Journal of Vocational Education & Training Reviewing

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Reviewing the development of the South African further education and training college sector ten years after the end of apartheid Simon McGrath

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Human Sciences Research Council , South Africa Published online: 19 Dec 2006.

To cite this article: Simon McGrath (2004) Reviewing the development of the South African further education and training college sector ten years after the end of apartheid, Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 56:1, 137-160 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13636820400200242

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Journal of Vocational Education and Training, Volume 56, Number 1, 2004

Reviewing the Development of the South African Further Education and Training College Sector Ten Years after the End of Apartheid

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SIMON MCGRATH Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa

ABSTRACT This article analyses the progress made in transforming the public further education and training college system in South Africa in the first decade of democracy. It charts the evolution of policy for the sector and how it relates to broader policy development in South Africa. It examines the extent to which policy has been implemented and highlights a series of remaining challenges for the sector. The article concludes that much has been done in transforming the college sector, most notably through the creation of 50 non-racialised, multi-site colleges. However, it also notes that many of the reforms envisaged by the Department of Education remain only partially implemented. Most crucially, and inevitably, the sector continues to struggle with the challenge of developing skills in a context of extremely high youth unemployment.

The State of the College Sector before 1994 The South African technical college sector developed in the early twentieth century to provide theoretical learning alongside the practical training of the apprenticeship system. However, by the start of the 1990s the linkages with apprenticeship had radically declined as colleges took increasing numbers of non-apprentices into their courses. This meant that practical learning no longer complemented the theoretical provision of the colleges for the majority of learners. At the same time, the increasing access of blacks to skilled and semiskilled work in the 1980s had resulted in a new wave of colleges aimed at this new clientele, with provision still being racially segregated. By 1994 the technical college ‘system’ was a complex mix of historically-white institutions, with considerable autonomy; historically-black urban 137

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colleges, with far less autonomy; plus ex-homeland colleges and lower level training centres. All of these would need to be incorporated into one single system with a common model of governance and finance. Policy Evolution in the Further Education and Training College Sector Between 1997 and 1998 the Department of Education led a policy process that resulted in a Further Education and Training Act. Subsequently, the Department has also developed a strategy document for the college sector and, most important, a plan – now implemented – for the transformation of the complex institutional legacy into 50 new Further Education and Training (FET) colleges. The new name is symbolic of an attempt both to shed the negative images of the old technical college system and to highlight the importance of bringing together educational values and relevance to the workplace.


The National Committee on Further Education The process started with the National Committee on Further Education (NCFE), which presented their draft report in February 1997, highlighting the lack of identity of an FET level: ‘FET represents a range of programmes and providers: it is not a system’ (DoE, 1997a, p. 42). This largely reflected a situation brought about by the decision to adopt a National Qualifications Framework (NQF). This framework divided education and training into three bands – general, further and higher. College programmes straddled the divide between further and higher education and training, but colleges as institutions were seen as falling under the ‘further’ band, alongside senior secondary schools. This meant that they were to be administered by provincial authorities rather than the new national Department of Education (which had responsibility for higher institutions). Although the NCFE’s name suggested it had a mandate to look at both schools and colleges, it was to start a trend in policy discussions of treating the two components separately. In this case, it was only colleges that were addressed. The NCFE’s picture of colleges was damning, finding that they lacked adequate: • • • • • • •

plant and infrastructure; governance and management structures; planning capacity; administrative and organisational systems; support functions; quality training of trainers; linkages to industry;

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• quality assurance; and • management information systems (DoE, 1997a, pp. 37-38). The final report emerged in August 1997 (DoE, 1997b). It refined the discussions of the draft and highlighted the importance of FET in economic growth, poverty eradication and personal development. The report also sought to stress equity and redress as important principles, listing these first among 11 goals for the new system. The need to address historical gender imbalances was raised, as was the urgency of a focus on rural poverty, especially for women. The needs of unemployed youth, the unemployed generally and the informal sector all also received mentions in the report. It was noted that the system in colleges and schools catered for the pre-employed to a far greater extent than the employed or unemployed. The report was also concerned with a series of major systemic reforms in the areas of governance, finance and certification. Increased autonomy became a central concern of the proposed reforms. However, this was tempered with a desire to ensure strong articulation and coordination of provision to serve national and provincial developmental goals. The report called for representative councils to be established at all colleges, bringing colleges in line with schools. As regards finance, the report suggested a mixture of the programmatic focus established for higher education and the studentbased approach of British FET. This in practice seemed to allow for output to be shifted towards desired courses. It was suggested that earmarked funding would be directed at students from certain target groups, at innovations and at strategic system improvements. The report proposed that private providers should be encouraged to register although it highlighted the need for guidelines regarding private providers’ access to public funds. Funding and certification were clearly linked in the way that the FET proposals aligned themselves with the recently established NQF. The report noted that many technical colleges were providing courses that fell into the Higher Education and Training Band of the NQF. It argued that colleges should access funding from the mechanisms of both the FET and HE bands, although it noted that that this might lead to governance and coordination problems. Although the report noted that colleges had an important role in responding to the challenges of economic growth and international competitiveness, there was, in fact, almost no discussion of the economic context in which FET transformation was expected to take place. Although the spectres of educated unemployment and jobless growth were mentioned early in the report (DoE, 1997b, p. 2), this did not lead on to a detailed discussion of the importance of the informal economy (McGrath, 2000).

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The Green Paper The Green Paper on Further Education and Training (DoE, 1998) showed significant departures from the NCFE Report. For example, it emphasised the need to situate the proposed reform within a broader range of intersectoral policies. Careful mention was made throughout the Green Paper of the parallel policy development process of the Department of Labour (DoL), which remained responsible for workplace training. Indeed, several DoL staff served on the reference group for the Green Paper. Moreover, a task team was proposed to liaise with the DoL on the operation of that Department’s proposed learnerships. The DoL saw learnerships as the replacement for the apprenticeship model. They were to be tripartite agreements between employers, learners/workers and learning providers and would combine theoretical learning off-the-job with workplace learning and work experience. They went beyond apprenticeships in being for all levels of the NQF (it was theoretically possible to get a doctorate through this route) and for all economic sectors and occupations. The Green Paper also sought to locate the policy for the FET sector in a more detailed reading of social and economic context than was evident in the NCFE Report. In particular there was a brief, but wellnuanced, reading of the pressures of globalisation on South Africa as well as the limits of its effects in the current context. Crucially, the Green Paper noted: The significance of the rural and informal economies: Perhaps only 30% of South Africans are the beneficiaries of formal employment. The majority of citizens find themselves systematically excluded from full employment and urban life. Many are engaged in the informal economy, especially in cities and towns. Many others are unemployed. In these local economies, world-class manufacture is likely to have little role to play, beyond the limited possibility of some outsourcing and the growth of small informal sector businesses. (DoE, 1998, p. 13) Globalisation was seen as bringing both opportunities and threats and as requiring a dual focus on international competitiveness and local basic needs. In this light, it was very much in line with international trends in skills policy (cf. Crouch et al, 1999). The Green Paper also spent considerable time in addressing articulation between aspects of the Department of Education’s own policies. The prior existence of other sub-sectoral policies from the Department (e.g. for higher education and for schools) meant that the Green Paper had to try to fit into an already quite confining policy slot. It seemed less positive than the NCFE Report regarding the future of HE-

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level courses at FET institutions, recommending that the newly established Council for Higher Education should investigate the matter, with the ending of such provision one of the possible options. More time was spent on the issues of articulation with the South African Schools Act (Republic of South Africa [RSA], 1996). It is clear that the writers of the Green Paper faced a dilemma in this regard. Their brief was to make policy recommendations for the FET system as a whole. However, the governance and finance of the vast majority of FET providers, the secondary schools, had already been legislated for under the Schools Act. Furthermore, any recommendations about curriculum and certification would also have to be aligned with initial decisions that had been taken elsewhere in the system, for instance, by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA). In this light, the criticism that the Green Paper was about colleges rather than FET was both justified and inevitable (McGrath, 2000). The Green Paper also suggested the importance of three to five year plans and programmatic funding as a means of driven institutional change. Four task teams were recommended in order to develop proposals on: • • • •

management capacity development; management information systems; funding; and programmes and qualifications. (DoE, 1998, p. 93)

The White Paper Responses to the Green Paper contained four key criticisms: emphasis on the economic importance of FET, at the expense of the social, cultural and humanistic elements; insufficient attention to the question of schools in the FET band; an inadequate treatment of the interface between FET and Higher Education; and insufficient attention to the linkages between the Ministry’s FET policies and the Department of Labour’s Skill Development Strategy. (RSA, 1998, p. 1) In the cases of the second to fourth criticisms, it can be argued that these were inevitable given the structure of the policy process and also largely unfair. The Green Paper did attempt to deal with all these areas of integration. Indeed, the critique of the Green Paper was unhelpful in so far as it appeared to have conflated an alleged economism in terms of vision with a need for a detailed reading of the economic context in which FET will take place (McGrath, 2000). As such, it threatened to undermine the potential for a successful response to economic and development challenges. 141


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As regards the relationship with Higher Education, the White Paper made one small but significant alteration to the position of the Green Paper, proposing a joint Council for Higher Education and National Board for Further Education and Training committee on the problematic courses. This could be seen as going some way to addressing colleges’ fears about higher education’s intentions in this matter. Nonetheless, the White Paper was very clear about its opposition to ‘mission drift’ and the need for FET institutions to focus primarily on their ‘core business’ of provision within the FET band (McGrath, 2000). The relationship with schools remained difficult for the White Paper to address. However, in its conceptualisation of the implementation trajectory for the new policy, it went into far more detail about a vision for integration of the FET level than previously attempted. It suggested a phased approach. Whilst the first priority of the FET policy was to transform the college sector, provincial education departments would be expected to develop aggregated FET plans, which would bring together their vision for schools and colleges under their jurisdiction. This would be followed by an investigation of the feasibility of extending programmebased funding to the senior secondary level and an encouragement for schools to develop new FET-oriented programmes and explore partnerships with colleges and other providers (McGrath, 2000). Regarding linkages with the Department of Labour’s programmes, it was clearly stated that steps should be taken ‘to fast-track the introduction of learnerships in FET colleges’ (RSA, 1998, p. 26). The National Strategy for Further Education and Training Once the FET Act was passed, the FET Branch of the DoE turned its attention to a strategy for its implementation. This was completed in 1999 (DoE, 1999). Central to this was a set of proposals about funding. It argued that a new funding system should be introduced over time. This should include a core of programme-based funding with additional special purpose funding. The programme-based element should itself be largely based on the notion of full-time equivalents (FTEs) but it was recommended that there should also be an outcomes-related component to encourage efficiency. It was envisaged that special purpose funding be directed at the development of management, staff and learner support systems, and for the development of new learning support materials. It was recommended that fees would be progressive, but it was made clear that there would be no public funds for student financial aid, unlike in higher education. It was strongly expected that FET institutions would have access to significant amounts of funding out of the new levy system established by the DoL. Through a 1% levy on enterprises’ payrolls, the DoL has been able to raise R3 billion [1] per annum for skills development. Eighty per 142


cent of this flows to 25 Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) and, thence, largely back to the levy paying firms, whilst 20% flows to a National Skills Fund for supporting strategic skills issues, including meeting the needs of micro-enterprises and community development. The New Institutional Landscape


It was clear to the Department of Education throughout this process that the current number of colleges, and the disparities between them, were untenable. In 2001 the Department published its strategy for responding to this challenge after a series of provincial analyses, overseen by a national task team. The New Institutional Landscape for Public Further Education and Training Colleges (DoE, 2001a) envisaged a series of 50 large institutions grounded in nine attributes: • • • • • • • • •

large, multi-site institutions; increased autonomy; a mixture of specialisation and multi-purpose institutions; a new quality assurance framework; an increased focus on open and distance learning; a greater focus on access for learners with special needs; better articulation and collaboration with higher education; a commitment to improved student support services; and a stress on partnerships with government and the private sector. (DoE, 2001a, pp. 16-20)

The report reinforced the need for the staffing of colleges to be more representative. It reiterated the need for curricular reform and the need for a wider range of programme offerings, supported by a new funding mechanism. It envisaged a transition over time in the extent of college autonomy as colleges developed sufficient capacity to manage themselves, and stressed the need for a capacity development effort to support such a growth in powers. An Overview of the Policy Process Important elements of the FET policy recommendations of the last decade have been realised in a set of practices, including the transformation of the institutional landscape through the merger process. However, it is striking that a number of policy recommendations remain at best partially acted upon. These include: • the development of a new financial model; • curricular transformation; • full engagement with the Department of Labour’s new learnerships;

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• clarification of articulation and interaction between FET colleges, schools and HE; and • greater sharpness in the system’s focus on both social and economic needs. This partially reflects capacity limitations but must also be seen as indicative of the scale of the transformation being attempted. Indeed, it highlights the importance of seeing this transformation as a process that will unfold over a number of years. Some of the Key Challenges Facing the FET College Sector in the Next Decade The Potential Implications of NQF Reform


As I have already argued, the position of the college sector is profoundly shaped by debates about how it relates to other elements of the education and training system. Much of the rest of this landscape has now been clarified. However, there is currently uncertainty about the future of the NQF, which potentially has very major implications for the future of the college sector. The NQF Review. In 2001, the Departments of Education and Labour decided to commission an international study team to investigate the performance of the NQF. This was in response to widespread criticisms of the operation of the system. The Report of the Study Team on the Implementation of the National Qualifications Framework (DoE & DoL, 2002) was published in April 2002. Whilst it was positive about the goals of the NQF and the importance of further work towards these, it made it clear that the expected bridge building between education and training had not progressed nearly as far as assumed. In this light, it found that there was still considerable tension and disagreement about the respective roles of the main institutional actors, including SAQA itself. The Report painted a picture in which both Departments feared that the system would privilege the interests of the other. Moreover, the Report highlighted the poor performance of the system in terms of equity and efficiency. It reflected on widespread stakeholder concerns about complexity and bureaucracy, which were judged as constraining rather than enabling the achievement of the system’s stated goals. The NQF Response. It took until July 2003 for the two Departments to develop an agreed response to the Study Team’s Report. Their response, An Interdependent Qualification Framework System (DoE & DoL, 2003), is a

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carefully crafted piece that sought to revise the NQF model in ways that balance the two Departments’ particular interests. The NQF response acknowledged that there had been weaknesses in the overall project of integrating education and training. It proposed that a set of new meso-level structures be introduced beneath SAQA that would allow SAQA to stress integration whilst these structures addressed the sectional interests of education and training beneath the SAQA umbrella. Hence, the existing General and Further Education and Training Quality Assurance Council (Umalusi) would continue to oversee academic and ‘general vocational’ programmes, whilst a new Trades, Occupations and Professions Qualifications Council would oversee vocational awards, most notably learnerships (DoE & DoL, 2003). There has been no official communication since the public consultation period ended in October 2003. By this point, it appears that the proximity of the elections in April 2004 convinced both departments to pause the process until a new Cabinet was in place. If adopted, the recommendations appear to have serious implications for the future of FET. There is a real danger that they reinforce the bifurcation between education and training rather than overcome it. Moreover, there appears to be a danger in the document that it sees colleges as only having a role in the delivery of ‘general vocational’ programmes. This would be disastrous for their future, exacerbating their theoretical bias and further splitting them off from employers. In commenting on the response, Young (2003) notes the likely continuation of overlapping and conflicting responsibilities, both in the FET and HE bands. At present, there appear to be conflicting positions from within the DoE regarding the extent to which colleges should be delivering programmes at level 5 of the NQF. This is highly significant as approximately half their current provision is at this level. However, according to a narrow interpretation of the NQF system and of the evolving FET policy, this is to be discouraged. Furthermore, the NQF response highlights another NQF-related tension. Approximately 80% of college learners already have a schoolleaving certificate equivalent to level 4, yet they will spend a further year in college to get another level 4 certificate. The NQF response seems to see the solution to this apparent inefficiency as refocusing colleges to take NQF level 1 graduates (i.e. learners who have completed nine years of schooling rather than 12 as is typical now). However, the impact on colleges of making their average entrants three years younger does not appear to have been properly examined. Confusions within the NQF system also appear to be hampering delivery of learnerships at present. In recent months, SETAs have blamed a lack of accredited providers for their non-delivery of learnerships. It appears that there are relatively few quality private providers. However, the role of the public providers has been misunderstood by many in the

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system due to the complexity of regulations. Private providers have to be accredited by the relevant SETA to deliver programmes in its area of focus. However, public providers require a negotiation between provincial education department, relevant SETA and Umalusi to agree to their provision of SETA programmes. In at least one province, a series of such agreements has been put in place and colleges have been allocated learnerships. However, this has not happened as widely or as quickly as intended when the whole country is considered.


Responsiveness and Relevance It is important to note that the notions of responsiveness and relevance are multifaceted. There is no universal technical definition for either concept, or a single route map that can direct colleges to achieving these goals. Nonetheless, this sub-section will seek to provide a sense of the complex challenges that colleges will continue to face in this area. Some of these relate strongly to the history of colleges, within a broader and deeply problematic history of South African education, training and labour market practices. Others relate to still contested or challenging areas of the post-1994 policy settlement. Still others relate to the imperative of being responsive to disparate stakeholders and relevant to a wide range of goals. The public colleges remain an important element of the overall educational system and need to be responsive to the overall goals of education with respect to the promotion of individuals’ personal and social development. In the South African case, the development of active citizens for a new multiracial democracy is clearly of great importance. The model of an integrated approach to education and training, undergirded by the NQF, had a core understanding that all providers should balance educational and training imperatives in their programmes and should develop a series of critical cross-field outcomes for all. Any reform of college programmes will need to speak explicitly to these national educational goals. Colleges are among the limited range of relatively well-established tools the state has for delivering on its development objectives, especially in more rural areas. In the skills arena, it is apparent that the college system is in far better shape than the Adult Basic Education and Training system and it seems inevitable that colleges will continue to play a significant role in adult skills development, not just at the intermediate skills level. In the run up to the April 2004 elections, the issue of skills became a central theme of government, as an explanation for poor delivery and as an urgent priority. Increasingly, there was a sense that intermediate skills development was crucial to nation success. This inevitably led to a

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growing official interest in the potential of public FET colleges to address this issue. Colleges also have a key role in formation of new citizens and members of communities. This is made clear in the policy formulations of the DoE regarding the college sector. Altman & Meyer (2003) argue that an export-led growth strategy should be coupled with a focus on expansion of employment in non-tradable goods and services and basic needs. In the announcement of the revised Medium Term Expenditure Framework in November 2003, there was commitment made to a massive Expanded Programme of Public Works (EPWP), planned to reach 1 million South Africans. It is important to consider, therefore, what role colleges can play as skills providers in building employment and incomes in the lower reaches of the economy, especially in response to the EPWP. However, as Badroodien (2003) and Gamble (2003) both caution, there is a danger of community development becoming the sole focus of some colleges or campuses, potentially in ways that reproduce older racial inequalities (Badroodien, 2003). That is to say, that whilst ex-white campuses may focus on links with industry; ex-black ones may be seen as best suited to meeting lower level skills needs. Although there is no clear mandate in regard of a self-employment focus in FET policy, it is clear that there is a drive to make colleges more responsive in this regard. However, in seeking to become more responsive and relevant to self-employment and the Very Small and Micro Enterprise (VSME) sector, it will be vital that South African institutions learn from some of the experiences of other African countries in this regard. Many such experiences point to the need for clarity of vision, modesty of goals and length of timeframes (McGrath, 2003). There seems to be a strong strand of complacency and ignorance in employer, college and graduate accounts of the relationship between education and work (Cosser et al, 2003). This goes some way to explaining why employers and graduates are generally positive about colleges regardless of the poor labour market outcomes that appear to issue from the system. The longer-term story of a low skill equilibrium in South Africa appears to be central to this. Too many employers have preferred to poach skilled workers rather than train and have taken a largely passive attitude towards skills development. Too few of them have seen their local college as a vital partner and have taken a proactive stance in supporting these institutions. Local chambers of business remain relatively weak and the new SETAs have not taken on enough of a local or regional feel to provide a close collaborator for the college system. It is important to remember that employers in other countries have not always reacted enthusiastically to increased college responsiveness, particularly where it has expected them also to become more pro-active with regard to their staff’s skills development (McGrath, 2003).

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Colleges have often appeared to be too ready to bemoan this state of affairs than to go out and market themselves to local employers. In part, this has been because of their limited autonomy (especially in the case of previously state colleges). Colleges have not always exploited their ability to be responsive to its full extent in the area of short courses targeted at local employers, although there has been uncertainty about the acceptability of short courses within the whole qualification dominated NQF. Unfortunately, this problem has not been entirely solved by SAQA’s 2002 attempt to clarify this issue (SAQA, 2002). With the decline of apprenticeship, colleges find it difficult to place students in any form of meaningful work experience. They have also done little to find resources for adequate career guidance (McGrath, 2003). Learners show little sense of where they are going after college and little concern about taking control of either their learning or their transition to work. Without much exposure to career guidance (17% of graduates surveyed in 2001) or work experience (22% of graduates surveyed), the majority have a poor understanding of the world into which they are soon to enter after their short stay in college (Cosser, 2003). Employers need to become more serious about training, and how they can build their local providers. The state needs to provide a more enabling environment. Communities need to take a more active role in building their local colleges. Learners need to take greater responsibility for their learning. Colleges do appear to have accepted that they need to become more responsive to multiple needs and that they should seek to develop more relevant programmes. However, this awareness is only slowly manifesting a practical impact. The bulk of provision remains locked in the old core DoE programmes and many colleges appear to lack the confidence to break out of this status quo. Clear leadership from provincial and national educational departments and more activist approaches from the SETAs and DoL could help effect quite rapid changes here. The Challenge of Scarce Intermediate Skills The South African Government has identified a scarcity of intermediate skills as a major constraint on future development and on delivery of government programmes. However, at both provincial and college level, there is little capacity to conduct local labour market analyses, although the current provincial processes of developing Growth and Development and Human Resource Development Strategies may be an important step forward in identifying needs and opportunities at a more disaggregated level. Crucially, there is a danger that the current evolutionary path of provider institutions is inimical to the development of intermediate 148


technical skills. Whereas demand has been stagnant or even declining in many high skill areas, the 2000 National Industrial Training Survey suggests that the highest demand is for intermediate skills (Kraak et al, 2000). There are long-standing complaints that the South African economy has tended towards an underdevelopment of crucial intermediate level skills. Whilst there has been a radical shift towards black employment at these levels in the past 25 years, it appears that the South African economy may face serious constraints in successfully expanding production for domestic and international markets in areas such as manufacturing because of the weak intermediate skills base. The problem in the formal economy is also mirrored in the informal economy, where South Africa is far weaker in terms of technical and craft skills than the majority of other African countries (McGrath, 2003). The importance of intermediate skills is also indicated by the clustering of 47% of learnership awards at NQF levels 4 and 5 (DoL, 2002, p. 13).


Making Mergers Work It is clear that the 2001 implementation plan for mergers will take significant time to be fully achieved (Badroodien & McGrath, 2003; Gamble, 2003). Nonetheless, by early 2004 the merger process had moved forward importantly, with CEOs and councils in place in all colleges and new staff establishments and unified budgets largely established by the start of the new academic year. Notwithstanding progress, there remains a very major challenge in building the new colleges. Perhaps inevitably, there remain serious problems around perceptions that some campuses are being advantaged over others, and the understanding of this often takes on a racial dimension (Badroodien & McGrath, 2003). Building robust governance and management systems will clearly also take time. Some colleges are already strong in these areas but others remain extremely weak. Learner Support The racial profile of learners in the college sector has changed dramatically in the past 20 years and especially since 1994. Enrolments now largely match the overall racial profile of the country at large, whereas they were once almost completely white. This means that colleges are faced with a greater challenge than previously in responding to the apartheid legacy of weaknesses in school education, most notably in English, mathematics and science teaching and learning in historically African schools. Whilst there are signs of school improvement in these areas, the legacy of the past will be slow to evaporate. In the meantime,

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colleges will face an important challenge of remedial work in key areas of skills and knowledge (McGrath, 2003). The success of colleges in promoting responsiveness and employment are also strongly shaped by the continuing playing out of race issues in the labour market. Placement of learners for both work experience and employment will continue to be shaped in part by racialised notions of learner suitability. At the same time, the promotion of employment equity necessarily will impact on the placement rates of students into the labour market and remuneration on offer there. By no means all of the labour market failure of graduates can be placed at the door of the colleges (McGrath, 2003). Notions of the unsuitability of female learners for work in technical trades also continue to be a particular challenge for college efforts at securing employment for graduates. Colleges can play a part in overcoming this through their policies and practices but it is clear that broader efforts to change employer and societal views will also be necessary. Here colleges are enjoined to be responsive to national goals that are not necessarily in line with the expressed needs of employers and communities (McGrath, 2003). Colleges are also being pulled in two ways on the issue of the age profile of learners. On the one hand, they are being encouraged to play a leading role in addressing the issue of youth unemployment. On the other, they are called to address the needs of adult learners, both those in need of skills upgrading to access the labour market and those who need to retrain as a result of technological changes in the firms within which they are already employed. Colleges will need to balance these responsiveness pressures if they are to meet the diverse expectations made of them, but they will also need the right economic and policy signals to assist their decision-making (McGrath, 2003). The DoE has been at the forefront of South Africa’s official response to HIV/AIDS and it is relevant to consider what colleges are doing both in terms of supporting learners who are HIV positive and in the way of HIV/AIDS prevention programmes. Evidence to date suggests that there is still only the beginning of a college-level response (Gamble, 2003). One of the widely accepted roles of colleges internationally in placing students into employment lies in the effective operation of guidance and counselling systems. This has been a particular area of college weakness (King & McGrath, 2002; Cosser, 2003), although it is now receiving attention (Gamble, 2003). In response to these challenges, the establishment of a Student Support Unit is a planned for each college. These Units are intended to provide student support that is not of an academic nature, and many will also benefit surrounding communities.

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Curriculum Change There has still not been a major overhaul of the curricula inherited from the apartheid era and the key qualifications are still not properly aligned with NQF principles. The range of programmes currently offered by FET colleges is narrow. Approximately 90% of learners in FET colleges are enrolled either in largely theoretical courses in engineering or business studies programmes (Powell & Hall, 2002). Even where they are included within the current regulations (see DoE 2001b), there has been very limited development of programme delivery in other fields such as sport and leisure; hospitality and tourism; or local government administration. Delivery of non-DoE programmes has seen significant increases in the recent past, but from a very small base. Such programmes accounted for only 14% of all FTEs in 2000 (Powell & Hall, 2002). Learnership delivery appears to have increased quite dramatically during 2003 and early 2004 but remains concentrated in small pockets. A similar pattern of growth from a small base is probably also the case for the delivery of short courses. It is clear that there is a major outstanding challenge of curricular change in the college sector. Whilst the DoE points out that the existing programmes allow some flexibility for innovation, there is a real sense across the sector of waiting for a centralised decision about the introduction of a whole new set of NQF-aligned qualifications. However, the emergence of such qualifications is affected by a series of factors. First, the curriculum development capacity of the education system is rather weak in respect of the vocational areas. Second, the uncertain status of the recommendations of the NQF response serves as a brake on curricular reform. The final outcome of some of these recommendations would have very significant implications for the thrust of the new curricula. Without clarity, major curricular change would be difficult. In particular, the NQF response adds to the lack of clarity about college involvement in the learnership system by appearing to see colleges as targeting primarily younger learners and offering them ‘general vocational’ programmes. In addition to all this colleges also need to be allowed a clearer vision regarding programmes at NQF level 5 and with respect to short courses for workers and the self-employed. They will also need to achieve significant progress with respect to recognition of prior learning (RPL). Whilst SAQA has developed new guidelines for the whole education and training system with regard to RPL (SAQA, 2003), implementation of RPL remains very poor across all elements of the system. Given the slowness of the overall alignment process of college programmes to the NQF, it is not surprising that the sector is particularly weak in RPL terms.

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Staff Development There are relatively few un- or under-qualified staff in the college system. The figure stood at 12% in 2000 (Powell & Hall 2002, p. 88) and will likely have fallen since then. However, the transformation from technical colleges to FET colleges brings with it a radically different vision for teaching and learning, with major implications for staff competencies. There have been a lot of staff development activities since early 2003, especially around issues related to delivery of NQF-aligned programmes. However, the impact of such activities is likely to be constrained by the lack of opportunities to put the new learning into practice in many colleges (Badroodien & McGrath, 2003).


Autonomy The DoE is broadly supportive of the international trend towards greater college autonomy. The designation of the new college rectors as CEOs is clearly symbolic of this. However, it is apparent that the Department sees autonomy as something to be developed over time; indeed to be earned through proof of capacity and responsibility. It is very aware of the fragility of the new management and governance structures in the colleges and the limited capacity of the provincial administrations to oversee colleges. Therefore, it is likely that the DoE will continue to see autonomy as something that needs to be kept in deliberate tension with overall driving of the system from Pretoria. Funding The DoE estimates suggest that the recurrent funding of the system has a good match between the requests in college strategic plans and the Medium Term Expenditure Framework. However, funding for the rehabilitation and improvement of buildings and facilities will be far harder to deliver. As yet, the funding formula for the sector remains a proposal and the details of how the performance-related elements of it will work still need further elaboration. Throughout several years of documents on the reform of the sector it has been assumed that the system can and should access significant funds from the DoL’s National Skills Development System. This concern from the DoE does receive some support in the draft of the Second National Skills Development Strategy (to be finalised by October 2004) but the extent of future financial support from the DoL system remains unclear. The future funding of DoE programmes at NQF level 5 within colleges is also unclear.

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Capacity in the FET College System It can be argued that the FET Branch of the DoE has demonstrated significant capacity through its management of the merger process, which was both technically complex and highly sensitive. However, across South Africa’s civil service, there remain serious problems of capacity and the DoE cannot be exempted from these. Bird, a Deputy Director General in the Department of Labour, has written of the major problems of recruiting and retaining staff (Bird, 2001). National departments, including the DoE, have large numbers of unfilled posts and many staff are lacking the requisite qualifications and experience for their posts (Department of Public Service and Administration, 2002). Even where there are experienced and competent staff, as is partially the case amongst the leadership of the college sector, the overall problems of understaffing and lack of support seriously undermine performance. The problem is more acute at the provincial level. Although competence for college affairs has oscillated between the national and provincial levels during the history of the sector, the present dispensation where FET is a ‘shared competency’ emerged at a point where there was very little capacity at the provincial level. A decade on, several of the provincial departments of education remain very weak in this area. The system has very little analytical capacity. There is no centre of excellence within the HE system for either research or teaching on FET college matters. Only in the Human Sciences Research Council is there a small cadre of researchers with doctoral qualifications relevant to the college sector. Furthermore, the majority of the active researchers in the field are white. Additionally, national research capacity in labour sociology, labour economics and the economics of education is also relatively poor. Many government departments and other relevant agencies are also weak in terms of analytical capacity and the ability to collect and use relevant information. There have been plans to develop analytical capacity at various levels in the system, including proposals for a learnership for FET administrators and a programme of postgraduate studies. However, these have not yet developed into a viable strategy for capacity development. There are also pronounced weaknesses in the sharing of information and knowledge within the FET system. In spite of the national structures linked to the Heads of Education Committee, there seems to be weak vertical and horizontal sharing within the system at all levels. Attempts to improve intra-provincial cooperation, as in KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape, are a step in the right direction in this regard.

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Conclusion The production of a balance sheet of the performance of FET in South Africa after 10 years of democracy is highly challenging. Two problems are particularly worth noting. First, the legacy of the past is so profound that it both continues to haunt progress and can be used to claim that progress is more profound than is really the case. Second, whilst 10 years is a long time in the lives of those who most acutely need support from the FET system, it is a short time in attempting to transform systems, institutions and attitudes. As a result it becomes difficult to judge whether certain elements of the new system are fundamentally flawed or simply young and fragile. The enshrinement of racial discrimination in FET legislation is a thing of the past. Instead, there is a new language of equity and redress. The fragmentation of 17 separate educational departments and racially separate provider institutions has given way to one national education department and deracialised providers. The merging of public providers into 50 new FET colleges has been a crucial element of developing a new system. Moreover, between the national and local level lie new sets of meso institutions: including provincial education departments. There has also been the creation of SAQA as a structure to encourage better articulation between education and training; whilst a number of DoLrelated structures are also potentially supports for the FET college sector. There has been a largely participatory attempt to gear the whole education and training system towards balancing economic and social objectives and on combining the academic and the vocational; the theoretical and the practical. There is a clear drive also to build both the quality and quantity of provision. Enrolments and pass rates in public colleges are improving and there are signs of better relationships with employers. In spite of the clear policy commitment to equity and redress, delivery shows major weaknesses on these grounds. The strong stated commitment of government departments and agencies to Recognition of Prior Learning is reflected only in very limited and patchy delivery. The education and training needs of very small and micro enterprises continue to be neglected in practice. Access to structured education and training is far greater for urban than rural populations. The decision not to construct a single Ministry of Education and Training (as envisaged in the African National Congress’s education and training planning prior to the 1994 elections) continues to have profound effects. Although the NQF and SAQA are supposed to bring integration at the level of qualifications, it is apparent that the different institutional logics of the Departments of Education (focused on management of educational institutions) and Labour (focused on building skills in

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workplaces and for the unemployed) constantly threaten the integrative logic. Indeed, the long delays in constructing a joint response between the two Departments to the recommendations of the NQF Review Team, and the tensions that are apparent in the NQF response, highlight the level of conflict between the two over a common vision for the NQF and for education and training more generally. Moreover, the rather careful criticism of the NQF in these two documents appears to significantly underplay the real performance of the new framework. The FET college merger process leaves unanswered a crucial set of questions about the focus of these institutions and about their coherence with other elements of the education and training landscape. There are two central areas of coherence problems: articulation with the DoL’s system and with the general education system. Colleges urgently require better linkages with businesses, given the decline of historical relationships, and SETAs and learnerships are central to the development of these relationships. However, relations with SETAs are still not good enough, and arrangements for learnerships in colleges are still inadequate. Moreover, they are made more uncertain by the unfinished debate around the future of the NQF. The college sector is struggling also in developing a new financial model that can address both rehabilitation and future quality provision. This will require, in part, a revisiting of the relationships between the college sector and the levy-grant system, especially the National Skills Fund. The college system is in need of capacity development at all levels. Curricular development and new approaches to supporting learners are also key priorities. Given the likely centrality of very small and micro enterprise development to the future of South Africa, it is particularly serious that policies and programmes of skills development for enterprise development remain so weak and that coherence is particularly bad in this area. There is also a challenge for the FET college sector in becoming better articulated with the wider range of policy initiatives of the Government, which bring with them opportunities for new programmes and partnerships with state, business and communities. However, the greatest problem for the new FET system is the hostile labour market and economic environment in which these reforms have taken place. Take-up of learnerships and the placement in employment of graduates of colleges or learnership programmes for the unemployed are heavily constrained by jobless growth and unemployment of 40% on the broad definition. Progress towards a South African skills revolution is an important move towards overall development goals but is itself constrained by the weakness and unevenness of that development. Managing this paradox is perhaps the greatest challenge for the emergent system.

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Correspondence Dr Simon McGrath, Director, Research Programme on Human Resources Development, Human Sciences Research Council, Private Bag X41, Pretoria 0001, South Africa ([email protected]). Note [1] Approximately GBP 250 million per annum at current exchange rates.

References Altman, M. & Meyer, M. (2003) Industrial Policy, in Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) (Ed.) Human Resources Review 2003. Cape Town: HSRC Press. Badroodien, A. (2003) Local Labour Environments and Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges, in M. Cosser et al (Eds) Technical College Responsiveness. Cape Town: HSRC Press.


Badroodien, A. & McGrath, S. (2003) Monitoring and Evaluation of DANIDA Support to Education and Skills Development (SESD) Programme: First Formative Assessment. Pretoria: Human Sciences Research Council. Bird, A. (2001) Knowledge Capacity Building in South Africa, in W. Gmelin, K. King & S. McGrath, S. (Eds) Development Knowledge, National Research and International Cooperation. Edinburgh, Bonn, Geneva: CAS/DSE/Norrag. Cosser, M. (2003) Graduate Training Survey, in M. Cosser et al (Eds) Technical College Responsiveness. Cape Town: HSRC Press. Cosser, M. et al (Eds) (2003) Technical College Responsiveness. Cape Town: HSRC Press. Crouch, C., Finegold, D. & Sako, M. (1999) Are Skills the Answer? The Political Economy of Skill Creation in Advanced Industrial Societies. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Department of Education (1997a) Draft Report of the National Committee on Further Education. Pretoria: Department of Education. Department of Education (1997b) Report of the National Committee on Further Education. Pretoria: Department of Education. Department of Education (1998) Green Paper on Further Education. Pretoria: Government Printer. Department of Education (1999) National Strategy for Further Education and Training. Pretoria: Government Printer. Department of Education (2001a) A New Institutional Landscape for Public Further Education and Training Colleges. Pretoria: Government Printer. Department of Education (2001b) Formal Technical College Instructional Programmes in the RSA (Report 191). Pretoria: Government Printer.

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SOUTH AFRICAN FURTHER EDUCATION AFTER APARTHEID Department of Education and Department of Labour (2002) The Report of the Study Team on the Implementation of the National Qualifications Framework. Pretoria: Government Printer. Department of Education and Department of Labour (2003) An Interdependent Qualification Framework System. Pretoria: Government Printer. Department of Labour (2002) The National Skills Development Strategy Implementation Report, April 2001 to March 2002. Pretoria: Government Printer. Department of Public Service and Administration (2002) Human Resources Development Strategy for the Public Sector, 2002-6. Pretoria: Government Printer. Gamble, J. (2003) Monitoring and Evaluation of DANIDA Support to Education and Skills Development (SESD) Programme: Baseline Study. Pretoria: Human Sciences Research Council. King, K. & McGrath, S. (2002) Globalisation, Enterprise and Knowledge. Oxford: Symposium Books.


Kraak, A. et al (2000) Baseline Survey of Industrial Training in South Africa. Report commissioned by the Department of Labour. Pretoria: Human Sciences Research Council. McGrath, S. (2000) Coming in from the Cold: further education and training in South Africa, Compare, 30(1), pp. 65-84. McGrath, S. (2003) Building College Responsiveness in South Africa, in M. Cosser et al (Eds) Technical College Responsiveness. Cape Town: HSRC Press. Powell, L. & Hall, G. (2002) Quantitative Overview of the Further Education and Training College Sector: The New Landscape. Pretoria: Department of Education. Republic of South Africa (1996) South African Schools Act. Pretoria: Government Printer. Republic of South Africa (1998) Education White Paper 4. Pretoria: Government Printer. South African Qualifications Authority (2002) Criteria and Guidelines for Short Courses and Skills Programmes. Pretoria: Government Printer. South African Qualifications Authority (2003) Criteria and Guidelines for the Implementation of Recognition of Prior Learning. Pretoria: Government Printer. Young, M. (2003) Report on An Interdependent Qualification Framework System. Prepared for the Council for Higher Education, Pretoria.

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THE JOURNAL OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION & TRAINING WELCOMES SUBMISSIONS


The Editorial Board of JVET welcomes the submission of good quality articles from across the post compulsory sector of education and training, whether from experts, academics or practitioners, in further or higher education, or other public sector organisations. Bearing in mind our international readership, we welcome reports of significant developments in the field, research, book reviews, discussion articles on topics of relevance to those working and studying in the sector, both in the UK and overseas. Suitable topics might include: • Social exclusion and the college response • Impact of the introduction of standards in basic skills for Further Education teachers • Career development and progression for teachers in post compulsory education • Impact of 14-19 initiatives on vocational education provision • Student perceptions of the post compulsory learning experience (e.g. in relation to key skills) • Transferability of skills internationally • Impact of selected initiatives on post-16 curriculum • Role and mobility of senior managers in further education • Implications of the advent of learning and skills councils for funding and management of colleges • Evaluation of specific developments, experiences or initiatives overseas where implications can be drawn for practice or policy elsewhere. Information about the presentation and style of manuscripts can be found in the Notes for Contributors, on the back cover of the journal. General information about the journal, including past contents, can be found at www.triangle.co.uk/VAE. If you would like to discuss a proposed contribution with the Editor, please contact Dr Jocelyn Robson, School of Arts, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, United Kingdom ([email protected]).

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THE JOURNAL OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION & TRAINING WELCOMES SUBMISSIONS


The Editorial Board of JVET welcomes the submission of good quality articles from across the post compulsory sector of education and training, whether from experts, academics or practitioners, in further or higher education, or other public sector organisations. Bearing in mind our international readership, we welcome reports of significant developments in the field, research, book reviews, discussion articles on topics of relevance to those working and studying in the sector, both in the UK and overseas. Suitable topics might include: • Social exclusion and the college response • Impact of the introduction of standards in basic skills for Further Education teachers • Career development and progression for teachers in post compulsory education • Impact of 14-19 initiatives on vocational education provision • Student perceptions of the post compulsory learning experience (e.g. in relation to key skills) • Transferability of skills internationally • Impact of selected initiatives on post-16 curriculum • Role and mobility of senior managers in further education • Implications of the advent of learning and skills councils for funding and management of colleges • Evaluation of specific developments, experiences or initiatives overseas where implications can be drawn for practice or policy elsewhere. Information about the presentation and style of manuscripts can be found in the Notes for Contributors, on the back cover of the journal. General information about the journal, including past contents, can be found at www.triangle.co.uk/VAE. If you would like to discuss a proposed contribution with the Editor, please contact Dr Jocelyn Robson, School of Arts, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, United Kingdom ([email protected]).

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