Assessment of Compliance to Skill Development Act in Ratlou Municipality North West Province

Abstract

This study examines compliance to skill development act in Ratlou municipality. This is based on the fact that effective service delivery required trained skilled personnel. A simple random sample technique was used to select 45 workers in the municipality. Data were collected with structured questionnaire developed based on the objectives of the study and analyzed using SPSS version 21 using frequency counts, percentages, mean and standard deviation. Relationship between variables of the study was examined with correlation test and multiple regression analysis. Majority of the employees were male (60%), below 50 years (64.5%), Black (75%) and single (35.6%). In terms of type of dependents, 51% of the respondents had girls while at least 51 percent had at least 10 years working experience. About 66 percent of the respondents were Christians while about 84% had tertiary level education ranging from Diploma to Doctoral qualification. About 46% of the respondents had been on their job category for at least 5 years. With respect to the salary ranges, 60% of the respondents indicated that the salary ranged from R30000 and above. Majority of the employees covered in this study were in the finance directorate in the municipality. Prominent items on the compliance to skills development act as indicated by the respondents with compliance are: to develop the skills of the South African workforce (95.6), to improve the productivity in the workplace and the competitiveness of employers (95.6), to promote self-employment (88.9). The most prominent attitudinal statement on employees’ attitude towards Skills Development Act was that employees regarded skills development act: as a management function and responsibility (3.73), managers address compliance on skills development problem reported urgently. The most prominent constraints towards implementation of skills development act as ranked by the employees were: Lack of recognition of skills development Act representatives by their line managers (1.75); Lack of information sharing sessions and training with staff members on skills development act (1.84). The most prominent item on knowledge of Skills Development Act as ranked by the employees were: establishing learnerships and approving workplace skills plans (1.75); allocating grants in the prescribed manner to employ, education and training providers and workers (1.77). The significant determinant of compliance to skills development act are marital status (t=2.69) and job tenure (t = -2.22), while knowledge, religion and job tenure are independent variables which influences employees’ attitude towards skills development act. The results shows that there is a significant relationship between compliance to skill development act by employees and knowledge by employee (r = 0.36, p < 0.05); constraints towards skill development act (r = 0.297, p < 0.05) and knowledge of skill development act (r = 0.284, p < 0.05).