PMI was contracted to deliver 10 days of contact centre skills training and 10 days of coaching in a simulated call centre environment to 150 learners in Gauteng, participants in a 90 day work readiness programme.

The bridging programme, or youth employment accelerator, is designed to offer a solution to the cycle of unemployment that the youth of South Africa find themselves in – they can’t find a job or the job they want because they don’t have the level of skill or experience that the labour market demands.

Context

It has been reported that some two out of three South Africans between the ages of 18 and 24 are unemployed.  That is approximately two million young people that don’t have jobs – mainly because they are inexperienced and unskilled.  They are also unlikely to find employment easily because businesses increasingly need skilled workers more than unskilled workers. To make matters worse our education programmes in South Africa have not always met workplace or business needs.

Employers essentially want to employ people who already have skills in the important areas of:

• Teamwork
• Oral communication
• Reading comprehension
• Numeracy
• Customer service
• Administration
• Basic technology  and data capturing
• Problem solving and decision-making

The 90 day bridging programme is a business initiative to help solve the above problem by sourcing, training and retaining staff in entry level jobs. Research shows that an individual, who remains in full time employment for 12 months or more, has an 85% chance of being employed for the rest of their lives.

PMI – one of three providers contracted – is responsible for the industry knowledge and functional skills development aspect (delivered over 20 days) of the bridging programme.

Curriculum

The curriculum for the 20 days is generic to the world of business and contact centre environments and includes workshops on:

• The world of business in general
• The contact centre environment
• Me as a contact centre team player
• Performance management Slides
• Data management
• Customers and their satisfaction
• Customers and their satisfaction
• In-bound and outbound operations
• Inbound and outbound operations
• Personal workplace development
• Personal workplace development
• Sales scenarios in the simulation
• Service scenarios in the simulation

Workshops are learner-centred with the facilitator assisting the learner to achieve the specific theoretical outcomes mainly through discussion, games or activities, and reflection.

In the simulation environment, participants obtain repetitive practice in handling realistic queries, requests, objections, and complaints, and they benefit from feedback from their coaches as well as colleagues. It is truly a joy to see how participants develop during the 10 days of simulation and to see how determined they are to master the contact centre technology and skills sets.  For many of the participants their experience in the simulation was one of the highlights of the programme.

Facilitators

The facilitators and coaches (12 in total) have been chosen based on their unique combination of skills – as educators/trainers, as previously employed contact centre agents, and as managers. They are also all currently on a New Venture Qualification and are being guided and mentored by Prior Learning centre in the establishment of their own training and RPL assessment agencies. As such they are able to share very real workplace experiences with their learners as well as empathy, compassion and optimism.

Here is what two facilitators have had to say about their experience working with their learners and which elegantly illustrates the sentiments of everyone on the team:

“My experience (with the participants and as a facilitator) is like being a painter having to paint a masterpiece, I was given moulding clay to mould a perfect sculpture, but this time I was working with a soul, a life ….. I had 22 lives in my hands and that was a blessing.  I wouldn’t trade the feeling I had ……. for any other project in a life time”.

“The amount of growth and development I witnessed in such a short period is remarkable but what is more amazing is seeing some of the participants realise their own potential.”

Participant demographics:

• 18-24 year olds with Matric
• Schooled in previously disadvantaged areas
• Employment would have large impact on family / household
• No prior long term permanent employment

Conclusion

The programme that started in January and finished in April succeeded in graduating 144 people and finding all of them job placements with well-known and highly rated companies.

This business intuitive has succeeded in finding a way to provide a pool of our unemployed youth with a sense of self-worth, and the knowledge and skills to increase their employability and productivity.

Employers have an important role to play in tackling the issues of job creation and unemployment.  The programme has demonstrated this and it has demonstrated that there are employers in South Africa who also have the desire to do so.

We are very proud of you all!

 ‘Multichoice has worked closely with PMI in partnership with Prior Learning Centre
who has delivered the RPL program to our call centre agents. The outcome of this
program recognizes the agents’ current skills and competencies in accordance with
the relevant Contact Centre qualification.

In addition to this, Multichoice has partnered with PMI on the Monyetla Project
where the Contact Centre qualification was delivered to forty-eight (48) learners
they were able to exit with 60 credits.

PMI provided Multichoice with excellent support during this project and was a
driving force behind the success of the program. The support included managing
milestones and POE submissions from each learner.

We have always been invited to partner with PMI with regards to the learning and
support of our employees and PMI have achieved this through their strategic goals
and initiatives.

Multichoice is looking forward to continue working closely with PMI in the future.

Regards

Morongoa Mminele

Skills Development Facilitator’

‘Merchants have worked closely with PMI in partnership with Prior Learnging Centre who have delivered the RPL program to our call centre agents. The outcome of this program recognises the agents current skills and competencies in accordance with the relevant Contact Centre qualification.

In addition to this, Merchants has partnered with PMI on the Monyetla Project where the  Contact Centre qualification was delivered to 60 learners nationally. We have had a 95% competency rate and the learners were able to exit with 60 credits on the funded project.

During these projects, PMI provided Merchants with excellent support and was a driving force behind the success of the program. The support included managing milestones and POE submissions from each learner.

The learning has always been linked to our business drivers within the call centre. We have undergone a study which proves that learners on the RPL learning project are retained longer, have fewer diciplinary records and improved productivty as compared to those who are not on the RPL learning project,

Yours sincerely

Magan Kistan

Merchants – A Dimension Data Company’

Workplace demands and closer links between government and business are essential if skills development and job creation projects in South Africa are to have an impact.

This view was expressed by John Botha, executive director for strategy at Production Management Institute (PMI) in a briefing this morning to the Adcorp Holdings executive on the Green Paper released by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) last month.

“The widely-held perception that a matric certificate is the definitive school-leaving qualification, and when combined with a first degree, guarantees an individual a job, is highly erroneous,” said Botha.

“Such misperception around ‘matric plus degree’ as the ultimate qualification is not only out of sync with what business and industry desperately needed from South Africa’s education system and is simply not sustainable.”

While Botha applauded the spirit of the Green Paper in its bid to address major policy and systemic flaws within the post-school education and training system, Botha said that there was a blatant absence in the document of clear policy around demand-driven skills development.

“We need high level integration of all South Africa’s multiple programmes, policies and strategies as every one of these feed in some way into national development goals,” said Botha.

Botha went on to share his vision for an integrated national human capital plan for South Africa, which would serve as a considered, strategic intervention to achieve an education and training system closely aligned to the real demands of the economy.

“Government needs to acknowledge that an integrated national human capital plan that speaks to the demands of the workplace for South Africa is pressing. In turn, it must allocate responsibility to an appropriate ministry for fully developing this plan,” said Botha.

“The plan should address the full cycle of the human capital value chain: early childhood development; general education and training; further education and training; higher education and training; and then through to semi-skilled workers (employed or unemployed); skilled/technical staff; skilled junior management; middle management; senior management; and top management.

“In turn, it must then have quantitative targets per year across all these levels,” said Botha.

Botha said that programmes like the National Skills Development Strategy 3 (NSDS3), the Human Resource Development Strategy South Africa (HRDS-SA), the New Growth Path (NGP), the National Development Plan (NDP), the Artisan Development Technical Task Team (ADTTT), and others, have their own targets already, and all of these targets and goals should be incorporated into and aligned to one overall plan.

“Critically, government will need to appropriate responsibility between institutions and social partners to generate these competencies.”

Botha said he was fully confident of the huge value that this coordinated, demand-driven strategy, coupled with appropriate funding mechanisms, would bring.

He said that relevant skills would see:

• Less vulnerability to unemployment;
• More experiential employment and career development opportunities; and
• Greater domestic demand and more competitive exports.

“Resultant economic growth and therefore a decrease in poverty and inequality would naturally follow on.”

Meanwhile, Botha emphasized the urgency of fast-tracking initiatives that could take place in the short-term. He said the process ‘from Green Paper to Policy’ would no doubt be protracted.

“We urgently need to see the release of funds from the Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) and the National Skills Fund (NSF) so that public and private providers can get going. The Minister of Higher Education and Training has acknowledged in the Green Paper that the levy-grant institutions (the SETAs and NSF) are poorly coordinated and that very little of the skills-levy funding has been used to pay for education in the public universities and colleges.”

He stressed the crucial role that public-private partnerships around skills development and job creation could, but were not, playing.

“Lip-service is being paid to notions of how the private and public sector in the education and training space could work together, but there is very little that is meaningful happening on the ground.

“This is highly regrettable, as private public partnerships or PPPs have the potential to make a massive contribution to addressing the dearth of relevant skills in our economy. After all, the private sector knows what business needs.”

Botha commended the Green Paper’s emphasis on:

• Addressing the plight of the three million young people between the ages of 18 and 24 currently not accommodated in either the education and training system or the labour market;
• Expanding the development of artisanal and other mid-level skills for the economy, mainly through public FET colleges;
• Improving the performance of the SETAs;
• Simplifying the regulatory system of the post-school education and training environment; and
• Building coherence within the post-school system as a whole.

Botha concluded by saying: “Our youngsters need clear and accurate information about the different learning options they can pursue when entering the Further Education and Training (FET) band of education at the end of Grade 9.

“For example, learners need to know that they can exit the schooling system at the end of Grade 9, enter an FET college and exit three years later with a National Certificate Vocational.

“A lot more work needs to be done to market FET colleges as institutions of choice.”

Tell us a little about your history within the Adcorp Group.

My first job after my studies was as a receptionist / recruitment consultant at Quest Staffing Solutions (then Quest Personnel) in 1984. I stayed with Quest and was promoted within the business. Before I left Quest I was appointed as regional manager for KZN and then general manager of the Quest Learning Institute in which role I managed one of the first ever learnerships for the company, a project involving more than 1800 learners.

How did you arrive at PMI?

Adcorp wanted to commercialise the learnership model and implement it across all Adcorp businesses, therefore the Quest Learning Institute was integrated into PMI.

What do you find most rewarding and most challenging in your role as management executive of PMI commercial?

I love the variety my role offers, I enjoy the strategic consulting with clients and the solution development gives my creative and conceptual talent expression.
I enjoy the operational side of staff management the least.

What do you believe the answer to South Africa’s skills shortage is?

The basic education system is not setting an adequate foundation for learners to fully benefit from the importance of vocational learning. Basic literacy and numeracy skills are exceptionally low and this creates the need for significant bridging on numeracy and literacy training before the full benefits of vocational training can be realised.

What is the biggest difference PMI is making?

We transform the lives of the disadvantaged and provide hope and a belief in the future.

What do you believe are the PMI highlights of 2011?

• Change in leadership of the blue collar RPL,
• Internal restructuring to inculcate a more performance driven culture,
• The incorporation of Prior Learning Institute and in so doing, the establishment of our very own Academic Centre of Excellence.

What does 2012 hold?

• Greater economies of scale,
• Improved training for our internal staff and
• Continued growth within our market sectors.
• Quality!!!

What are your festive season plans?

My family, close friends and I are going to the north coast (where there is no cellphone coverage) for some sun and fun.  This is my favourite local holiday destination.

• General and Further Education and Training (GET and FET)
• Higher Education (HET)
• Trades and Occupations (TO)

These councils will develop qualifications and in consultation with SAQA, develop criteria for the registration of their qualifications and qualification types by SAQA.

The new framework has nine qualification types mapped out onto the NQF Levels 5 – 10.
Undergraduate qualifications include: Higher Certificates; Advanced Certificates; Diplomas; Advanced Diplomas and Bachelor’s Degrees.

Postgraduate qualifications include: Postgraduate Diplomas; Bachelor Honours Degrees; Master’s Degree and Doctoral Degrees.

The implementation of the new NQF is the responsibility of the Council on Higher Education and this process was started in 2011. This process requires that all higher education institutions assess their current qualifications and re-align them to the new NQF.

PMI has already commenced with this and we are planning to use this as an opportunity for growth and to extend the number of accredited HE qualifications that we offer. Our first application for accreditation for a Higher Certificate has already been submitted to the CHE for accreditation.

PMI is in the business of knowledge, enlightening clients by sharing expertise and experience within the field of human capital development. PMI strategises, implements and manages solutions that create skills that empower individuals and businesses to continuously improve performance, productivity and profitability.

To ensure that PMI not only facilitates this growth and sustainability within our clients’ environments but also experiences the same within our own organisation, we have formalised a strategic partnership with a customer service specialist. This partnership enables us to measure, research and strategise solutions around our client service based on current insight into the key aspects underpinning our service levels.

Every month various PMI clients across all services and industries nationwide are questioned on the following key customer service drivers:

• Appreciation
• Competence
• Empathy
• Knowledge
• Partnership
• Proactivity
• Reliability
• Responsiveness
• Trustworthiness
• Value

The accumulative score for the above is then calculated to determine our overall client service index (CSI). These individual scores, the CSI, the client feedback and the researchers’ comments and observations equip PMI with the knowledge required to guide operational, service and strategic improvements and new developments.

“Our CSI for November 2011 is 87%, consistent with the previous month’s 91% and an improvement on August’s 68% and September’s 79%,” says Kim Smallie, managing executive of PMI Industrial. “We appreciate our clients willingness and enthusiasm to participate in these surveys and assure them that the data collected is put to excellent use.”

Some of the highlights in our November report include a score of 100% for Value and 92% for Trustworthiness, Appreciation, Responsiveness and Proactivity.

One of the PMI clients surveyed this month was Rhona Wolmarans of Altech, whose comment in response to the evaluation of Partnership was: “ PMI are true, genuine partners. All of their efforts have proven that they see the bigger picture and they have integrated themselves into our business.”

“We appreciate that our clients’ needs are every-changing and that our services and service levels need to proactively respond to these needs. The insight gathered in our monthly clients satisfaction surveys and our holistic key account management give us immediate access to these realities. This ensures that the quality we invest in our services is the quality our clients get out,” concludes Kim Smallie.

South Africa’s Further Education and Training (FET) system is better placed than ever to put state funds to good use and accelerate the delivery of critical middle-level skills – especially artisans – into the economy.

John Botha, PMI”s director of sales & strategy, says that with the overhaul of the FET college sector and of Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) over the past year, areas where interventions are most required have been identified.

“There is therefore no reason why the R9,5 billion allocated to FET colleges and skills development by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan in his medium-term budget last week cannot be immediately allocated and spent.”

“The FET college sector is geared to provide the theoretical qualification component of artisan – as well as other occupational training – requirements, and the framework for the creation of a single, cross-sectoral artisan training system is now in place.”

“The gaps and the needs across the system are clear,” says Botha.

This improved ‘status quo’ in the FET landscape can be attributed to two key DHET developments:

• firstly, the shift of FET college management from regional to national government, coupled with interventions to ensure that FET colleges offer full qualifications that are integrated with both the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) and general and higher education, and that are aligned to both industry and the SETAs; and
• secondly, the incorporation of SETAs into the DHET followed by a restructure of the SETA landscape and then radical improvements to SETA constitutions and governance structures.

SETA boards are far more capacitated than before – they are stronger, have independent chairpersons and better business, government and labour representation.

In establishing a standardised national artisan training infrastructure, the DHET will do away with sector-specific programmes and with SETA-issued certificates of competence.

Meanwhile the interventions required at FET colleges are all set for investment and mobilisation. “The sooner they are implemented, the sooner we will see improvements in programme quality, more enrolments of youths and adults and better qualified teaching staff.”

We applaud the introduction of the Artisan Development Technical Task Team (ADTTT), the National Artisan Moderating Body (NAMB) and the Ministerial Task Team charged with improving SETA performance. These three agents will be central in creating a standardised and sustainable apprenticeship-based artisan development programme.

“Government’s target of 50 000 artisans by 2014/15 may still be somewhat ambitious, but we have certainly come a long way in setting the scene for a serious injection of artisans and other critical middle-level skills into the workplace.”

Meanwhile, business, government and labour have committed to training 30 000 new artisans following the recent signing of the National Skills Accord (NSA). Of this figure, 13% is to come from state-owned companies, 31% from government and the majority – 56% – from business.

As part of the NSA, private companies have committed to increasing their training spend to well over the compulsory 1%-of-payroll training levy, a significant proportion of which will be steered towards the FET colleges.

Of course, there is much work to be done by all stakeholders, but it will be interesting to assess the impact that these measures have on boosting South Africa’s current output of 5 600 qualified artisans annually to the target of 12 500.

We emphasise the importance of the artisan-technician-engineer ratios set by industry which he says are crucial for planning around higher-levels skills. It is currently anticipated that for every eight artisans that qualify, three will become technicians and one will become an engineer.

“This overall progress around middle-level skills development feeds directly into the New Growth Path (NGP) and its manufacturing enabler, the Industrial Policy Action Plan 2 (IPAP2), as well as the National Skills Development Strategy III (NSDS III) and the Human Resource Development Strategy of South Africa (HRDSA).”

PMI currently trains about 5% of the national artisan output.

In 2011, PMI expects to produce in the region of 1 500 qualified artisans.

“As a result, corporate South Africa is turning to its own training academies to develop the skills it needs,” he says, citing Standard Bank’s Global Leadership Centre, the Tiger Brands Training Academy, the Altech Academy and Adcorp’s recently-launched Leadership Academy as examples.
“Here, training is taking place according to the demands and the strategic objectives of the business.”
“The work that is also being done by business to develop leadership skills should not be overlooked. Despite the national emphasis on succession plans and sustainability, the fact is that lack of leadership threatens the sustainability of both public and private sector organisations.”
Botha says the progress around engineering skills training in South Africa presents a model that higher education should aim to replicate across all disciplines.
“The gaps were defined and structures were put into place to close those gaps. In this way, a comprehensive training system for engineering artisans, as well as technicians and engineers, was established, with the Artisan Development Technical Task Team (ADTTT) playing a major role in this achievement.
“Further Education and Training (FET) colleges and Universities of Technology (UoT) delivering qualifications at NQF levels 4 and 5 are generally better aligned to industry. The further up the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) we go, the less relevant the qualifications seem to be,” says Botha.
“Universities offer programmes that are generated by academics and have no meaningful bearing on the needs of employers. This production of generic qualifications may produce graduates with basic knowledge but does not produce potential employees with the attributes that are relevant to industry.”
Consequently, says Botha, business is reticent to employ new graduates because the qualifications they present do not indicate competence.
“Employers want to know how a candidate will apply the knowledge that their qualification suggests he or she has; how a candidate will manifest her skills in the workplace.
“PMI has introduced the Integrated Application Project (IAP) into all its training. The IAP is a real-scenario case study prepared by the learner-employee and signed off by his or her manager as part of a formal process. The IAP demonstrates how the employee has applied theoretical learning and delivered value to the business.
“At a graduation ceremony last week, we conferred qualifications on over 200 graduates from a range of different companies. Every graduate walked away with their certificate as well as their IAP, making their qualification 100% portable.”
Botha concedes that business schools at universities are playing an important role in higher skills and leadership development.
“However, typically, the relationship remains between the individual and the university, yet what we need are partnerships on a large scale – between a university and a business, or business sector, or professional association.
“On Sunday the higher education and training department announced a partnership between national treasury, the South African Institute for Chartered Accountants (SAICA) and a number of municipalities around training mid-level financial administrators in municipalities. This is the kind of intervention we need to see taking place at higher education levels and across different sectors.”
Botha says measurement and monitoring of higher education skills in South Africa is also not taking place in the way that it should be.
“The National Learners’ Records Database (NLRD) –the electronic management information system for education – should be answering many more questions than it currently is. Big questions like: ‘how many chemical engineers or how many call centre operators do we have in South Africa right now?’ cannot be answered, and that is a problem from the national planning perspective. Effectively, we are planning in the dark.”
Botha adds that the lack of readily-available information on skills in South Africa is a deterrent for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
“An international investor simply cannot establish what kinds and levels of skills the South African labour market offers.”