1. The Department of Public Service and Administration has identified the need to standardise government's approaches to human capital management and development, as well as related data management, by introducing a system called HR Connect. HR Connect is aimed at supporting departments to improve their services to the public.

2. HR Connect defines and collects skills information by profiling similar occupations within a skills audit. HR Connect will, therefore, assist the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) to determine the skills gaps between the WCED's skills requirements (competencies and outputs) and the skill levels of its employees. The WCED will then be in a position to

  • determine the skills the WCED needs (an organisational skills profile); and
  • identify unique (line function) and generic (public service) jobs, and compile a job profile for each post.
3. All employees of the WCED are required to complete a skills audit questionnaire to elicit each individual's skills profile. By completing this questionnaire, the WCED will be in a position to determine each employee's skills levels.

4. HR Connect will, therefore, provide well-defined job profiles for each post, which will also inform performance agreements, assessments and related development plans, advertisements for new appointments, and career paths.

5. Briefing sessions for line managers will be held at the district offices between 11 and 15 July 2011. These sessions will deal with the content of the skills audit questionnaire and how it must be completed.

6. The success of the HR Connect project will be dependent on the participation of all employees in the WCED. Employees will also be required to complete a job profile for each post. As different departments use different job titles for jobs requiring the same tasks and competencies, certain job titles will be changed and aligned to provincial generic job titles. These generic job titles will, in future, apply to all departments in the province when posts are created and advertised. The alignment of job titles will in no way affect an employee's current salary position or conditions of service.

7. The skills audit questionnaires will be distributed to each employee from 15 July 2011. Completed questionnaires from education institutions must be returned to the respective district offices by no later than 1 September 2011. The completed questionnaires from education institutions and those completed by district office staff will be collected at the district offices from 2 September 2011 onwards. Questionnaires completed at Head Offices must be submitted to the Directorate: Human Resource Management by no later than 26 August 2011. The questionnaire information obtained will then be audited to provide a skills audit profile for each employee.

8. Further communication on manager and supervisor briefings will be issued by the Directorate: Human Resource Management in due course.

9. Your co-operation in this regard will be much appreciated.


SIGNED: PA VINJEVOLD
HEAD: EDUCATION
DATE: 2011:07:11