Introduction
'SETA' stands for Sector Education and Training Authority. SETA's are organisations established to facilitate skills development in specific economic sectors by ensuring access to skills development opportunities to those individuals employed in those sectors, or those wanting to be employed in those specific sectors. There are at present 21 SETAs operational in South Africa.
The Fibre Processing and Manufacturing Sector Education and Training Authority (FP&M SETA) was established by the Minister of Higher Education and Training on 1 April 2011 after government took a decision to cluster sectors in order to strengthen value-chain linkages between related industries. The FP&M SETA mandate is:
- to provide skills development services to the Clothing, Footwear, Forestry, Furniture, General Goods, Leather, Packaging, Printing, Publishing, Pulp and Paper, Textiles and Wood Products sectors; and
- to implement the objectives of the National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS III) and to ensure that people obtain the critical or scarce skills that are needed to build the capacity of the sector to become economically sustainable and globally completive.
The intention of NSDS III is to -
- increase access to training and skills development opportunities;
- transform inequities linked to class, race, gender, age and disability;
- address the challenges of skills shortages and mismatches;
- improve productivity in the economy; and
- Increase the focus on skills development linked to rural development
The value added by SETAs is their understanding of labour market issues in their respective industrial and economic sectors. SETA's must 'create interventions and shape solutions that address skills needs within their sectors'
Central to the objectives of the NSDS III is improved placement of both students and graduates, especially from the FET colleges and universities of technology. There is no value in training people if they are not given the opportunity to apply the skills they have learnt in the workplace.
But skills development is not just for young people starting their first jobs - the skills of people already in jobs must also be enhanced. NSDS III also encourages the training of employed workers in order to improve overall productivity and to address skills imbalances within the workforce and the labour market.
For more information on the FP&M SETA, our vision and mission, our structure, scope of coverage and learning opportunities in the FP&M Sector, click here to download the THE FP&M SETA GENERAL INFORMATION BOOKLET
Additional documents for download: