Directors

• Gail Elliott
  Gail Elliot is the Managing Director of Umhlaba Skills Services. She was previously employed as a senior consultant by Resolve Workplace Solutions, a member of the Resolve Group. Gail joined Resolve in April 2000, having been employed as Head of Quality Assurance at the South African Qualifications Authority. During her four-year stay at Resolve, she has worked extensively with SETAs and with the Department of Labour on a range of projects including sector skills planning, ETQA and quality assurance systems, policies and procedures as well as SETA structures and systems for governance, management and core business functions. During 2002, Gail was also involved in the review of the levy-grant system for the Department of Labour and the development of an accelerated training and development strategy for the DME’s Mine Health and Safety Inspectorate. During 2003-2004, Gail was project managed the of unit standards for the PSETA against the senior management competency framework of the DPSA, the establishment of the SARS (Training) Academy and the transformation-restructuring project for the MAPPP-SETA.
  
  Since the establishment of Skills Services Gail has worked extensively with the Department of Labour on a number of policy research and legislative development projects. She has also worked with SETA’s and organizations in the design, development and implementation of business, operational and evaluation systems relating to all aspects of the Skills Development legislation including organizational design, skills planning and labour market analysis, Business Planning, standards setting, learnership development, quality assurance, assessment and certification. The specific projects that she has managed and conducted are listed on Page 8-10 of this document.
  
  
• Brendan Pearce
  Brendan Pearce is an executive director at Skills Services.
  Brendan Pearce is an executive director at Skills Services. He was admitted to the Johannesburg Bar Council as an advocate in 1998. Adv. Pearce has worked with a range of large institutions engaged in skills development, including the Local Government and Water SETA, the Legal Aid Board, and BMW-SA. He has until recently been contracted as CEO of the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services SETA (MERSETA). Prior to the MERSETA assignment he provided the senior management and Managing Director of the Land and Agricultural Bank of South Africa with strategic and project management support.
  
  Recent projects that are specific to the themes of the evaluation are his work with the Legal Aid Board, where he designed and implemented support to the internship programme, part of a strategy to improve legal service standards to the poor and indigent. Adv. Pearce had also worked with a number of donors and paralegal institutions to promote and broaden community based paralegal service support, again in an attempt to broaden access to justice.
  
  Adv. Pearce is currently facilitating transformation of the Johannesburg Bar Council of Advocates, a strategy explicitly to promote the development of black and women advocates in the profession, and as a result to open the possibilities for them to progress to the Bench. His understanding of the challenges of the justice arena led to his facilitation of strategy of the Kwazulu Natal Provincial Integrated Justice Forum involving prosecuting authorities, police, Department of Social Development, magistrates etc.
  
  Adv. Pearce is also familiar with the local government terrain, and has implemented a turnaround strategy of the Local Government SETA to assist local government institutions and municipalities to promote skills development and put in a place a local government skills development framework for all municipalities in South Africa.
  
  
• Sebolelo Nomvete
  Sebolelo Nomvete is an executive director of Skills Services. She joined our mother-company, Umhlaba Development Services as Managing Director in March 2005 and acts both as a director and as skills specialist consultant for Umhlaba Skills Services on projects.
  Sebolelo has a Masters in Education from the University of Leeds. She served as Chief Executive Officer of the Media Printing Packaging and Publishing Sector Education and Training Authority until February 2005. She previously served as a senior manager at the South African Qualifications Authority and the Department of Labour. As Managing Director of Umhlaba Development Services Sebolelo, is responsible for facilitating and managing the business strategy. She is also active in projects that require her extensive skills and experience. Her particular skills and experience include: Strategic Planning, Project Management, Policy Research and Development, Business Plan Development incl. Budget planning and monitoring, Monitoring and Evaluation, Quality Management and Assurance Systems, Curriculum Research and Development incl. Materials Development, Skills Development Planning, Communication, Negotiation, Mediation and Conflict Resolution and Staff Management.

Staff and Associates