FASSET ANNUAL REPORT

Chairperson’s Foreword

our people within the teams to function and process decisions virtually, while building new resilience into the organisation. Every member of the Board, Executive and Operational team has tapped into our ability to adapt, agility and how to better use our capacity, and capabilities to extend our reach in a new normal. In addition to these facets, the Board and Executive have had to consider responsive solutions to take the SETA into the future during this increasingly pressing time on several macro and micro, and socio-economic fronts. As inequality gaps in access to education and skills widen, we have to see ourselves as a pivotal respondent in a larger ecosystem seeking to address national challenges. Therefore, we do not take lightly the responsibility and the opportunity to contribute to the deep work of making skills development a priority in South Africa. Some of these responsive solutions have included ensuring students have been capacitated to continue learning online, in spite of the prolonged closures of educational institutions. Such initiatives have alerted us to the need to intensify as opposed to diversify the value FASSET delivers, and this will call for deepened cooperation and collaboration with all our stakeholders, internally and externally. As we look forward and understand the continued need for increased speed of transformation, the impact of automated and digitalised functions and the growth of new disciplines, skills and environments – we need to be geared to support these transitions with fresh knowledge, research and skills. Further, FASSET will continue to invest in means to address emerging challenges such as financial acumen and skills in the SME sector, and leveraging partnerships in complementary sectors to support the broader economic recovery of the FAS sector.

Lynette Ntuli Chairperson

The start of the FASSET Accounting Authority’s term took place at the best and the worst of times. April 2020 coincided with the SETA’s coming of age and 21st year of operation but also the first week of the Level 5 COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in South Africa. Much of the work and service delivery of FASSET relies on the ability to operate in physical spaces. In many ways this coming of age, coupled with a global crisis and a brand new way of work presented critical and immediate dynamics, dimensions and challenges for this new Board to navigate. In an ideal and pre-pandemic world, inductions and handovers would have taken place in spaces that would have allowed us to interact and immerse ourselves in new relationships and environments.

Therefore, our focus in this financial year was to enable

Reinvention, re-alignment and regeneration will mark

FASSET Annual Integrated Report 2020/21

11