Presented by Dr Eureta Rosenberg and Ms Vuyo Mofu

Progress Update: Green Skills Research

• Focus: Rhodes – SETA Collaborations

• History

• CATHSSETA supported studies

• MQA supported study

• Some findings

CONTENTS

Progress Update: Green Skills Research

Presented by Dr Eureta Rosenberg, Rhodes

Associate and Ms Vuyo Mofu, MQA

Day 1 | 3 March 2015

If we don’t know what they are?

How can we produce the skills we need ....

Background

• Rhodes University Environmental Learning Research Centre

• Historically strong in teacher education research and qualitative research

• In 2009 engaged by DEA for the Environmental Sector Skills Plan (ESSP)

• In parallel with development of the Biodiversity Human Capital Development

Strategy (SANBI & Lewis Foundation, 2009)

CATHSSETA Biodiversity HCD Research Project

• Building a cadre of HCD skills specialists to seed the expansion of HCD

expertise into sector organisations and universities, and, through their

research:

• Refine and develop new research methods for sector skills information, that

can then be used on an ongoing basis by service providers

• Develop baselines or updates on current information

• Study issues that are bottlenecks in our understanding

• Evaluate pilot skills initiatives to inform further rollout, adaption or step-

changes

• Produce practical reports

• Strengthen recognised centers of expertise in biodiversity HCD.

Example 1: Supply & Demand Alignment

• Researcher: Leanne McKrill

• Supervisor: Prof Heila Lotz-Sisitka

• Funded by: CATHSSETA

• Status: M.Ed. Completed• Focus: Employers say skills are scarce, and students say

they cannot find work – Why? Investigation of two ‘scarce skill’ occupations: Wildlife Vets and Wetland Ecologists

• Findings: Mentors are key enabling factors who help individuals to find opportunities to gain workplace experience and to network within the industry.

Of concern is that two top university programmes providing freshwater ecologists have closed down.

• A PHOTOGRAPH OF THE RESEARCHER IN THE FIELD IF POSSIBLE

Example 2: Black Women in Post-Grad

• Researcher: Aphiwe Dotwana

• Supervisor: Prof Heila Lotz-Sisitka

• Funded by: CATHSSETA

• Status: M.Ed. Completed• Focus: A disproportionate number of black female

Honours students in the Life Sciences do not transition from Honours to Masters – why?

• Findings: The majority of black females in the study did not intend to continue to a Masters after their Honours. They intended to work to support their families. Most felt that the sector has no work opportunities, does not pay well and that access to information about the sector was very limited. A few wanted to continue to Masters degrees because they wanted to specialise and to change the situation at home by studying; they felt they would get better job opportunities with a Masters.

Example 3:Training in Internships

• Researcher: Morakana Madiba

• Supervisor: Prof Heila Lotz-Sisitka

• Funded by: CATHSSETA

• Status: M.Ed. Completed• Focus: The role of training in incubators or

internships, focusing on the development of GIS skills in the Groen Sebenza programme

• Findings: A 12 months period spent by the GIS incubants in the Groen Sebenza programme was not enough to prepare them towards full participation in biodiversity occupations. Internship training is not a passing, insignificant episode in the lives of the incubants (specifically those from disadvantaged communities), it is a ‘real source of hope’. A model is recommended.

Example 4: Pathways

• Researcher: Presha Ramsarup

• Supervisor: Prof Heila Lotz-Sisitka

• Funded by: SAQA

• Status: PhD, to be completed in 2015

• Focus: Two scarce skill occupations –

• Environmental Engineer and Environmental Scientist – the institutional pathways and

supply platforms that support them (career guidance; qualifications, occupational framings,

skills planning) and the learning and work transitions of professionals in the occupation.

Findings: The nature of environmental learning pathways (as educational and occupational

progression) and the mechanisms that enable and constrain them. There is a lack of

mechanisms for analysing demand for environmental occupations, and contradictions in the

supply-demand relation of emerging environmental occupations.

Example 5: Green Economy Access

• Researcher: Mumsie Gumede

• Supervisor: Prof Heila Lotz-Sisitka

• Funded by: CATHSSETA

• Status: PhD underway• Focus: Understanding the educational and skills

elements that enable educationally marginalised youth to gain access to the green economy.

• Key finding regarding methodology: The initial work has shown that there is a need to identify a) the green economy pathways, b) access opportunities and mechanisms for youth, and c) transitioning tools and support processes.

Methodological Findings• We need a broad ‘toolbox’ of research approaches including

– quantitative analysis (e.g. graduation throughput rates from HEMIS data; quantities and spread of qualifications on offer; numbers of job opportunities) and

– sociological analysis that probes reasons and causes, not all of which are obvious or immediately visible.

• We need to study ‘transition mechanisms’: socially, culturally, economically and politically shaped factors that influence opportunities and the decisions, movement of agents in the system.

• We need to research at multiple levels in systems: making the links between macro-level policy - and system-related issues, and micro- level experiences of people in the skills system.

• Methodologies must be able to analyse the dynamic nature of supply and demand –macro, meso and micro level issues are not ‘static’, but are themselves changing, e.g. in relation to the introduction of new incentives, and the wider societal transition to a greener, more just and sustainable world order.

MQA Study:Green Skills in Mining

• Researchers: Dr E Rosenberg, Dr M Togo, Ms P Ramsarup,

Mr A Mphinyane, Prof H Lotz-Sisitka

• Funded by: MQA, research specialist Ms V Mofu

• Status: Contract research to be completed in March

•

Focus: What green skills does Mining need, how are they

developed, what are the challenges? Coal case study.

Methodological Framework

Early Findings

• Sector analysis: Climate change and resource constraints guide coal industry scenarios (e.g. SACRM, 2013). Calls for investment in clean coal and water efficient technology, requiring high level R&D skills

• Value chain and occupations: Green skills are required right across mine planning, operations and closure; and in beneficiation. Competencies required are not just technical; also engagement and integration.

• On the ground: ‘Small mines’ with limited human resources affect vast tracts of land and water – challenges and opportunities for skills development

Coal Mining Core Business Associated Green Skills Occupations &

EmployersNature of skills (top up, new, )

Note on scarcity

Training Providers

Mine Closure

Activity in the Value Chain: Reclamation

Evaluate requirements for prime agricultural land reclamation in Mpumalanga coal fields – characterise agricultural sites; determine minimum standards; model standards; communicate & involve stakeholders

Data Sources: Policy and Framework documents e.g.

Mining and Biodiversity Guideline, Job Adverts, Site Visits

Data Sources: MQA, EMIS, QCTO and ETDP SETA

Data Sources: Chamber of Mines, MQA, QCTO and OFO

Message:

• More green skills research needed – build on the start

• Join us for the green skills conversation on 5 March

Thank You