A SETA is an organ of state (of South Africa). It is not a private company. It is government run. It is accountable to the minister of education. It is a partner with the QCTO (the Qualifications Council for Trades and Occupations) which is also an organ of state. It exists to meet the requirements of the skills development act of 1998
A SETA is a “Sector Education and Training Authority”. There are 21 SETA’s and each one oversees education and training in a specific industry sector. For example, “TETA” oversees Transport, “CETA” oversees construction, HWSETA oversees health and welfare, and so on. Each industry sector is covered by a relevant SETA.
The purpose of a SETA is to contribute to the development of skills in South Africa according to each SETA’s own skills development plan. This translates to assisting the unskilled so they can become skilled and find employment, and assisting those who are already skilled and employed so they can further develop their careers along their chosen career paths.
SETA’s are funded by monies levied from employers who are registered and whose total salary bill is over R500k a year. The money (1% of total salaries and overtime) is collected from employers by SARS as SDL tax (Skills Development Levies). These funds are distributed to the SETA’s according to the sector the funds came from.
SETA’s use the SDL funds they receive from SARS to carry out their skills development plan. Employers can claim back some of the SDL they paid and use it to increase skills within their own organisation. They do this by following certain processes and meeting certain conditions.
SETA’s contribute to the development of skills by promoting learning programs, and by issuing grants for learnerships. To promote learning programs a SETA performs education and training quality assurance (ETQA).
When a SETA performs it’s function as an ETQA (Education and Training Quality Assurer), it is ensuring that training is done according to objective standards. These standards include the SETA’s auditing process where each skills development provider (or SDP – an organisation that trains) is audited and held accountable to the standards the SETA has set.
Each SETA is delegated to quality assure specific training unit standards and qualifications. Unit standards and qualifications are often quality assured by more than one SETA because some training is applicable to more than one sector. For example, first aid training is applicable to construction, transport, health and welfare, tourism, and many others.
