'Govt skills drive not working'

"Sector-based skills development should be placed back in the hands of employers," DA labour spokesperson Anchen Dreyer told journalists at Parliament.

Tabling a plan to address South Africa's skills crisis - an 18-page document titled "Occupational Skills Development" - she said government's sector education and training authorities (Setas) had not achieved the results needed.

The DA plan proposes government "clear the slate" of current training schemes.

"The department of labour must abolish the national skills development levy, disband the joint initiative on priority skills acquisition (Jipsa), and dismantle the Setas in order to clear the slate for a new, more efficient skills development regime to emerge," it says.

Further, the document recommends implementing "a system of tax rebates for skill development efforts by employers".

Asked to comment on the view that prior to 2000 - the year the Setas were established - most South African employers had offered little in the way of formal training to employees, Dreyer said in the past the labour market had been restricted, but this had changed.

"We're playing in a different field now and... the private sector... will now use this different environment in a different way, where everybody can have an opportunity for training."

Her colleague, DA MP Les Labuschagne said the Setas had "almost shifted employers out of the equation... except for paying (the national skills development levy)".

Dreyer said business in South Africa saw the levy as an "extra tax", and felt discouraged from getting more involved in skills development.

- Sapa