#NQFCONF
#NQFCONF
Meryl Plasket and Atul Padalkar
NQF Research Conference4 – 6 March 2013
CHIETA, The Catalyst for Enhanced Skills, Economic Growth and Employability
Future Skill Needs of the Chemical Sector with reference to the Green
Economy
• CHIETA research context• Purpose of the study• Context of the research• Key questions• Objectives• Hypothesis• Limitations• Rationale• Literature Review• Research methodology• Potential outputs• Concrete use of the study
CHIETA, The Catalyst for Enhanced Skills, Economic Growth and Employability
Outline
• Skills Development Act (SDA) - an institutional framework to devise and implement national, sector and workplace strategies to develop and improve the workforce ….
• Core function of SETAs is to develop and implement a Sector Skills Plan (SSP) within the framework of the National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS)
• NSDS III Goal 1: Establish a credible institutional mechanism for skills planning
CHIETA, The Catalyst for Enhanced Skills, Economic Growth and Employability
CHIETA research context
• Have a thorough, in-depth understanding of labour market issues in the sector, in order to add value to stakeholders and remain relevant to skills development issues
• Ensure that SETAs are backed by both employers and workers
• Be acknowledged as a credible and authoritative voice on skills in the sector
• Promote a closer match between demand and supply side information
CHIETA, The Catalyst for Enhanced Skills, Economic Growth and Employability
NSDS III
Research Driven Skills Development
CHIETA, The Catalyst for Enhanced Skills, Economic Growth and Employability
Purpose of the study
The Purpose of the Study is to identify the Future Skills needs of the Chemical Industries Sector with reference to the Green Economy.
• In the Chemical Industry, there is higher emphasis on environmentally friendly processes and products
• Requires better understanding of “Green”
• Require a whole range of new skills in the next 3-5 years in response to the needs of the Green Economy
CHIETA, The Catalyst for Enhanced Skills, Economic Growth and Employability
Context of the study
• How does the ‘Green’ agenda affect the Chemical Sector?
• What impact is it likely to have on future industry / market trends?
• What implication is it expected to have on the skills requirements/components of present jobs?
• What new jobs / roles is the ‘Green’ agenda likely to create in the Chemical Sector?
• What is expected to be the extent of such skills needs?
CHIETA, The Catalyst for Enhanced Skills, Economic Growth and Employability
Key questions
Overall objective: To identify the future skill needs of the Chemicals Sector with reference to the Green Economy.Sub-objectives:1.To determine the nature of changes likely to impact the Chemical Sector due to the Green Economy. 2.To determine how skill needs of present jobs will change due to the Green Economy 3.To determine new skills required for future jobs. 4.To estimate the extent of such new skills required in the future
CHIETA, The Catalyst for Enhanced Skills, Economic Growth and Employability
Objectives of the study
The growing importance of the Green Economy will impact the skills composition of present jobs and will lead to the creation of new jobs.
CHIETA, The Catalyst for Enhanced Skills, Economic Growth and Employability
Hypothesis
• While the impact of the Green Economy will be felt across several sectors, the present study will be limited to the Chemicals Sector only.
• Limited to Levy Paying members of the CHIETA
• Focus will be KZN. However, specific industries in rest of the country will be also included based on their strategic importance
CHIETA, The Catalyst for Enhanced Skills, Economic Growth and Employability
Limitations
• NB of Green Economy increases, impacts processes, requires new skills
• Need to be pro-active
• Study aims to improve the understanding of these skills needs with specific reference to the Chemical Sector
• Findings will enable timely development of such skills
CHIETA, The Catalyst for Enhanced Skills, Economic Growth and Employability
Rationale
• While anticipating skill needs for the low carbon economy is complex, and poses significant challenges in South Africa, there is an urgent need to identify the Future Skills of the Chemical Sector in the context of the Green Economy
• Difficulties with definitions of occupations and sectors, shortcomings in statistics, problems with defining a green job, and differences in the dynamics of employment in different types of green activity must be targeted for further research. Collaboration between governments employers and workers’ organisations, contributes to the identification of the right issues to research
CHIETA, The Catalyst for Enhanced Skills, Economic Growth and Employability
Literature Review
The Research Project will be driven through the Project Steering Committee (PSC) chaired by CHIETA.
The project will have the involvement of DUT and UKZN.
CHIETA, The Catalyst for Enhanced Skills, Economic Growth and Employability
Project Steering Committee
• Mainly quantitative, supported with qualitative inputs
• A judgemental convenience sampling approach
• The population consists will be determined as the levy paying members of the CHIETA in KZN
• Focus will be on the top 80% cumulative employment contributor organisations submitting WSP-ATRs
• Sampling will ensure firms are represented across sub-sectors and size from the Universe
CHIETA, The Catalyst for Enhanced Skills, Economic Growth and Employability
Research type
• Commence with in depth interviews of key CHIETA staff and Industry representatives using a discussion guide
• Analysis of In-depth interviews will assist in questionnaire design
• Draft questionnaire piloted and data capturing framework setup
• Method of despatch and collection: electronic
• DUT students will be involved in the data collection.
CHIETA, The Catalyst for Enhanced Skills, Economic Growth and Employability
Data collection
Preliminary analysis conducted using online research software
Further analysis will be conducted using SPSS
A Bi-Variate analysis will be conducted where the two variables are: a.Changes in Present Jobs as the Independent Variable and b.New Jobs created as the Dependent Variable
CHIETA, The Catalyst for Enhanced Skills, Economic Growth and Employability
Analysis
CHIETA, The Catalyst for Enhanced Skills, Economic Growth and Employability
Reporting
• Presentation of findings and findings
• Engagement with stakeholders
• Project close out- August 2013
a) Present overview and trends of how the Green Economy is impacting the Chemical Sector.
b) Determine the specific skills required to perform present jobs functions in the context of the Green Economy. Gaps will be determined.
c) Determine the new roles / jobs arising from the Green Economy and the skills required to perform them. Gaps will be determined.
d) Estimate the overall extent of the skills gap and guide the development of skills in the Chemical Sector to address the requirements of the Green Economy.
e) The project has the potential to produce Conference Papers at suitable forums. An extension into development of academic Journal articles may also be considered
f) Could lead to the development of institutional capacity
CHIETA, The Catalyst for Enhanced Skills, Economic Growth and Employability
Potential impact
Tomorrow belongs to those who prepare themselves
today
• Lay the basis for stakeholder engagements on green skills – within and beyond sector
• Feed into Sector Skills Plan Update processes and strategic plan
• Basis for the development of an implementation plan on green skills in the sector
• Feed into the 2013 update of chemical sector occupational profiles ( CHIETA Occupational dictionary)
• Inform CHIETA submission to DHET on OFO update
• Possibly identify further research needs
CHIETA, The Catalyst for Enhanced Skills, Economic Growth and Employability
Concrete use of the study
Meryl PlasketCHIETA: Research and Skills Planning
Atul PadalkarDr Padalkar’s Research Resources [email protected]
CHIETA, The Catalyst for Enhanced Skills, Economic Growth and Employability
Thank you for the opportunity !