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A Technical Guide for Wine Producers
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FoodBev SETA News
Charl Theron
With the FoodBev SETA playing an important role in the training of persons in the liquor industry, this news column will be published on a regular basis. The first columns will be dedicated to the terminology that will be used.
During the 1990s the government decided that training should be approached on a coordinated scale in order to make South Africa more competitive internationally. This resulted in the 1998 Skills Development Act, which became effective on 1 April 2000. Subsequent to the Act was the creation of SETAs (Sector Education and Training Authority). Hence the creation of the FoodBev (Food and Beverage Manufacturing) SETA.
The SETAs are funded by a levy to be paid by all employers with a personnel account of more than R500 000 (1% of personnel account). 70% of these funds may be reimbursed to companies for various training interventions. The SETAs are not allowed to allocate more than 10% of the levy to management costs. The remaining 20% is deposited in a National Traning Fund and used for national training priorities. In summary the vision of the FoodBev SETA is to make available sufficient and applicable knowledge and skills to the food and liquor producing sector.
The highest authority in the SETA is the council consisting of nominees (50% employers and 50% union representation) of industries. The council consists of various chambers serving the various manufacturing/producing sectors. The liquor industry is represented by the Beverage Chamber. The Beverage Chamber represents ca 26 000 employees of the spirit, wine and malt industries, alcoholic fruit juices, cold drinks, mineral water and fruit juices.
The role and responsibilities of all SETAs are regulated by the 1998 Skills Development Act and may be summarised as follows:
1. Sector Skills Plan (SSP): The development of an SSP that falls within the national skills development which attempts to identify skills deficits in order to equip South Africa with skills to be globally competitive while simultaneously enabling individual development. The plan is implemented by developing and managing learnerships, approving skills plans for the work place, allocating financial grants to employers, training providers and workers and monitoring education and training.
2. Learnerships and Skills Programmes: The purpose of learnerships is to develop more competent persons, because competent persons are better employees. A learnership is a training programme that combines the theoretical knowledge, provided by training providers, with relevant work place experience under the guidance of a mentor. Although learnerships have cost implications for an employer, there are various financial grants or incentives whereby a portion of the SETA levies paid to the SARS may be channelled back to the employer. The SETAs promote learnerships by identifying work places for practical experience, by supporting the development of study aids, by improving the facilitation of learning and by assisting with learnership agreements between employers, employees, unemployed and training providers. Skills programmes consist of a collection of unit standards that equip a learner to perform a specific task or a skill that may result in employment. Skills programmes may consist of any unit standards registered in the National Quality Framework (NQF). Following a request by employers or industries to the SETA, skills programmes to nurture specific skills are developed. Several registered learnerships address training requirements in the wine industry, for example qualifications in wine production, packaging, management in the wine industry, etc.
3. Quality Assurance: SETAs have to implement quality assurance practices to ensure that all training for which it is responsible complies with the required standards by ensuring, inter alia, that training providers are qualified and that the assessment of learners is executed correctly. In this regard the FoodBev SETA has been accredited by SAQA (South African Quality Authority) as an Education and Training Quality Assurance Body (ETQA). The following functions are performed:
The wine industry is currently represented by Barry Matthews of KWV on the FoodBev SETA Council and Charl Theron on the SGB.
For more information about the FoodBev SETA visit the website www.foodbev.co.za or contact Liezl Gerryts at liezlg@foodbev.co.za.
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