No answers or assistance from CETA for 5-year certification delay.

Why must an accredited training provider resort to legal action for CETA to print learners’ certificates?CAD4ALL was founded in 2008 and embarked by selling a new alternative CAD & BIM Software which is developed in Greece, this software provided a solution in 2008 to the AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) industry in South Africa which is still on the increase today. After adding value to so many clients in the AEC Corporate space, the dire need was made apparent by industry for CAD4ALL to apply for training accreditation so that the companies can benefit from the SDL funds they are paying monthly to the CETA.CAD4ALL applied for accreditation to CETA in 2012 and was granted full accreditation in late 2013. The 2014 academic year immediately led off with a class of enthusiastic, private students and we were too awarded a DG (discretionary grant) learnership project funded by CETA, in which we had to pay the learners a monthly stipend for 12 months.

From the outset this engagement with CETA was disconcerting if not horrific.

Dealing with the construction CETA from then until current has been nothing short of disastrous leading to consequences of catastrophic devastation. The incompetence and poorly led CETA as our ETQA, has caused us too many an embarrassment, negative association and presents itself as a rhetoric of smokescreen and mirrors to the public not familiar with the qualifications of Architecture, CAD and Draughting. An injustice to the very industry they are supposed to service.The CAD4ALL experience will be outlined and this intentionally will unveil the magnitude of how inefficient and discriminatory this ETQA, CETA is.

By early 2017, CAD4ALL still received ZERO certificates from CETA since 2014, as well as no accreditation site visits, no JPMT meetings, continuous loss of documentation and procrastination all the while we sent ongoing communication which went ignored. This ignorance resulted in addition to a physical visit to the CETA head office in Midrand, JHB to Robert Semenya who was the acting CEO whom CAD4ALL was scheduled to and met in January 2018.In a nutshell, because we received no positive response to the delayed certificates, no re-accreditation visits for renewals of certain qualifications, failed DG projects and outstanding funds owed to CAD4ALL the necessary action was pursued. The pressure was on to meet and fly up on the 31 January 2018, and I travelled once again to Johannesburg and met with acting CEO of CETA, Mr Robert Semenya on the 31 January 2018. Robert was assigned to handle our meeting.CAD4ALL detailed ALL the damaging issues we were experiencing with CETA for the years prior and he promised to prioritise, and have it all sorted in 60 days. CAD4ALL is in possession of Roberts email that confirms all the items that we discussed on the 31 January 2018 and his reproach to it. Shockingly up until this point,19 months later, he has made unkept promises to CAD4ALL, his stakeholder.

Robert only responded under duress to meet in Cape Town in July 2019 when we had our attorneys send him a Letter of Demand. He conveniently orchestrated to meet as he was in Cape Town to attend a budget speech for the SETA’s, yet his contingencies were fruitless and only worsened in my opinion, his lack of credibility by virtue. The solution he offered and we at the time thought favourable, was to engage with acting COO, Innocent Ngezi which untimely dawdled on issues and was no asset in any manner. His procrastination and severe lack of understanding meant there again was NO progress. This means that another chunk is added to the 5 years, of CETA doing nothing.

After CAD4ALL has invested so much over the years and being so advanced and long in an industry like this, it will be shameful not to expose the negative effects the CETA has had on our business and the AEC industry with our related qualifications.

This incompetency and insufficiency of support is a skills disaster and a playball with learner careers. There is a massive trail indicative of how over the consecutive years, CETA continuously paid us and learners’ months late resulting in them leaving the projects and losing out on other opportunities. CETA’s actions are repetitive with other training providers in the past and is in direct contradiction of current CETA, acting CEO Mr Robert Semenya, utterances he expressed in the newspaper article of 22 February 2018 Knowledgeable ETQA’s understand the importance of co-operation with their stakeholder so that a progressive relationship will be fostered to ensure a seamless flow of skilled individuals. The very industry CAD4ALL services with integrity and recognition in its private capacity.

Many individuals now from these impoverished communities will now lose the opportunity to capitalise on this scarce and critical skill.

Construction CETA is light years behind the other SETAS resulting in an obsolete and dysfunctional operation.Mr Robert Semenya and CETA and their interaction with CAD4ALL over this drawn out period effectively subverts the objectives initiated by the Skills Development Act of 1998.

CAD4ALL has an esteemed reputation and a positive brand image in industry that was built over the years but our continued alliance with CETA incompetence has thus caused irreversible damage and unwanted chaos. This public negativity, lack of accountability and downward spiral created by CETA was the trigger point to activate migration.CAD4ALL has evolved to a level that has changed the playing field in industry and for this very reason we have a clearer view of what the future of this critical and scarce skill will look like.

Our vision will be unattainable if CETA remains our ETQA of choice so strategically CAD4ALL positioned itself to vigorously migrate to DHET where our value proposition will be enabled more effectively with subject matter experts.CAD4ALL was recently nominated and selected in the top ten as a finalist in a national design competition where our competitors derived from top universities and institutions in SA. CAD4ALL’s passion in education is displayed in the many accolades it receives and it will not be tarnished or dominated by an inept, substandard Construction CETA.

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