PROJECT: EAP 75

ENGLAND-AFRICA PARTNERSHIPS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

SUPPORTING ACCELERATED AND SHARED GROWTH IN SOUTH AFRICA

REPORT ON THE RESEARCH ON FURTHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING (FET) COLLEGES IN SOUTH AFRICA

April 2008

Prepared by Volker Wedekind

This document is an output of the EAP (England-Africa Partnerships in Higher Education) project funded by the UK Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) for the benefit of the African Higher Education

Sector. University partners in the project are the University of Nottingham, the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal and the University of the Western Cape. The views expressed are not necessarily those of DIUS, British Council or

the Universities concerned.

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Table of Contents

Executive Summary

Introduction

Knowledge Production

Historical and Policy Research

Knowledge and Curriculum

Lecturers, Students and Management

Conclusion

References

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report reviews the available research literature on the South African Further Education

and Training (FET) Colleges. Firstly, the institutions and individuals involved in the

production of the research are discussed. Since the early 1990s the research on technical and

vocational education and training has been dominated by the Human Sciences Research

Council (HSRC) and a few other NGOs and individuals. There are very few researchers

based in universities. While the people working in the field have been highly productive, it is

a very small grouping and the research agendas have been driven by the funding imperatives.

Three thematic areas are discussed. Firstly, historical and policy research on the colleges.

While there is limited historical analysis, there is significant contemporary policy analysis

available. The analysis focuses on the reform process, the dual responsibilities of the

Departments of Education and Labour, and the tensions inherent in the system. The second

thematic area focuses on knowledge and the curriculum. There is only a handful of studies

that examine the complex issue of knowledge in the technical and vocational field and how

this is translated into curriculum. The issue of a vocational pedagogy is hardly addressed at

all. The third thematic area focuses on the institutions themselves and the people (lecturers,

students, managers and councilors) in them. Again, there is limited research available that

provides a nuanced view into the colleges and what makes them function or not function. The

picture of who works and studies in the colleges, what motivates them, how they see

themselves and where they go when they leave, remains opaque. The most developed aspect

of this work relates to the management of colleges in the context of transformation.

The report concludes by outlining the strengths and gaps in the available work. It is argued

that the sector needs to be strengthened by developing an institutional base that is not

dependent on external funding (in universities and within the colleges), that there needs to be

a shift away from the technicist-managerial orientation of the bulk of the current research by

looking at the intersections between policy, context and critique, and finally, by focusing

more closely on the practice in the colleges, in terms of management, learning, teaching and

governance.

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REPORT ON THE RESEARCH INTO FURTHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING (FET) COLLEGES IN SOUTH AFRICA

INTRODUCTION

This report reviews the available literature on Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges

in South Africa. It attempts to outline the key trends in the literature over the past decade and

discusses the knowledge production networks that exist in South Africa and internationally

that have generated the published (and ‘grey’ literature where this is available). In addition,

the report has drawn on the growing body of knowledge contained in the unpublished work

of post graduate students that is housed in university libraries. This report is limited to the

policy studies, institutional studies, curriculum studies and professional studies related

specifically to FET colleges. Clearly the colleges are part of a wider system of technical and

vocational education and form part of a larger human resource development agenda that is

linked in with the economic policies of the South African state. There is a related literature on

skills, skills shortages, skills development, SETAs, and employment and unemployment that

is directly relevant to this field (readers are referred to Archer 2007; Daniels 2007). However,

for purposes of this report, the focus is restricted to the colleges, the college curriculum, and

those that are in them: the students, lecturers and managers.

The report discusses the key agents and agencies in the production of knowledge on the FET

colleges. The available literature is then discussed in three broad thematic areas. These are:

firstly, historical and policy overviews of the sector; secondly, knowledge, curriculum and

the curriculum reform in the sector; and finally, research that focuses on the lecturers,

students and management in the colleges. The report concludes with a section that discusses

key gaps and future directions.

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KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION ON FET COLLEGES

The research on FET colleges and technical and vocational education in South Africa is

produced by a relatively small group of researchers and is comparatively underdeveloped.

Nonetheless, it is a growing field and there is evidence of increasing numbers of writers

entering the field from a diverse range of institutions. However, while there are signs of

growth, there is also a great deal of fragility because so much of the research has been

commissioned and is thus dependent on the vagaries of funding cycles.

Two now largely defunct centres for research have historically contributed the largest body of

available research on the college sector. The most significant of these are the researchers

associated with the Human Resource Development (HRD) section of the Human Sciences

Research Council (HSRC). The work of these researchers constitutes the biggest single body

of research on the college sector and has had a significant influence on the policy terrain

since the 1980s and the De Lange Commission report through to the present day. While the

apartheid era HSRC research was commissioned by government, the post-apartheid HSRC

has largely produced research commissioned by various donors and funding agencies. This

constitutes a large body of research that must form the baseline for any discussion on

research in the FET sector, both public and private (see for example Akoojee 2005; Akoojee

et al 2005; Akoojee et al 2008; Cosser et al 2003; Gamble 2003; Kraak and Hall 1999; Kraak

and Perold 2003; Kraak and Press 2008; McGrath et al 2004; Odora-Hoppers 2000; 2001;

Young and Gamble 2006).

The HRD section has recently been restructured and no longer exists as a distinct entity and

almost all the researchers listed above have left the HSRC. The reasons for this are varied,

but the pressure to secure funding for projects made the sustainability of the work difficult to

ensure. Nevertheless, a number of researchers associated with the HSRC are working from

other institutional bases or as independent consultants inside and outside South Africa and

continue to publish in this area (eg Azeem Badroodien, Andre Kraak, Jeanne Gamble and

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Simon McGrath). The HSRC Press continues to publish research reports, books and

collections of articles on the sector even though the authors are no longer with the HSRC.

The second significant research unit that generated research on the sector is the National

Business Initiative (NBI). The NBI played a lead role in developing a quantitative data set on

the college sector that remains the key data source for most researchers. The work was

commissioned by the Department of Labour and funded via the Joint Education Trust (JET).

Like the HSRC, this work appears to have ended and the NBI is no longer doing research on

the sector. There is thus a significant loss of institutional capacity and a loss of continuity in

the work on the sector that could have a negative effect on future work. For example, since

the NBI stopped working on the FETMIS data there appears to have been no other work done

that monitors the system at a quantitative level.

The second largest body of literature is the research, evaluation work and technical reports

produced by or for NGOs, donors (for example DANIDA, GTZ, USAID and the British

Council) and government departments (see for example Badroodien and McGrath 2003;

Gamble 2003; Badroodien 2006; Kraak et al 2000; Maja, 2000). But even in these cases, the

work has been carried out by many of the individuals associated with the HSRC.

International development agencies such as DANIDA and GTZ have played a significant role

in supporting innovation in the college sector and developing capacity. Many of their

projects, such as DANIDA’s Support to Education and Skills Development (SESD)

programme, have been monitored and evaluated, thus providing a valuable research resource.

However, grey literature of this nature is not always readily accessible and there is thus a risk

that valuable research data will disappear as it has not been formally published in all

instances.

South African statutory bodies such as Umalusi and the SAQA have also commissioned and

carried out research focusing on the FET sector in terms of their mandates. Umalusi in

particular has an internal research unit that produces and publishes research reports on

various aspects of quality assurance (see for example Umalusi 2007a and 2007b). Individuals

associated with Umalusi (notably Stephanie Matseleng Allais) have also produced work in

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their personal capacity that engages theoretically with the nature of the qualification

framework and the consequences of outcomes based education for the sector (see Allais

The HSRC and NBI associated researchers aside, there is a limited number of individuals

publishing on the FET college sector or technical and vocational education. While there are a

few university based academics writing on the FET College sector (see for example Bisschoff

and Nkoe 2005), there is only one dedicated university linked unit focusing on FET at

present, the FET Institute based at the University of the Western Cape. There are some

research units that have an interest in the sociology and economics of work that do research

related to the technical and vocational sector, but this is not a core focus area. There are no

departments of technical and vocational education within faculties of education, although the

School of Adult and Higher Education at UKZN includes FET Colleges as a focus area and

the University of Witwatersrand is leading a process towards the establishment of a research

centre dedicated to the sector.

Finally, there is a growing number of dissertations being produced at various universities in

South Africa that focus on FET colleges. The theses surveyed for this report were produced at

Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, North West University, Tshwane University of

Technology, University of Cape Town, University of Free State, University of Johannesburg,

University of Pretoria, University of South Africa, and the University of the Western Cape.

These theses emanate from diverse disciplines and topics range from studies on learner

achievement (Baloyi 2004; Kiewiets 2006; Shongwe 2004), student support systems (Ferreira

2002), dealing with disability (Fourie 2007), pedagogy (Edwards 1999; Ferreira 2005),

management (Mafaralala 2006; Manota 2003; Mohlokoane 2004; Ncono 2006; Selebaleng

2005; Steyn 2006), evaluations (Barnes 2004), staff development (Geel 2005; Phutsisi 2006),

curriculum development (Fester 2006; Tsolo 2006; Jacobsz 2004; Smith 2006), assessment

(Kazen 2005) and policy (Sooklal 2005). Some of these are produced by managers or

educators within the FET College sector and thus they represent an important and growing

internal capacity for research within the sector. Methodologically, many of these dissertations

are case studies or perception studies. However, the wide range of topics and the spread of

institutions also suggests that there is no critical mass located in any one institution, and there

is very little focus to the work. Indeed, the fact that the research is focused on FET colleges

does not necessarily mean that it is located within the field of technical and vocational

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education and much of it is supervised by academics with no background in the field. Most of

the theses surveyed showed little sign of being located within the local or international

literature on colleges and thus there is little evidence of the field being strengthened.

It is clear that there is a growing interest in the college sector as a site for research in South

Africa. In addition to the work mentioned already, UWC has established an FET Institute, the

Faculty of Education at UKZN has a masters programme focusing on the FET sector and is

discussing the establishment of a unit, and University of Witwatersrand is spearheading

discussions around the establishment of a national centre on technical and vocational

research. Statutory bodies such as SAQA and Umalusi have ongoing research work on

aspects of the sector as well. These initiatives bode well for a growing and diversified

national capacity for research in the sector. However, the university based initiatives are in

their infancy and to date the research on the sector has been primarily driven by the

imperatives of funders and the need to address immediate policy related questions.

Consequently, with a few exceptions, there is a dearth of any theoretical engagement with

issues of vocational education, learning and teaching in colleges and the relationship between

colleges and the world of work with which they are supposed to be connected.

The following sections explore some of the key themes that are addressed in the literature,

and also outline areas that appear underdeveloped and requiring more work.

HISTORICAL RESEARCH AND POLICY OVERVIEWS

While the FET Colleges in their current form are a relatively recent development emerging

from the reforms to the education system post-Apartheid, they are bound to a longer history

of more than 100 years of technical and vocational education institutions in South Africa.

Thinking about vocational education was found in both the white colonial system and in the

work of leading black intellectuals such as John Dube and the establishment of Ohlange

College in Durban in 1907. More recently, the SA technical college sector developed

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alongside a model of practical apprenticeship to provide the theoretical component to

training. The increased black access to skilled and semi-skilled work in the 1980s brought

about a wave of new colleges to cater for black South Africans. By 1994, there was a mixture

of historically-white autonomous institutions and less autonomous historically-black urban

colleges, ex-homeland colleges and lower level training centres which needed to be placed

under a unified system of common governance and finance.

The history and development of technical and vocational education has most recently been

summarised by Azeem Badroodien and Peter Kallaway (2003/4). Indeed Badroodien’s work

represents the most detailed historical engagement with the field, with his doctorate providing

a detailed study of one institution (Badroodien 2001; see also Chisholm 1989) and his

overviews providing insightful summaries of the development of the sector (Badroodien

2003). The value of historical research is identified by Gamble (2003: p.11) in terms of

curriculum planning and reform which she argues ought to be informed by an adequate

perspective on the curriculum of the past. She argues that an historical perspective reveals

three traditions of educational provision in the technical and vocational sector: technical,

vocational and industrial. These three forms have converged into two pathways – one that

keeps knowledge and skill together while the other separates skill from its knowledge base.

She argues that an historical lens can warn us of the dangers of overemphasising the

integration of knowledge and skills.

Gamble’s illustration of the usefulness of historical work for thinking about contemporary

issues points to a significant area of further development. Historical examination of the

influences from the past on institutional form and curriculum, historical patterns and

relationships, and examination of the substantial policy research carried out by the HSRC

under Apartheid warrant further investigation. In addition, with the exception of the report on

technical and vocational education in Africa and some comparison with the UK (see McGrath

et al 2005, Young 2006) there is almost no comparative education research, which is a real

gap given that so much of the policy is borrowed or influenced by practices elsewhere.

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The picture of policy studies research and contemporary history is a happier one. There are a

number of overviews of recent policy developments in the FET sector. For example, Gewer

(2001) outlines the developments from 1990 to 2000. He describes the complexity of the

band which includes the senior secondary school, FET colleges and a host of private

providers. A central feature of the decade he reviews is the challenge of transforming the FET

Colleges into the key drivers of the system so as to respond to macro strategies for human

resource development and skills development strategy of Department of Labour. Gewer

argues that at the college level, the major challenges were to do with this immense delivery

pressure compounded by lack of cohesion in the policy environment. The guiding policy

frameworks were rooted in traditional partitions across levels of the system, consequently

impacting on the capacity to transform. The historical divisions between education and

training have been perpetuated notwithstanding attempts to bridge this division.

High fragmentation at both curriculum and institutional levels existed and the

institutionalized historic education and training divide still pertains, with the matriculation

certificate continually being viewed as the major indicator of performance. The formal school

system was trying to address this backlog from apartheid education and at the same time also

improving the delivery system. Technical colleges, due to their smaller enrolments, received

reduced national publicity, exposure and government attention and, consequently, in trying to

operationalise policies, there was evident lack of balance between expectations and realities.

Between 1998 and 2000 there was a lot of activity around FET following the Green and

White Papers and, with the promulgation of FET legislation in 1998, DoE through its

National Strategy for Further Education and Training 1999-2001 stipulated time frames for

action. Notwithstanding, delays in goal realization with the national strategy, it clearly

showed the crucial role that FET was expected to play in meeting government delivery

imperatives in skills development and employment creation. Gewer, like other writers, argues

that the policy assumes an integrated education and training field with a single ministry, and

the fact that in 1994 separate ministries of Labour and Education were established, resulted in

significant confusion for colleges. He concludes his review by suggesting that the demand-

led approaches risked the colleges being overwhelmed by market forces.

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Like Gewer, Macun (2000) and McGrath (2004) provide overviews of the policy process and

the tensions inherent in the education and skills division. McGrath argues that after 10 years

much has been achieved but the legacy of the apartheid past profoundly affects progress.

While major strides had been achieved in the first 10 years, notably the creation of 50

colleges through a series of mergers, and there was clear commitment to redress the past and

improve quantity and quality of provision, there are nevertheless major weaknesses. He

singles out failure to adequately deal with the recognition of prior learning, providing for the

needs of small and micro enterprises and the bias toward urban areas as three significant

weaknesses. Like Gewer and others, McGrath argues that the two ministries are a stumbling

block in the development of the sector.

KNOWLEDGE AND CURRICULUM

The work of Jeanne Gamble stands out as the major contribution on curriculum. Gamble has

addressed the issues at a theoretical level, in terms of understanding the nature of craft and

technical knowledge (Gamble 2003a; 2004a; 2004b) and in her book on curriculum

responsiveness (Gamble 2003b). Gamble examines the knowledge required for employment

and for self-employment, explores the tensions between theory and practice in the

curriculum, and addresses the complexity of language and learning in a country where the

majority learn in a language that it is not their home language. Gamble concludes her book by

firstly arguing that there is a convergence between the training required for employment and

self-employment, and that the curriculum needs to focus on employability. Secondly, she

argues that, contrary to many fears that a strong focus on employability will ‘dumb down’ the

curriculum, what is increasingly clear is that theoretical knowledge is central to the demands

of the modern economy. Gamble suggests that developing some conceptual distinctions

between different forms of knowledge required for employability can assist in rethinking the

curriculum and who should be teaching it.

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In addition to her own work, Gamble has co-edited a book with Michael Young that analyses

various aspects of the FET curriculum, including the FET curriculum in schools (Young and

Gamble 2006). The contributors that focus on vocational aspects cover qualifications reform

(Allais 2006; Young 2006) and vocational curriculum (Gamble 2006) and pedagogy (Barnett

2006). Elsewhere, Allais’s work presents a damning critique of the unit standards outcomes

based approach that arises out of the requirements of the NQF (Allais 2003; 2007). She has

argued that the ‘designing down’ approach inherent in the NQF driven outcomes based

system does not work as a basis for curriculum development. The key problem is that this

outcomes based approach assumes that all knowledge is the same. Clearly this is not the case,

and the complex structure of disciplinary knowledge is not accounted for. Consequently, if

the curriculum is designed to meet outcomes, the teaching of the underlying knowledge

structures is not addressed. The consequence is that learners are not able to move beyond the

specific application.

There is an emerging literature on the interface between the market and colleges. Jacobsz

(2004) has developed guidelines on developing market driven programmes, while McGrath

and Akoojee (2007; forthcoming) have analysed the advent of marketing strategies in the

sector, and how these shape programmes. It is also important to explore the ways in which

these institutions come to understand the marketising imperative when economic relevance

has only been a part of the institutional logic of colleges historically in South Africa. Further

research is needed that can consider in which ways colleges are likely to continue to draw on

past traditions of social control and welfare, on the one hand, and of the transmission of

vocational knowledge, on the other.

While South Africa has significant capacity in curriculum studies, with the notable

exceptions mentioned above, there is very little application to the vocational curriculum.

Further, there is no evidence of any sustained examination of the issues of learning and

teaching (pedagogy) that are specific to vocational knowledge. The recent introduction of the

National Certificate Vocational (NCV) poses a range of curriculum questions that require

research attention. To what extent does the NCV address the employability criteria that

Gamble proposes, and what types of knowledge are specified in that curriculum? To what

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extent does the NCV curriculum fragment knowledge through outcomes specification and to

what extent are the existing college lecturers able to teach the new curriculum? There is thus

significant curriculum related research work required.

TEACHERS, STUDENTS AND MANAGERS IN COLLEGES

There is a limited body of research into the staff in FET colleges. At a quantitative level even

the most recent studies (Akoojee, McGrath and Visser 2008) report on 2002 data, when there

has been significant change in the system over the past five years. Basic descriptive

information on the race, gender and qualification level is available up to 2002 (see DoE 2004;

Powell and Hall 2000; 2002; 2004), but there is no detail that differentiates areas of

specialization in qualifications, work-based experience and so forth. At a more qualitative

level, little is know about the biographical profile of the college staff, their motivation for

choosing to teach, their attitudes and values and their career paths. With the exception of a

limited number of dissertations that test perceptions, colleges remain a black box as far as the

teaching staff and the students are concerned. This is a major gap in the research.

The formal offering of programmes for college based lecturers is so limited1 that it is little

surprise to find that there is practically no literature on technical and vocational teacher

education. One of the reasons for the lack of any offering of dedicated programmes is that

there is no policy yet on what form of educational training is required for college lecturers.

Policy is imminent, but to not yet available. Michael Young’s (2006) ‘conversation’ piece,

outlines a number of models of teacher education for the college sector based on international

practices. His preferred option is a model that sees professional development as a joint

responsibility of colleges and university in a partnership, that addresses the issue of a

specialist vocational pedagogy and curriculum knowledge. This will require complex

relations between specialists in the appropriate disciplines, professional bodies and

curriculum specialists in order to avoid the danger of generic training.

1 See Papier, J. (2008) report

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Salim Akoojee has recently presented a conference paper that highlights the dangers in the

decisions to devolve responsibility for staffing to the college council and warns that there

may be undesirable and unintended consequences. However, his paper does not enter into the

fine grained detail that is required to fully understand who the college lecturers are and what

motivates them, and crucially how they see themselves as educators and specialists. An

interesting possible area that can provide the basis for studies on teacher identity in the

vocational sector lies in the work on teaching and learning generated in universities of

technology, not by the faculties of education, but by the teaching and learning specialists and

the academic development practitioners attached to faculties in the institutions (see for

instance Jacobs 2006; McKenna & Sutherland 2006; Winberg 2006 and numerous papers

presented at the annual SAAAD conferences).

A similar picture exists for those enrolled in the colleges. We have some, albeit outdated

sense of the numbers in the system and their gender, race and age. There are also tracer

studies that show some data on where learners go from the colleges (Cosser et al 2003). A

few studies have looked at student support (Ferreira, 2002, Ferreira 2005, Fourie 2007;

Kruss, 2006). But no studies provide insight into the details of the students in the system,

how they experience the colleges and what they perceive to gain from their education.

The literature on the management and governance of the colleges is stronger, in part because

it overlaps with the literature on policy but also because the initial process of reform in the

college sector focused on restructuring the colleges and changing the model of management

and governance. Case studies of individual colleges (see for example Barnes 2004) and wider

studies of the system more generally (Bisschoff & Nkoe 2005) have documented the process

of merger and transformation into the FET colleges.

More recently the changes of governance have come into focus. These reforms have

empowered councils and have reduced the relationship with the provincial departments.

There are significant consequences, not least for the employees in the colleges. The research

on governance points to the weaknesses in the governance capacity in the majority of

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colleges and the potential threat this poses to the overall reform process (Mabunda et al

2006). The lack of capacity lies at both the level of technical skills required for the

governance role, but more critically, the councilors are required to exercise judgement and

make informed decisions. However, there remains a question as to whether reform of the

governance structures that is not directly linked to the improvement in management and the

improvement in teaching and learning will make any difference to the quality of the

experience of the learners enrolled in the system.

CONCLUSION: GAPS AND OPPORTUNITIES

What emerges from the above review is that while there is a growing body of published and

‘grey’ literature available on the FET college sector, the development of the field is very

uneven with strengths in some areas and massive gaps in other critical areas. In this final

section we discuss the areas that require further development and the opportunities that

emerge.

The major weakness that underpins the current available research is the fact that the research

has largely been produced outside the university system. The role of the HSRC and a number

of individuals and NGOs has been central. Indeed, it is impressive that so much has been

produced by so few. However, as has been discussed above, there are significant systemic

weaknesses that emerge out of this state of affairs. Two are worth noting. Firstly, the research

is almost entirely dependent on contracted research for particular agencies. Thus the state and

local and international development agencies have driven the research agenda. This means

that their interests in the sector determine the research agenda. Not surprisingly then, policy

research and research on the system, on governance and management has dominated. Policy,

systems and management do matter. But it should not dominate the agenda to the exclusion

of other areas of enquiry. It is important that South African FET research should increasingly

address other issues of importance, such as the nature of the evolving provider institutions

and the backgrounds, experiences and aspirations of staff and students.

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The second concern is that funders’ interests and funding patterns change. The developments

at the HSRC, with the loss from that organization of key capacity, signals the potential for

important research work to cease very quickly. The fact that the quantitative analyses carried

out under the auspices of the NBI ended when the contract ended has meant that there is now

no current reliable data on key indicators in the sector. It is thus key that the research in the

sector becomes mainstreamed into research organizations that have discretionary monies

available and where less immediately policy oriented research receives attention.

Universities, with their own internal research grants, graduate students, and access to funding

from structures like the National Research Foundation, offer a the possibility of more

sustainable longer term research into the sector that looks at a wider set of issues in parallel

with the contract driven work of consultants and NGOs. In addition, there is a critical need

for the development of an internal research capacity within the college system itself, so that

knowledge about the sector is generated from within.

The third area of concern is the tendency for funded research to necessarily adopt a

technicist-managerialist approach that doesn't have a broader sociological grounding. One of

the great weaknesses of both policy and research in South Africa on the colleges is that it

doesn't locate itself in the bigger contexts. The literature that is on the colleges is largely

disconnected from the wider debates. The British literature has three major strands: first,

broader sociological writings that are not really about colleges, staff and students. Second,

the rather managerialist approach that is about improvement but is hermetically sealed into an

acceptance of the world order. The third is much more concerned with a sociological reading

of FE colleges. Its weakness is that it tends to foreground critique from a left ideological

perspective and hence can be rather defeatist at times. In South Africa we need to develop a

position that draws on all of them.

Colleges are being expected to make a radical transformation and to make difficult

contributions to major policy challenges. However, these institutions are new and fragile and

are based on historically weak predecessors. When forced to confront conflicting questions

about what they are for, such institutions have relatively weak resources on which to draw.

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Understanding these institutions and the people in them is critical for understanding the entire

sector.

Much of the reform process cares little about understanding the people in the system or about

addressing their needs. From a macro reform perspective, as long as more staff and students

are black, and enrollments are increasing, there is little more than needs to be considered in

this view. However, such a view is untenable. Staff in the sector have been consistently

portrayed as conservative, ill-educated and out of touch with workplaces. Yet, these same

staff members are supposed to become transformed through little more than a few workshops

on outcomes based education. Assumptions that staff should provide "24/7" delivery (as are

held by some officials) are ungrounded in any sense of either existing rights of staff or the

nature of the FET market in much of South Africa. Beyond such practical issues, there are

also unanswered, often unstated, questions about the nature of the staffing complement; its

multiple backgrounds and senses of identity; and its future aspirations.

The demographic data suggests that colleges have left behind their roots in white working-

class skills and identity formation. However, they cannot tell us what has become of the

student body in any meaningful way. We simply do not know enough about why learners

enter the system and why they choose particular programmes. Nor do we know much about

their socialisation within the college sector.

Considering staff and students together, we also know far too little about the dynamics of

their interactions. How do the different evolutions of both groupings in terms of race, gender

and class interact with each other? On a more practical level, how do both sides deal with

issues of language in the classroom and workshop given the radical but unbalanced changes

in the home language mixes of both groups?

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REFERENCES

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Akoojee, S. & McGrath, S. 2007. Public and private Further Education and Training in South Africa: a comparative analysis of the quantitative evidence. South African Journal of Education 27, 2, 209-222.

Akoojee, S.; McGrath, S. & Visser, M. (2008 forthcoming) Further Education and Training Colleges. In A. Kraak et al (eds) Human Resources Development Review: 2007, Cape Town: HSRC.

Akoojee, S., Gewer, A., & McGrath, S. (eds.) 2005. Vocational education and training in southern Africa: A comparative study. Cape Town: HSRC Press.

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