TRIPLE E TRAINING HOLDINGS

EDTP ensures quality education in South Africa. Genuine educational equity requires that students in primary and high schools study with teachers who educate by example as well as direct instruction; students long for teachers who look and sound like them, who understand their cultural norms, and can lead them to higher education and into the corridors of power. Ideally, ethnic, linguistic, and socio-cultural diversity in the educational community would mirror the nations.,but achievement of that ideal depends upon assuring disadvantaged youth and adults access to teaching positions through non-traditional career paths.
In South Africa, teaching certification requires a Bachelor’s Degree and a year of pre-service training beyond college graduation, but the Education, Training, and Development Practices sector employs para-professionals, early childhood educators, industrial training specialists, and other professionals who conduct the serious business of education outside traditional schoolrooms. ETDP SETA assures these workers meaningful training and access to diverse routes for professional advancement.

Since passage of the South African Skills Development Act of 1998, the nation has developed and implemented one of the worlds most sophisticated and successful workforce development programs. The Skills Development Act addresses two of South Africa ’s priorities: to increase workers’ productivity and morale by developing their basic skills, and to foster development of a more inclusive, cohesive society by correcting educational inequity. The Construction Education and Training Authority in short known as CETA was established to fulfill the Skills Development Act’s noble goals by establishing workforce training programs in the construction trades. CETA translated complex lawmaking language into practical, successful workplace practice and CETA complied with both the spirit and the letter of the legislation, setting and enforcing rigorous testing and high standards for participants in its programs. The South African Qualifications Authority accredited CETA for Education and Training Quality Assurance, giving it power to qualify and monitor the performance of Accredited Training Providers.

South Africa controls the majority of the world’s mineral wealth—90% of its platinum, 80% of its manganese, and half of its gold. The nation’s legendary diamond mines rank fourth among the world’s producers. Mining has always driven the South African economy and mineral exports are crucial to the country’s sustained economic growth. More than 450 000 people mine South Africa ’s minerals and nearly half-a-million more workers provide goods and services for the mining industry. The MQA is a SETA that works specifically to administer as well as assess ABET programs for miners and workers in mining’s allied industries. MQA boasts one of the highest retention and graduation rates among the nation’s SETAs. Developing English-language and mathematics skills, miners have emerged from Earth’s dark caverns to take places among the industry’s leaders because of standards administered in education in the mining industry by MQA.

One of South Africa ’s most important Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs), Bank SETA characterizes itself as an “Investor in People.” Transformation includes promotion of educational, economic, and cultural equity with respect for the value of diversity. People development signifies the wide range of educational programs SETA develops and monitors in concert with its business and educational partners. Bank SETA guarantees courses’ and teachers’ strict compliance with the National Qualifications Framework. Like all other SETAs, Bank SETA does not provide training; instead, it contracts with, certifies, and monitors performance of training providers, who must demonstrate by students’ learning outcomes that they have satisfied Bank SETA’s and NQF’s requirements. Advancing the industry’s position depends on educating and empowering a literate, numerate workforce.

The South African Skills Development Act of 1998, a landmark achievement in the history of educational reform worldwide, mandated creation of Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETA’s) in all the nation’s major industries. Theta, the Tourism, Hospitality, and Sport Education and Training Authority, serves as the SETA for South Africa ’s burgeoning tourist industry. As South African destinations gain popularity, Theta strives to assure that a well-qualified workforce will greet and serve international guests. Theta, fully accredited and authorized to monitor and assess training providers’ performance, assures strict compliance with the strict standards and requirements in the National Qualifications Framework. In collaboration with its business and educational partners, Theta contributes to workers’ acquisition of skills and values employers demand. Theta assures access to training for under-employed workers, young people who cannot secure meaningful work, and older workers who struggle to find their place in both the workforce and society.

The South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA), under the auspices of the Ministers of Education and Labour, supervised development of the National Qualifying Framework, and guided NQF’s implementation. In the early days, SAQA translated the NQF from paper to practice, determining the meaning of “outcomes-based” and “experiential learning.” SAQA also set qualifying standards for accreditation of ABET providers. SAQA also took responsibility for designing, developing, testing, and certifying assessment tools, and it ultimately determined “bodies responsible” for administering and reporting the results of SAQA assessments.
Now, consistent with its mandate and mission, SAQA manages everything necessary for NQF’s success. SAQA determines who is and is not qualified to conduct ABET classes. SAQA also guarantees its qualifying standards are measured and interpreted consistently and equitably across the nation, and it monitors ABET providers’ retention and certification rates, regularly reporting all of its findings to the Ministers.

The ABET success story of PPC shows how effective our training programmes are. PPC Cement, like many other major South African companies, recognized that lack of English-language proficiency among its temporary workers not only took a toll on their productivity and morale but also impeded their advancement to full-time permanent employment. PPC Cement recognized an urgent need for developing literacy skills among disadvantaged members of its community, and it took initiative to remedy the problem. Meeting its own need to recruit and retain skilled workers and the community’s need to lift disadvantaged families out of despair, PPC opened its Ikhwezi ABET classes to local residents. Part of the ABET success story lies in the commitment of the company to be involved in the advancement of their community and worker’s education. PPC Cement invited community learners to volunteer for its Ikhwezi Programme. Demonstrating its commitment to the programme, PPC Cement covered the full cost of tuition and instructional materials for the Learners. Between October 2007, and September 2008, 49 dedicated Learners completed a total of 102 ABET levels, receiving official certification of their qualification.

Triple e Training, dedicated to disadvantaged students’ empowerment, numbers among South Africa’s oldest, most respected, and largest providers of Adult Basic Educational Training. Triple e collaborates with business and industry, designing and developing work-based, results-oriented programs of instruction and experiential learning. Triple e emphasizes responsiveness to each community’s unique needs and expectations, and the company takes great pride in its history of exemplary service to stakeholders and students. Careful selection and training of exceptionally well-qualified, very highly motivated staff and constant assessment of the staff’s performance assure that Triple e meets and exceeds clients’ and students’ highest expectations. Triple e Training’s client list reads like a directory of South Africa’s leading manufacturers and the leaders in all the nation’s industries. With headquarters in Gauteng and regional offices nationwide, Tripe e Training easily can arrange ABET classes on-site, at places convenient to learners, or custom-tailored to a company’s special requirements.

Many industrial nations struggle with “school-to-work transition” issues: graduates of their traditional educational systems have neither skills nor values immediately applicable in the workplace. In South Africa, however, industry leaders and educators have collaborated for more than twenty years, developing a sophisticated system that promotes students’ learning for work. In South African industries, the notion of a school-to-work transition seems as foreign because learning environments have been integrated from students’ first day of class. As they complete ABET learnerships, students are assessed according to the standards and expectations in their industries: skills are introduced in the classroom, and classroom activities support students’ acquisition of new skills, but the skills have meaning and value almost exclusively on the strength of their application in the workplace. Educators describe “outcomes-based” assessments. In ABET learnerships, the phrase means that if you cannot do it at work, you cannot do it.

Designed to guide, complement, and supplement adult learners’ progress through South Africa’s National Qualifying Framework, ABET materials run the scope of educators’ needs. ABET curriculum materials, assessments, and learning resources assure students compliance with the standards of each Learnership. ABET products include awareness campaigns, assessments, individual and group reporting, students’ instructional materials, portfolios, quality assurance tools, and demographic reporting documents. ABET Learnerships provide meaningful opportunities for relatively unskilled workers to advance in their trades and industries, making-up for their lack of formal education. ABET products document learners’ progress through the curriculum; enforcing NQF standards and delivering the outcomes ABET business partners require.Careful examination the ABET products list reveals that curriculum materials represent only about 10% of the products available. ABET products support management, delivery, and documentation of every single ABET requirement.