Financial and Accounting Services SETA

This Act provides, inter alia, the institutional framework to devise and implement sector strategies to improve the skills of the workforce in order to:

• influence the effective operation of the labour market, through effective skills development, so as to ensure the appropriate supply of competent labour necessary to compete in the global economy, improve the competence of employees and potential employees, thereby enhancing productivity in the sector, increase the level of investment in education and training in this sector and to optimise the return on this investment;
• encourage employers and employees to adopt a culture of lifelong learning;
• ensure the quality of training and education in the sector and to support the development of standards in line with the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) and to actively promote these standards;
• expand the provision of education and training in the sector through sound partnerships with public and private providers of education and training,
• enhance co-operation between the public and private sectors;
• support the objectives of the Employment Equity Act (EEA) of 1998;
• enhance access to learning opportunities in the sector, and
• position the sector as the ‘sector of career choice’ for prospective learners and new entrants into the labour market.

  Setas drive, encourage and support skills development through:

• a system of levies andgrants;
• addressing skills shortages and needs within the sector;
• the funding of specific strategic sector initiatives, e.g. development projects and free workshops;
• the provision of cash grants to employers in support of the implementation of skills development initiatives which support sector-specific strategic needs, such as the demographic transformation of the sector through learnerships;
• registration of learners;
• registration of learning programmes, and
• quality assurance of training providers and assessors of training.