Employee Skills Audit - PDF

							TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR THE CONTRACTING OF A SERVICE PROVIDER TO ASSIST THE
MQA ON OCCUPATIONAL ROLE PROFILING AND SKILLS AUDIT

Strategic Alignment

MQA STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE NO & DESCRIPTION:
No 3: The development of our current workforce
NSDS SUCCESS INDICATORS NO & DESCRIPTION:
Indicator 1.1.
Skills development supports national and sectoral growth, development and equity priorities.
MINING CHARTER REFERENCE :
Mining Charter provision related to skills audit
MQA PROJECT NUMBER & NAMES:
Project 020 : Research and Analysis


BACKGROUND

Effective well-targeted skills development interventions supporting organisational
objectives require good skills planning. It is envisaged that this project will enhance skills
planning within the sector.

The Organising Framework for Occupations (OFO) – a skills-based coded classification
system of occupations- provides a common language when talking about occupations,
informs the development of qualifications in the new Quality Council for Trades and
Occupations (QCTO) and provides a useful basis for determining skills requirements, a key
component of conducting a skills audit process.

The Mining Charter stipulates that “Stakeholders should formulate a comprehensive skills
development strategy to include a skills audit.” Numerous companies within the sector
have done or are planning to conduct skills audits in order to identify the skills that the
organisation requires as well as the skills the organisation currently has. Experience within
and beyond the mining and mineral sector has shown that there are various ways to
conduct a skills audit and the real benefits of skills audits to organisations are numerous.
The MQA held a Skills Audit Colloquium to consider such experiences, the outcome of
which was that an extensive occupational profiling exercise should be done within the
sector so as to establish a solid OFO aligned basis against which to conduct skills audits.

The MQA needs to undertake an extensive and participatory exercise to profile
occupations within the mineral and mining sector (MMS), followed by the development
of occupational qualifications and learning pathways on the one hand, and the
facilitation of a skills audit within MMS organisations on the other. Occupational
profiling is seen as a pre-requisite to a successful OFO-aligned skills audit process. A skills
audit process can support good skills planning by determining what skills are required by
the organisation, what skills each employee has against the relevant occupational profile,
analysing the results and determining skills development needs
   It is anticipated that skills audits would result in a more accurate profile of the existing
   skills of the Mining and Minerals Sector as well as a clearer definition of the skills needs of
   the sector. The collection and evaluation of information on scarce and critical skills in
   particular will be improved as well as the overall accuracy of OFO-framed data in the
   Workplace Skills Plan-Annual Training submissions. In addition this data will be core in the
   development of the Sector Skills Plan.

   The MQA needs to support capacity development of relevant persons within
   organisations to enable the linking of unique jobs to occupations on the OFO within
   organisations.

   Implementation of the occupational profiling- skills audit project will require the services
   of a competent service provider as well as active participation from HR practitioners, SDFs
   and technical subject matter experts within the sector.

OBJECTIVES

    The Service Provider is required:
      Develop an OFO Implementation Toolkit for the MMS;
      Capacitate MMS organisations on OFO and competence profile implementation;
      Provide a help desk facility to MMS registered organisations on alignment to the
         OFO and skills audit;
      Define MQA Specific Sub-sector – disciplines occupation profiles;
      Prepare the MQA changes requested on the OFO for submission by the MQA;
      Development of a Skills Audit Toolkit for the MMS; and
      Facilitate skills audit of MMS organisations.

SCOPE AND DEFINITION OF WORK

   The Service Provider is expected to undertake the scope of work as per deliverable and
   timeframes outlined below. The Service Provider must be able to provide a
   comprehensive service and must be able to deliver on all the deliverables required within
   the timeframes outlined below.

   Deliverable and requirements                                                Timeframes
   Deliverable 1: Development of an OFO Implementation Toolkit for the         End Jan 2010
   MMS
   An OFO Implementation Toolkit that can assist organisations in
   understanding the OFO and its purpose as well as assist them in
   mapping each of their unique jobs and posts within their
   organisations to the occupations on the OFO must be developed.

   The Toolkit must also include:
    The OFO Database in multiple formats to ensure compatibility
      with MMS organisations own information systems as well as the
      necessary instructions and documentation for them to implement
      it;
    A comparison between OFO Version 8 and OFO Version 9;
    An updated OFO look–up list with MMS sector job titles where
      appropriate.

   The Service Provider will be expected to produce 1000 MQA branded,
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CD copies of the OFO Implementation Toolkit and develop and print
1000 OFO Implementation Toolkit brochures with summarized
information about the OFO in a Z-card format.

Deliverable 2:                                                            Mid-Feb-end-
Capacitating MMS organisations on OFO and Competence Profile              March 2010
Implementation
MQA has scheduled workshops for Skills Development Facilitators
(SDFs) during mid-February and March 2010 in all 9 provinces (one
per province) aimed at capacitating SDFs regarding the Workplace
Skills Plan- Annual Training Report submission. The MQA format of
the WSP requires SDFs to report their workforce against relevant OFO
occupations and codes.

The Service Provider will be required to facilitate the OFO session of
the workshops.
SDFs will need to be capacitated in using the OFO Implementation
Toolkit and understanding the underlying principles required to
accurately determine scarce and critical skills, thus enabling the SDF to
map the organisation structure to the OFO, and use a mapping tool
to submit organisation employee profiles in their WSP-ATR submission
for the 2010-2011 financial year.                                         End Jan 2010

In addition, the service provider will be required to run a maximum of
2 additional 2 day workshops if required. The first is scheduled for
the end-January 2010.
Deliverable 3:                                                            Through-out
Provision of help desk facility                                           the duration
                                                                          of the project.
The Service Provider is required to provide a help desk facility to MMS
stakeholders (organisations registered with the MQA) for the duration
of the project in relation to the implementation of the OFO and skills
audit within their organisation. The help desk should provide a
support service from the Service Provider’s premises to ensure that
stakeholders making enquiries are supported via email and telephone.
Deliverable 4:
Define MQA-specific sub-sector – disciplines occupation profiles
The Service Provider will be required to:                                 Jan – March
     Conduct occupation profiling via a series of well-spaced one-       2010
        day workshops for each sub-sector/discipline. It is estimated
        that there will be a maximum of 15 sub-sectors/disciplines.
     The overall objectives of the profiling process per sub-
        sector/discipline will be to:
     Confirm the scope and parameters of the specific sub-
        sector/discipline.
     Confirm all occupations relevant to the specific sub-
        sector/discipline.
     Confirm, and where necessary define, the unique occupations
        related to the specific sub-sector/discipline
     Define the competence profile for all unique occupations
 The target group for this process is subject matter experts and
HR/HRD/SDF personnel, which MQA will source.
Deliverable 5:                                                            By end March

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Validation of the revised MQA Qualification framework                      2010
The MQA is in the process of revising the qualifications framework.
The Service Provider will be required to validate and comment on the
revised qualification framework based on the detailed occupational




profiling that would have been done.
Deliverable 6:                                                             By June 2010
Preparation of the MQA changes requested on the OFO
The Service Provider will be required to prepare, in the prescribed
format, the changes requested to the OFO for submission to the
Department of Higher Education and training (DHET) as part of the
annual OFO update process.
Deliverable 7:                                                             April 2010
Development of a Skills Audit Toolkit for the MMS
The Service Provider will be required to develop a Skills Audit Toolkit
for the MMS to provide guidance to organisations within the sector
on how to implement a skills audit.
 The Service Provider will be expected to develop and print 1000 Skills
Audit Toolkits and develop and print 1000 brochures Skills Audit
brochures with summarized information about the Skills Audit in a Z-
card format.
Deliverable 8:                                                             May – July
Facilitation of skills audit within MMS organisations                      2010
This entails a skills audit of MMS related occupations where
employees within selected companies in MMS sub-sectors, are
benchmarked against their defined occupation competence profile.

It is envisaged that the skills audit will be conducted for at least 300
employers across sub-sectors and size of companies.

The Service Provider is required to:
    Conduct an introductory workshop to explain the skills audit
       process to the selected employers’ SDFs. This workshop will
       need to be run three times due to the large number of
       companies.
    Facilitate the receipt of each of the 300 employer’s complete
       employee database as specified, together with the mapping of
       the employee database to the OFO.
    Upload the received information onto centralised database of
       the Service Provider.
    After receipt of the employer’s employee data, conduct a
       second set of three workshops to explain the completion of
       the survey forms;
    Generate individualised skills audit survey forms per employee
       for each of the MQA related occupations, and distribute to the
       companies for completion.
    Capture the competed survey forms into the centralised
       database of the Service Provider.
    Analyse the information;
    Generate skills profiles and skills plans for each of the 300
       MMS employers and agreed reports for the MQA;
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       Conduct a final set of three (3) workshops reporting back the
        outcomes of the skills audit to the selected employers.
Final project close-out meeting                                         August 2010




COSTING

The Service Provider is expected to provide their cost breakdown based on the
deliverables outlined above.




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MONITORING AND REPORTING

The Service Provider will report to the Skills Development and Research Manager. The
Service Provider will be required to submit written reports in an agreed format on at least
a monthly basis.

The Service Provider will be part of the Occupational Profiling- Skills Audit Project Steering
Committee which will meet at least monthly.



APPROPRIATE KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE

The Service Provider must be able to provide a comprehensive service and must be able to
deliver on all the deliverables required within the timeframes outlined above.

In addition, the following expertise is essential:

       Excellent understanding of the relevant skills development and related legislation,
        including the Mine Health and Safety Act, Minerals and Petroleum Development
        Resources Act, Skills Development Act, the Skills Development Levies Act and the
        latest related skills regulations, in particular the SETA Grant Regulations of July
        2005 as amended.
       Excellent understanding of the MMS and proven experience in working in the
        sector is essential .
       Proven experience of occupational profiling within the MMS;
       Experience within the SETA (Sector Education and Training Authority)
        environment, generally and experience in working with the MQA in particular;
       Ability to offer a solution which complies with all fast-changing legislative
        requirements from South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA), the Department
        of Higher Education and Training (DHET) and the MMS;
       High level of expertise in the OFO;
       Proven experience in identification and definition of the occupations and the
        development of comprehensive occupation profiles for each occupation identified;
       Proven experience in large scale, skills audits, aligned to the OFO
       Ability to provide user-friendly manuals;
       Excellent facilitation skills and ability to conduct workshops to support
        organisations in OFO alignment and skills audit processes;
       Ability to provide an integrated IT solution.
       Sufficient capacity and an appropriately skilled team to carry out parallel activities.


CONDITIONS OF TENDER

Services of successful Service Provider will be secured in accordance with the MQA’s
Procurement Policy subject to the following conditions:

    The MQA reserves the right to award or not to award this contract;
    The MQA reserves the right to award this contract to one or multiple bidders;
   The National Treasury general conditions of contract will be applicable to this tender;
   Bidders who fail to complete and attach all relevant documents will be disqualified i.e
    SBD 1,4,6 and 8, original tax clearance certificate;
    Only bidders who score 35 points and above in terms of technical evaluation will be
     considered for further evaluation;
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        All prices quoted must be VAT inclusive;
       Please note that bidders who might be invited for presentations, their
        technical scores might be re-evaluated
        Bidders must submit 6 bid documents (1 original and 5 copies). Bidders who fail to
         do so will be disqualified
        No tender document will be accepted if not properly sealed and marked;
        The MQA reserves the right not to accept the lowest cost proposal;
        The general conditions of contract will be applicable to this tender;
        The MQA will enter into a formal contract with the successful service provider;
        The MQA reserves the right to terminate the contract should the performance of the
         service provider be unsatisfactory;
        The MQA has the right to visit the business premises to verify the information
         provided in the tender documents
        It is the responsibility of prospective bidders to ensure that their bid documents are
         submitted before the closing time and date of the tender;
        Bids received after closing time and date are late and will NOT be considered;
        Although adequate thought has been given in the drafting of this document, errors
         such as typos may occur which the MQA will not be responsible for;
        Any change of information provided in the tender document that may affect delivery
         of training programme should be brought to the MQA’s attention as soon as
         possible. Failure to comply may result in the contract being terminated;
        Service provider presenting information intentionally incorrectly or fraudulently will
         be disqualified; and
        Service provider who have been declared insolvent and wish to do business with the
         MQA must have been rehabilitated and provide the necessary proof thereof.




PROJECT PROPOSAL

The tender should include following documents in the sequence indicated below:

       A short profile of the organisation;
       The available human resource expertise showing the aability to provide a
        comprehensive service and deliver on all the deliverables required within the
        timeframes outlined;
       Proof of OFO and occupational profiling work undertaken generally and within the
        MMS particularly (Proof entails a list of references as well as examples of work
        undertaken);
       Proof of large scale skills audits aligned to the OFO undertaken (Proof entails a list of
        references as well as examples of work undertaken);
       An abridged CV of the overall project manager;
       An abridged CV of the individuals that will be allocated to work on this project;
       Proof of infrastructural capacity to run the project;
       A detailed project plan including milestones showing how your organisation will
        manage the project;
       Details of the cost / fee breakdown for the services to be rendered inclusive of costs
        per milestone and proposed payment schedule.

Service providers may be requested to present their proposal to the MQA




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EVALUATION CRITERIA

The tender will be evaluated in accordance with the PPPFA 90/10 principle. All tenders will
be rated on a scale of 0-5.

0-     Non- compliance
1-     Poor
2-     Average
3-     Good
4-     Very Good
5–     Excellent

No                  Element                  0   1    2   3    4    5     Weight       Score
      Price                                                                20
      Technical                                                            70
1     Ability to provide a comprehensive                                   15
      service and deliver on all the
      deliverables required within the
      timeframes outlined
2     High level of proven expertise in                                     10
      relation to the OFO including
      proven experience in identification
      and definition of the occupations
      and the development of
      comprehensive occupation profiles
      for each occupation identified
3    Proven experience of occupational                                      15
     profiling     within      the     MMS
     specifically
4     Proven experience in undertaking                                      15
      large scale skills audits aligned to
      the OFO
5     Ability to provide an integrated IT                                   10
      solution
6     Sufficient capacity and an                                             5
     appropriately skilled team to carry
     out parallel activities
C     Ownership Equity                                                      10
      HDI                                                                   5
      WEO                                                                   3
      Disability                                                            2


  Technical-         90
  Equity-            10
Total                 100




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CONCLUSION

Tender documents are to be submitted at the MQA’s office,
The Reception
4th Floor Union Corporation Building
74- 78 Marshall Street
Johannesburg
Tel: 011 630 3500

ONLY BIDDERS WHO ARE NOT TEGISTERED ON OUR SUPPLIER DATABSE MUST COMPLETE
THE SUPPLIER REGISTRATION FORMS.

ENQUIRIES (only via e-mail)

Enquiries regarding this tender should be addressed to Ms Khathu Raphunga on
khathur@mqa.org.za




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