Sector Skills Development

About the Sub-Directorate: Sector Skills Development

The core business of the sub-directorate is external human capital development in the agricultural sector which entails training and capacity building of farmers and other stakeholders. The sub-directorate focuses on the following programmes:

• Experiential Training, Internship and Professional Development Programme: the programme was introduced in the departments in 2003 and it is implemented in terms of the approved Experiential Training, Internship and Professional Development policy and it caters for the following:
  
  - Experiential Training: focuses on students in need of experiential training as a requirement for them to graduate.
  
  - Internship: focuses on qualified unemployed graduates who require practical hands on experience to enhance their chances of employability. Young people who would like to follow a career in the export market or business entrepreneurship are also catered for in the programme.
  
  - Young Professional Development Programme: focuses on young people in possession of requisite Bachelors degree such as BSc, Bsc Agric, BSc Agricultural Engineering, BVSc or post graduate degree in agriculture or natural science who would like to further their studies at Honours, Masters or PhD level leading to innovation in critical scarce skills in agriculture.
  
  

• External Bursary Scheme: the scheme is governed in terms of the approved External Bursary Policies and Procedures 2006.The scheme was introduced in 2004 as a measure of recruiting young people to follow a career in one of the Department's identified scarce and critical skills in agriculture. Successful applicants are awarded with a comprehensive bursary to further their studies and are expected to serve the department upon completion of their studies.

• Sector Skills Training: focuses on implementation of signed service level agreements between the Department of Agriculture and agricultural line function SETAs, generation of qualifications as well as learnerships and skills programmes conducted by accredited institutions and training providers in the entire agricultural sector.

• Commodity Based Mentorship Programme: the programme was conceived in 2006 and it is implemented in partnership with agricultural commodity organizations to build capacity within the sector and transfer technical and business skills to emerging farmers to assist them to become independent, profitable and sustainable.

• Training and Capacity Building of CASP beneficiaries: focuses on coordinating and facilitating provincial Departments of Agriculture to implement skills assessments of projects beneficiaries, their training and the generation of training reports.