Approximately 50% of the respondents, which is the largest portion of respondents, belong to the Metal & Engineering sub-sector and the smallest portion of the respondents (2.4%) belong to the New Tyre Manufacture sub-sector. This is probably because the Metal and Engineering sector is one of the largest sectors in KZN and the New Tyre Manufacture is one of the
smallest sub-sectors in KZN (MERSETA, 2004:10). The average number of the total number of employees in the different organisations is 569.5 persons. About 71% of the respondents in this survey have training committees in their organisations and 61% of them do not have a
training and development departments. On average about 1.2 training specialist are employed per organisation. Most of the respondents (70.7%) indicated that they have a separate budget for training. The highest percentages of approximate costs as a percent of employment costs is 1% and 2 %. On average 247.1 employees received off the job training since January 2004.
There is a high level of importance about training within organisations as 64.3% of the respondents agree that their management place a high importance on training.
The results show that 50% of the respondents agree that the rate of skills development within their organisations is inadequate compared to the high demand for skilled people required within their organisations, compared to 26.2% of the respondents who disagree with this statement. The results indicate that 59.5% of the respondents agree that their organisations are currently facing a skills shortage. In line with this, 47.6% of the respondents agree that their organisations have a shortage of managers who are competent in both technical and people management skills compared to 23.8%) who disagree with this statement. It is
imperative to state that 91.7% of the respondents indicated that there is a shortage of qualified Africans, Coloureds and Indians with technical and management skills. Most of the
respondents agree (90.4%) state that they experience difficulties in filling technical vacancies whilst 42.9%) disagree that they experience difficulty in filling management vacancies. Of the respondents, 50% agree that HIV/AIDS poses a threat to the sustainability of skills
development, 28.6% are neutral and 21.4% disagree. With regard to a shortage of skills posing a threat to the growth of organisations, 66.7% of the respondents agree with this statement. Likewise, 71.4% of the respondents feel that the shortage of skills threatens the competitiveness of their organisations and 95.2% feel that skills development will make a real contribution to improving the profitability of the organisation.
Majority of the respondents (78.6%) agree that attracting and retaining young, highly skilled people is difficult and 69% of the respondents recognise that skills development is an integral part of their skills retention strategies. With regard to coaching, 59.5%) of the respondents agree that coaching is also an integral part of their organisation's skills retention strategy.
Most of the respondents (54.8%) were neutral with regard to mentorship being important to skill retention. Most of the respondents (92.8%) support the fact that skills transfer from older employees to younger employees is the key to ensuring the sustainability of skills for the future and all agree that helping trainees to apply whatever they have been taught contributes to improved training.
Implementing a Workplace Skills Plan is regarded as key to accelerating skills development by 95.2% of the respondents. Similarly 100% of the respondents agree that career
development plays an important role in facilitating skills development. With regard to performance management, 92.9 % of the respondents agree that performance management processes improve skill levels of employees.
The statement pertaining to the national skills development policies providing effective guidelines for skills development activities is supported by 71.4% of the respondents. The statement pertaining to the national skills development legislature providing effective
guidelines to carry out skills development activities is supported by 68.3% of the respondents.
With regard to skills development being essential for achieving employment equity, 95.2% of the respondents agree to this statement.
The highest shortage of skills exists in the metallurgical and control occupations for the engineering field and a moderate shortage in the mechanical, electrical and industrial
occupations. There is a high shortage of skills in the instrumentation and control occupation for the technician field whilst there is a moderate shortage of skills in the electrical and mechanical occupations. In the trade field there is a high shortage of skills in the die maker, tool maker and millwright occupations and moderate shortage in the electrician and fitter occupations.
The results show that the following factors hamper skills development with a high to very high effect:
• lack of support by supervisors to facilitate the transfer of skills to the workplace,
• a lack of capital to conduct training, and
• a lack of management support to training and development.
According to the results the other factors which, hamper skills development to a lesser extent include:
• inadequate needs assessment,
• lack of training evaluation,
• ineffective training and development practices,
• ineffective training and development procedures, and
• a lack of technically qualified trainers.
The following factors present a high degree of difficulty for organizations to attract and retain young, highly skilled people:
• limited career development opportunities, and
• poor remuneration policies and practices.
The lack of training and development opportunities is a factor of a moderate degree of difficulty for organisations to attract and retain young, highly skilled people.
The top 5 strategies that respondents believe could lead to improved skills development and ensure a sustainable base for the future are:
• On-the-job training,
• Fast track employment equity candidates,
• Providing access to specific/tailor made training,
• Coaching and mentoring, and
• Forming partnerships with tertiary institutions to educate and train candidates within required technical disciplines.