Training to standards up to standard?

This is a fundamentally important finding because it indicates that, across the seven years since the first measure was taken, enterprises increased their allocation of resources to training beyond the 1% levy of payroll stipulated in the legislation.

Table 1: Training expenditure as a percentage of payroll by year

Source: South African National Skills Survey (2007)

It is especially encouraging to see that by 2007, small and medium enterprises raised their expenditure quite substantially above the stipulated 1% of payroll. Large enterprises sustained a slower growth rate but nevertheless, in 2007 were investing in training at nearly three times the base rate enforced by the training levy.

Although this training expenditure trajectory is reassuring, it must be considered in relation to other indicators to obtain a more nuanced understanding of the nature of training undertaken in 2007. What the South African National Skills Survey of 2007 (NSS2007) data tells us is that training expenditure increased by 42.9% between 2003 and 2007. The proportion of the workforce that was exposed to training rose from 24% in 2003 to 53% in 2007, which reflects a 120% increase. The proportion of workers trained increased faster than did training expenditure after 2003, which implies that more training was generated at a lower cost in 2007.

Training expenditure and payroll

Training expenditure as a proportion of payroll is influenced by workforce size, wage rates and the occupational structure of sectors and enterprises. As a percentage-based indicator, it cannot reveal changes in real expenditure per worker receiving training. For comparative purposes, the 2002/03 expenditure per trained worker was recalculated (assuming average 5% inflation between 2003 and 2007) to a 2006/7 rand equivalent. Three features stand out:

• The 2003 situation where medium-sized enterprises generated a higher expenditure ratio per trained worker than large enterprises was turned around. Thus in 2007, the common international pattern for training expenditure to rise with increased enterprise size was reasserted among South African enterprises.
• In real terms the expenditure of small and medium enterprises per trained employee decreased in the period between 2003 and 2007.
• Across the entire South African workforce the average expenditure per worker increased by 30% over the four year period.

 
Table 2: Comparison of average expenditure (in ZAR) on training per trained employee, 2002/03 and 2006/07 

This reinforces the conclusion that, on aggregate, the training rate more than doubled between 2003 and 2007, while training expenditure increased much more slowly. Thus, access to training increased, but this did not coincide with an equivalent increase in expenditure.

More training, less expensive

How did training exposure significantly increase despite a much smaller increment in training investment? And what was the impact on the nature of training and training quality?

In respect of the first question, enterprises could have increased training provision through implementing less expensive training strategies. This could be reflected in emphasising different training methodologies (e.g. less person-to-person training and more use of distance learning), providing training in different skills sets (e.g. offering more basic training in Basic First Aid or HIV prevention to employees rather than training that requires special facilities and that is skills intensive such as certain forms of technical training), or sourcing lower quality programmes provided by lower quality training providers.

Given that the numbers trained increased substantially, a slower rate of increase in the per capita expenditure on training could also have been achieved through leveraging efficiency from training systems, and economies of scale in the delivery of training. Competition between providers of particular types of training may also have driven prices down. The supply side of the training delivery system clearly deserves further investigation.

Training quality

Turning to the second question: What was the impact of a relative decline in expenditure on the nature of training and training quality? Given that training access rapidly expanded in the 2003 to 2007 period, it is vital to consider how much of this increase in training was linked to international or local standards.

Training according to standards is a measure of quality of training. ‘Standards' imply the application of some kind of formal assessment to the achievement of learning outcomes and the quality of those outcomes. In the NSS2003 and 2007, a measure of training against standards was derived by calculating the number of employees engaged in training according to standards as a proportion of all those trained. For the purposes of this discussion, we do not distinguish between the various types of standards (e.g. South African standards such as SAQA/NQF or international standards such as City and Guilds).

Between 2002/03 and 2006/07, there was minimal change in the percentage of permanent employees trained to standards from 30% to 31% respectively. However this achievement must be seen in the context of a substantial increase in the total numbers trained. In 2003, we estimate that 217 106 workers were trained to standards out of a total of 723 290 who received some training. By 2007, an estimated 514 730 (*1) workers were trained to standards out of a total of 1 682 497 who received some training. The number of workers trained to standards increased by 137% while the total numbers trained increased by 133%.

Despite the fact that the increase in the number of employees trained according to standards between 2003 and 2007 was very substantial, the proportion trained to standards did not increase. Could the achievement of 514 730 workers completing training to standards have been higher?

The application of quality standards is important especially in a system undergoing rapid expansion. The large majority - 69% - of workers trained were not catered for in accredited training programmes. If training to standards is an important means of ensuring quality of training programmes, then much more needs to be done to make standards-based training programmes more accessible to employers. This objective is extremely important since without raising access to standards-based programmes, there is a risk that investment by enterprises in training that is not secured to a quality-based standard may be jeopardised by poor quality. Questions regarding the overall quality of training in South African workplaces are therefore very relevant. Given that the proportion of training to standards has not advanced, we must ask whether this reflects a constraint on the supply side where training service providers are not geared up to provide more standards based opportunities, or whether enterprise demand is not forthcoming. 

  *1 A certain proportion of those receiving training according to standards would have participated in programmes that ran over more than one year. Therefore, the total of those completing a structured learning programme in 2006/07 for instance would have been less than the 514 730 recorded as being engaged in structured learning.