South Africa should be proud of public technical vocation and education and training (TVET) colleges, considering the representation of the sector in the WorldSkills Competition 2022 Special Edition (WSC2022SE). 

“The competition continues to be a great opportunity to showcase what TVET colleges can do,” says WorldSkills South Africa (WSZA) national expert Shailendra Sasti.

Held from 7 September to 26 November 2022, the WSC2022SE comprises 62 skills competitions and involves more than 1,000 competitors in 16 host countries and 26 cities. South Africa, the only African country participating in this year’s competitions, is contesting 29 skills. 

Thirty-one young people, 19 of whom are from public TVET colleges, have been flying the South African flag at the world’s largest skill championship. 

WSZA expert in the software solutions for business category Shailendra Sasti is reflecting on his experience as a mentor to SA contestant Diveshen Naicker and is already looking at contributing to a midterm plan for South Africa. 

“We need to move towards South Africa competing on an equal footing, ensuring that there is a midterm plan for the 47th WorldSkills Competition to take place from 10 to 15 September 2024 in Lyon, France and ultimately the 2026 contest in Shanghai, China. 

“In levelling the playing field, we must leverage international and industry partners,” says Shailendra. 

In his engagements with other country national experts during the Goyang competitions, Sasti is pleased other country experts are keen to work with South Africa. 

“This presents an opportunity for WSZA to develop a strategy and use these relationships to model against the best.”

Shailendra explains that Asian counterparts dominated the results in the eight IT-related skills contests. 

“The Asian counterparts have some structure in place which is equivalent to sector education and training authorities (SETAs). Like SA, these structures have a lot of influence and ultimately serve as the linkage to the industry. So focus is on upskilling to scale and a funding model for priority skills development.” 

“In the SA environment, SETA-funded training creates better programme performance.

I accept that SETA support interventions are not uniform across sectors, but I am very pleased that the IT support for World Skills, the Media and Information Communication Technology (MICT) Seta has expressed a commitment to an intensified role post the 2022 contest. 

“As a country, we must address the fundamental flaw in the mismatch of the TVET curriculum with industry standards to gain some competitive advantage internationally.

“As a member of the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) curriculum support team that was formed this year, the WorldSkills experience certainly enriches the dialogue we are building for curriculum development and providing national lecturer support for the IT programmes.” 

He explains the timing for the recent onboarding of Huawei and Cisco as DHET partners to improve the TVET curriculum and be more responsive to the industry is opportune.

Further, through the UPSET (Upskills the PSET Sector) initiative being championed by the Durban University of Technology, which deals with the lack of mobility from TVET to university, Sasti plans to advocate for improvements in articulation between academic education and skills training. 

He says he will draw from his Goyang experience, where international students from TVET, universities and universities of technology competed on the same tasks based on industry standards and emphasises that TVET students can compete with university students in the workplace.

Shailendra is a WSZA national expert appointed by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET). He joined Elangeni TVET College Pinetown Campus in 2015 after being in the private education sector since 2000. He is an IT lecturer, programme expert and has authored textbooks for TVET IT programs.

“My journey in WorldSkills started in 2017 when I started as a judge in the 2017 WSZA national competition. I was later appointed the KZN provincial expert and participated in the 2019 national competition. I conducted local, college and provincial competitions from 2018 to 2021, and was appointed national expert in March this year based on my IT knowledge and experience in WorldSkills competitions.”

Shailendra represented the country as an expert at Namibia’s 2022 WorldSkills Africa competition. 

“We achieved a bronze medal for my IT skill in web technology.”

“You have to be extremely passionate about your skill and be willing to share your knowledge,” he says when asked what advice he would give to people who may be interested in being a WorldSkills expert.

“The competitions are very exciting but are also very demanding with long hours, typically from 08:00 to 23:00. You must be up-to-date with the industry standard and relevant IT tools.”

The WSC2022SE marked the 46th time of the event. Host cities included Goyang, Korea which hosted eight skills competitions from 13 to 16 October. Skills competitions included IT network administration and IT software solutions for business under the theme “skills change lives”.

WSZA is championed by DHET and funded by the National Skills Fund. DHET hosts provincial and national WSZA competitions and facilitates the participation of SA in the bi-annual World International skills competitions, which are mechanisms for promoting artisan skills as a viable career and forming partnerships with the industry.

What is an IT software solution for business? 

“IT dominates our everyday life, especially with the advent of technology in the fourth industrial revolution. Computer hardware requires software to accomplish tasks. IT software solutions for business are the crown jewel of software development. It involves developing solutions for businesses using desktop, mobile and web applications (apps). This skill can be best described as producing a software engineer. Without software engineers, most apps would not work in the real world,” says Shailendra.

Sasti’s top takeaways from the WorldSkills Competition

• Identify young people from Grade 9 to centres of excellence for specialist skills training and expose them to international competition standards for five years. In the SA environment, this means targeting the top students in Grade 9 for NCV programmes, which is not the case. Currently, TVET colleges do not attract top students. 
• Adopt an incentive programme to attract talent. In Asia, students and experts are highly incentivised with apartments/houses, cars and cash, for example. In SA, this type of programme requires a funding model. 
• Encourage a willingness and eagerness to work together. Asian countries compete in inter-country contests four times a year, giving their competitors international exposure over some time. For South Africa, this means following through on the invitations we have already received to inter-country contests in future. 

Caption 1:

Competitor in IT Software Solution for Business category Diveshen Naicker (seated) with mentor and WSZA national technical expert Shailendra Sasti at the WorldSkills Competition 2022 Special Edition in Goyang, Korea

Caption 2:

(From left): MICT Seta Board Chairperson Simphiwe Thobela with WSZA national technical expert Shailendra Sasti at the Kintex Exhibition and Trade Centre in Goyang, Korea, during the WorldSkills Competition 2022

By Khanyisa Ngewu, the director of PR and communication at the National Skills Fund