Felleng Yende CEO of FP&M SETA

Felleng Yende CEO of FP&M SETA

Q. Please tell us a bit about yourself.

A. I was born in Soweto and grew up in Soweto and Pietermaritzburg, where I attended Immaculata High School in Diepkloof. I have a BA Honors degree in Social Work, a Diploma in Integrated Marketing Communications from AAA School of Advertising, and a Masters degree in Public and Development Management. I am currently completing a PhD in Public Sector Leadership and Management and Fourth Industrial Revolution Digital Technology.

Q. What are you most passionate about in life?

A. Making a difference to people’s lives through education and training skills development. I feel strongly about transforming the lives of our unemployed youth – giving them opportunities to escape the shackles of poverty. I come from humble beginnings myself and when I see poverty all around me, especially in the rural areas, it urges me to want to do more.

Q. How would you describe your leadership style?

A. The short answer would be high level, strategic and firm, but fair and very transparent. I thrive on being an excellent role model by accepting full responsibility in everything that I do. I build strong high performing teams that would take organisations to new heights

Q. In your opinion, how are we doing with transformation in corporate South Africa thus far?

A. Transforming the lives and careers of people has become my passion. I would be in denial, if I do not say that from a skills development perspective, much more needs to be done to transform the corporate sector in South Africa.

The FP&M SETA recently launched the International Leadership Development Programme to foster transformation and create future leaders through cutting-edge thinking, design and innovation.

The objective of the programme is to develop potential leadership and strategic positions with a view to expose learners to international benchmarks and best practices. It is anticipated that this extensive programme will provide the sector with front runners that have strong business and leadership acumen as well as both a local and international focus.

Q. You are now at the helm of FP&M SETA. Tell us more about the vital function of this SETA and what your most immediate challenges are you need to face.

A. The core business mandate of the FP&M SETA is to provide skills development services to 13 industrial sectors, which includes some of the most challenging sub-sectors from an economic growth and sustainability perspective. The FP&M SETA provides skills development services to the clothing, footwear, textiles, leather, forestry, furniture, general goods, print media, printing, packaging, publishing, pulp, paper and wood products sub-sectors. Year-on-year the SETA would like to do more to upskill the workers, create sustainable collaborative partners with various stakeholders including higher education and training institutions, but with a very constrained budget, we can only do so much. We still continue to receive an overwhelming number of discretionary grant applications, but unfortunately, we cannot please everybody.

The core business mandate of the FP&M SETA is to provide skills development services

Although we have done everythingand more in formulating efficientstrategies to address socioeconomicchallenges facingthe sector and to maximise theimpact of skills developmentinitiatives on the lives of the mostvulnerable groups including, theunemployed youth, people livingwith disabilities and women,this is still work in progress.

Q. Besides the challenges, tell usmore about the good work theSETA has accomplished?

A. Currently, there are too many to mention. To fully understand the growth and successes of the FP&M SETA one needs to go back and trace significant events over the last four years, post amalgamation. The introduction of a highly strategic business model developed by myself paved the way for a complete turnaround and the streamlining of the SETA’soperations and processes. This has resulted in the establishment of a best practice organisation that has met and exceeded organisational objectives and performance standards.

I am pleased to inform all of our stakeholders that strategically we are fully aligned to support the Government in addressing the MTEF priorities, more especially unemployment and poverty alleviation. In order to promote labour absorption within our sub-sectors we have encouraged our industry partners to develop sector strategies aligned to skills development action plans that would promote economic growth and sustainability of our industries.

Our research partnership with WITS University has yielded excellent results – everything we do at the SETA is informed and underpinned by research. Key to the success of this intervention has been to accurately identify the critical research activities undertaken in collaboration with our research partners to identify the occupations in demand within our sector.

Q. Can you please tell us about the Government’s role supporting your efforts?

A. I am so pleased with all of the support that I am getting from my direct executive authority, the Ministry of Higher Education and Training and other Government Departments. I must commend the Honourable Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Blade Nzimande, in putting a support strategy in place to ensure that our SETA succeeds in implementing theNSDS III strategy.

Our regular meetings with Government representatives and the fact that the Ministry has advisory and support structures such as QCTO, NAMB, and the SETA Directorate to support the work of SETAs eases the pressures of implementation. Here, I would like to acknowledge the efforts of the Auditor-General of South Africa in ensuring good corporate governance and compliance – SETAs deal with billions of rands and obtaining “clean-audits” is the ultimate goal.

The FP&M SETA also played a leading role in the development of fit-for-purpose occupationallydirected qualifications that will be registered by the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO). The results of our Tracking and Tracer Study (2014) revealed that by engaging in a learnership or apprenticeship programme of the FP&M SETA, the employability of unemployed learners and their earning potential was greatly improved, as well as the value they added to the workplace.

The FP&M SETA received another impressive unqualified audit opinion from the Auditor-General of South Africa, which is a testament to the FP&M SETA which complied with generally accepted business practices and good corporate governance.FP&M SETA has largely ensured increased access to training and skills development opportunities to achieve the fundamental transformation of inequities linked to class, race, gender, age and disability in our society.

• The profile of learners demonstrates a fair balance between people from rural and urban areas.

• 63% of female representation in learning programmes, apart from in apprenticeship programmes

• 99% of black people have access to learning opportunities across programmes.

• Learning programmes provided opportunities to 73% of young people, less than 35 years of age across programmes.

Awards Individual: 2015, BBQ, PUBLIC SECTOR VISIONARY AWARD An acknowledgement for someone who has made a significant impact in the public sector

2015, YOUTH EMPLOYMENT AWARD SA - by the South African Graduate Development Agency in recognition for courageous leadership in growing the number & quality of work exposure placements for unemployed youth and graduates in South Africa and for engaging stakeholders in rural as well as disadvantaged communities as a distinguishing hallmark of her contribution in skills development.

2015, AFRICA’S MOST INFLUENTIAL WOMEN IN BUSINESS AND GOVERNMENT - by CEO Global for advancing African economies and communities.

2017, BBQ, Big Time Strategic Group Platinum Award: IQHAWE MENTORSHIP AWARD

2019, THE NATIONAL SKILLS AUTHORITY AWARDS – Minister’s Award for Recognition of Most Outstanding Individual in Skills Development.

2019, GUTTENBERG AWARD – a rare achievement for a woman in the Printing Industry.

RECOGNITION BY THE AUDITOR- GENERAL OF SOUTH AFRICA – for the unqualified clean audit opinions attained in 2015/2016, 2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21 .

Three clean unqualified audit opinions in 5 years as Chief Executive Officer of the FP&M SETA.

FP&M SETA awards under CEO Felleng Yende

2016, BBQ, Amsco Transformation Champion Of The Year Award

2019, GOLD AWARD for FP&M SETA - as the most outstanding SETA for its performance against the set targets, governance, compliance, Management; Corporate Services, the SETA’s financial sustainability, partnerships, innovation and creativity. •

Head office Address: PO Box 31276,Braamfontien, 2017, 1 Newton Ave, Killarney 2193 Email: fpmseta@thehotline. co.za Website: thehotline.co.za Toll Free Number: 080 000 7395