and training them more effectively and to higher quality standards. Along with the setting of targets, it is equally important to address the systems blockages and inefficiencies and problems of quality that impede the acquisition of relevant, high-quality skills to sustain growth over the medium to longer terms.
A three-point strategy has been adopted to address the acquisition of priority skills:
1. Five high profile priority skills areas were identified for immediate attention:
High-level, world-class engineering and planning skills for the ‘network industries’ – transport, communications, water, energy
City, urban and regional planning and engineering skills
Artisanal and technical skills, with priority attention to infrastructure development, housing and energy, and in other areas identified as being in strong demand in the labour market
Management and planning skills in education and health
Mathematics, science and language competence in public schooling.
2. Key ‘project owners’ and role players were engaged regarding the skills required to underpin AsgiSA projects and increase labour absorption.
This led to concrete proposals for priority skills initiatives in the fields of tourism, information and communications technology, business process outsourcing and biofuels. It must be noted however that stakeholders have subsequently agreed that JIPSA should focus attention on the agricultural sector in general and not limit itself to the biofuels sector narrowly.
3. Constraints and inefficiencies in the current frameworks and institutional arrangements for skills delivery were tackled. These include:
The problem of unemployed graduates
Strengthening the labour market and skills information system
The National Qualifications Framework Review and quality assurance mechanisms
Artisan training capacity.
To find out more about AsgiSA, visit the South African Government Information website.