CHAPTER TWO

1. Introduction

1.1 The pressures for the transformation of South Africa's FET sector are compelling and substantial. They emerge out of a wide array of social and economic conditions.

1.2 Some of the most pressing demands for change arise from the legacy of apartheid and the social inequalities it generated. Others stem from the sense of system failure within the FET band itself, in particular the deep-rooted problems that confront the public school system, the low morale of many staff, the poor quality of provision in certain institutions, the relative inability to place trained learners in jobs, and the lack of articulation between key FET institutions and the labour market.

1.3 Still other pressures are relatively new, particularly those generated from outside the FET system. The most important of these is the phenomenon of globalisation, which poses unavoidable challenges for the future of FET in South Africa.

2. Inefficiencies of South Africa's FET system

2.1 FET systems world-wide may be judged on the one hand by the effectiveness of their articulation with work and on the other by the extent to which they grant meaningful access to higher and lifelong learning. In South Africa, at present, the FET system as a whole fails on both counts. This failure occurs despite pockets of undoubted excellence and innovation.

2.2 The following are some of the problems that characterise the current system:

2.2.1 A lack of coherence and co-ordination: FET as presently constituted is fragmented and unplanned. While the Ministry supports the principles of diversity and responsiveness, the current system is dysfunctional to the extent that no overall vision and strategy guides its development or determines priorities.

2.2.2 A lack of funding coherence: The funding of programmes is uneven across different sites of provision and creates distorted incentives and disincentives.

2.2.3 Poorly articulated programmes: Different FET programmes and qualifications are poorly articulated, inhibiting student mobility and leading to high levels of inefficiency. Programmes differ widely with respect to quality, standards of provision, outcomes and curriculum.

2.2.4 Separate education and training tracks: FET provision reflects rigid and outmoded distinctions between `academic' education and `vocational' training. Consequently, technical and vocational education lacks parity of esteem with traditional schooling. Yet, the quality of the general `academic' education provided to the majority of South Africans is poor and there are few second-chance opportunities for those who have been failed by the system. New entrants into the labour market generally lack appropriate knowledge and skills. Opportunities for the employed are limited, while the needs of those who do not have formal jobs, and whose main hope of making a living lies in the informal sector and in small and medium enterprises, are largely neglected.

2.2.5 Weak linkages with industry: Employers argue that many programmes offered by technical colleges and regional training centres are irrelevant and outdated. Equipment is antiquated and tuition is of poor overall quality.

2.2.6 The legacy of apartheid: Among the most devastating consequences of apartheid were its effects on the education system. Black secondary schools bore the brunt of the apartheid assault upon our young people. The discriminatory character of apartheid education was all too visible in the limited range, lack of relevance and poor quality of learning programmes and qualifications. Black technical colleges lacked meaningful linkages with industry and were largely disconnected from the local economy.

2.2.7 Organisational ethos and the culture of learning, teaching and service: Adverse working conditions and a breakdown in the culture of learning, teaching and service are reflected in poor morale, a poor work ethic and low professional self-esteem amongst many educators. An authoritarian management culture still pervades many institutions, which accentuates race and gender inequality within the sector.

2.2.8 A distorted labour market: A distorted labour market is perhaps the most visible legacy of apartheid. While the key social institutions and practices of the past (job reservation, pass laws, influx control, segregated townships and low-wage labour) have been legally abolished, their effects live on. This is particularly evident in the poor articulation between education, training and work, in the phenomena of jobless growth and mass unemployment, in continuing racial obstacles to occupational mobility, in the paradox of continuing skills shortages at a time of declining investments in training, and, most devastatingly, in the collapse of the youth labour market. These problems are exacerbated by low enrolments in science, engineering and technology - fields essential to the achievement of higher levels of technological innovation and productivity. 

The paradox of skill shortages in the face of declining investments in training

One of the most contradictory features of the South African labour market has been the claim by employers and labour market experts of acute skill shortages in certain fields at precisely the same time as employers cut back on skills training. These claims have been made ever since the boom years of the late 1960s. They have had some validity in certain specific occupations requiring high-skills and high-tech inputs, for example, in new technological fields such as informatics and biotechnology, and in the demend for high-tech artisans. They also arise as a consequence of the general drift to more intermediate and high-skills jobs. However, the generalised claim regarding skill shortages is probably more a reflection of the dissatisfaction among employers regarding the poor outputs of apartheid schooling and the massive illiteracy levels of semi-skilled workers.

However, these claims appear contradictory when the training track record of employers is scrutinised over the past two decades. In figures provided by the DoL, total industrial training undertaken by the private sector and public training centres declined from a peak of 736 581 in 1986 to a dismal 205 260 in 1994 - a mere 2.9% of the economically active population who received some form of training. Registered apprenticeship contracts declined from 33 752 in 1985 to 22 015 in 1994, and the annual indenturing of apprentices declined from 11 573 to 5 002 in the same period. Enterprise-based training declined from a peak of 457 255 in 1984 to a dismal 85 736 in 1994.

In a report commissioned by NEDLAC in 1996, it was shown that although only 12% of firms do not train, if dissaggregated, the figures show that only 25% of small firms train, 42% of firms spend less than 1% of payroll on training, and 65% of firms spend less than 2% of payroll. In another study, while 87% of firms claimed to train, about 70% provided only initial induction-type training to entry-level workers. Of those firms who claimed to do retraining, 74% acknowledged that it was only informal on-the-job training.

In short, these figures reflect the crisis gripping industrial training and vocational education in South Africa. They reflect a serious malfunctioning of the labour market which is manifested, historically, in a set of education and training, employer and governmental departments which have worked at odds with each other, giving out contradictory signals about the skills needs and shortages, with employers doing very little actual training. These labour market institutions have failed to provide a basis for a coherent and consistent labour market policy and human resource development strategy for the medium- to long-term. The need to correct this failure and malfunctioning is more urgent now than ever before.

The collapse of the youth labour market

The most socially devastating impact of instutional malfunction has been the collapse of the youth labour market. As more and more young adults survive the school system and matriculate, fewer and fewer jobs are available to them. It has been estimated that by the year 2005 there will be at least 250 000 students with matriculation exemption and a further 500 000 with a FET Certificate. If efficiency and pass rates improve in the intervening years, the numbers could expand to over 800 000 school leavers with a FET certificate. Half the estimated 4 million
2.3 All of these indicators suggest a crisis of major proportions. A national effort is required to correct the distortions of the past, meet the needs of our people, and lay the foundations for a successful society and economy in the globally competitive conditions of the 21st century. This transformation will require a strong political consensus concerning the need for change, strategic interventions by government and the private sector, the development of new partnerships, and radical shifts in behaviour on the part of government, industry and individual learners.

3. Changing social demands

Fundamental social change is under way in post-apartheid South Africa. These changes place new demands upon the FET system, centred on the themes of redress, lifelong learning, nation-building and the creation of a new relationship between the state and its citizens. Each of these demands is briefly discussed below.

3.1 Redress: Redress of the wrongs inflicted under apartheid is a fundamental demand of our new society, and a central principle of this Green Paper. The issues of staff representivity, student access, equitable funding arrangements, staff development programmes, capacity building and the rebuilding of disadvantaged institutions must challenge all providers.

3.2 Lifelong learning and the expansion of FET: South Africa is at the threshold of an increasing shift towards lifelong learning and growing demands for the expansion of FET to accommodate new as well as traditional learners. These trends are in keeping with experience in other parts of the world, where demographic, social, cultural and economic pressures have led to a shift from `closed' to `open' education and training systems. The development of a unemployed are young people under the age of 30 with at least nine years schooling.

Solutions to the collapse of the youth labour market lie primarily in the establishment of high levels of job-creating economic growth. However, the apparent irrelevance to employment of 9-12 years of formal schooling is a major indictment of the current matriculation system. Such irrelevance sends obvious signals that a greater convergence is necessary between formal schooling and the needs of work. more responsive, open FET system, geared to the demands for personal and community as well as economic development are confronting government, the private sector, communities and individual learners with new challenges.

3.3 Nation-building: Apartheid denied full citizenship to the majority of our people and created a society divided along lines of race, class, language, culture, and religion. Building a new national identity, which embraces diversity, is a key task of reconstructing our society, and one to which FET must contribute.

3.4 A new relationship between the state, civil society and the individual: Along with many other countries South Africa is witnessing a shift in the role of the state, away from `social welfare' or `entitlement' models, to a new state-citizen relationship based on greater state efficiency, effectiveness and accountability in the provision of public services and on greater responsibility, participation and cost-sharing by individuals, communities and the private sector. These developments, which are squarely located within government's quest for an African Renaissance, have critical consequences and pose important challenges for FET.

4. New economic realities

4.1 FET is indispensable to the economic future of the country, both in its immediate relationship to work and in its role in preparing learners for HE. These roles are profoundly affected, first, by the moral and social imperative to meet the basic needs of our people, and second, by changes in the local and global economies. These issues are closely inter-related.

4.2 Perhaps the most significant of the new challenges is the economic and social phenomenon known as globalisation and the requirement this imposes on our national economy to respond - in terms of trade, technology, knowledge and skills - to a rapidly changing world economy.

4.3 Globalisation refers to important changes presently taking place largely in the social and economic sectors of the advanced economies. New information technologies, the internationalisation of finance capital and the rise of innovative forms of work organisation have created a new production paradigm. This paradigm is characterised by flexible specialisation and the manufacture of high-quality exports aimed at specific niche markets. Innovation and the ability to add value to existing designs are at the heart of the new system. This new competitive environment has brought with it new education and training demands. Enterprises require entire labour forces that are sufficiently skilled to adapt to highly unpredictable and volatile global product markets and rapid technological change. They require broad problem-solving skills to anticipate flaws in production. Workers need to understand how the new technologies can be optimally applied, how the entire production process unfolds, and how to respond effectively when unexpected factors arise.

4.4 The need for high level skills and knowledge also arises as a result of the rise of teamwork and multi-skilling at enterprise level. Workers today increasingly work in teams responsible for complex manufacturing tasks. This represents a significant shift from past traditions where workers were allocated narrowly defined tasks, leaving them ill-equipped to understand and thereby improve the overall production environment.

4.5 The phenomenon of globalisation should not, however, be viewed simplistically, or overstated. South Africa's adaptation to this new world economic order has been slow and partial. This is so for a number of reasons:

4.5.1 Import-substituting industrialisation: Local manufacturing is ill-prepared to adapt successfully to `flexible specialisation'. The roots of this problem can be traced back to South Africa's long history of import-substituting industrialisation. Strategies such as the application of import tariffs and state support for the production of locally made goods were essentially inward-looking, feeding off a small local market of white consumers. Tariff protection has shielded local manufacturers from international competition, leaving them under-prepared to enter the global market on a competitive footing.

4.5.2 The continuance of mass-production: The partial impact of globalisation has also to do with the smallness of South Africa's high-skill, high-tech manufacturing sector, and the persistance of other, more traditional economic sectors, such as mass production manufacturing, with its heavy reliance on semi-skilled and skilled artisan labour. South Africa has not yet made the great leap to high-skill `flexible specialisation'.

4.5.3 The decline of manufacturing and the rise of the services sector: Globalisation as a phenomenon impacts primarily on manufacturing. But the manufacturing sector in South Africa, as in other parts of the world, has been contracting since the late 1970s. This decline stands in sharp contrast to the growth in jobs in the financial and services sectors. Employment and education and training strategies need to adapt to these important shifts.

4.5.4 An imbalance between the rise in high-skill jobs and the decline of low-skill labour: Automation and other technological innovations ushered in by globalisation have displaced many unskilled and semi-skilled jobs, replacing them with new, intermediate to high-skill jobs. In many countries, however, the rise of new high-skill jobs has taken place at a slower rate than the rate at which low-skill jobs have been lost, leading to a rise in unemployment.

4.5.5 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 manufacturing is likely to have little role to play, beyond the limited possibility of some outsourcing and the growth of small informal sector businesses.

4.6 In short, globalisation has a double-edged impact on developing economies such as ours. On the one hand it has the potential to raise the general skills and education and training levels required by workers in the formal economy. On the other hand, globalisation may have negative consequences for vulnerable and marginalised groups and communities.

4.7 The challenge that globalisation poses for FET is to respond both to the demands of global economic competition and to the local challenge of meeting basic needs.

5. The need for a multi-pronged FET strategy

5.1 These divergent social and economic conditions suggest that, if FET is to meet the varied needs of individuals and communities and contribute effectively to social and economic development, a flexible and responsive, multi-pronged strategy is required.

5.2 While FET policy and planning must take cognisance of the inescapable realities of globalisation, it must ensure at the same time that local needs and priorities shape our interaction with the global economy, through the implementation of equitable, relevant and effective human resource development policies.

5.3 The FET system can contribute in important ways to the development of an export-led and globally competitive manufacturing sector through the education and training of a highly skilled and innovative workforce. However, the highly differentiated character of the South African economy imposes a range of additional responsibilities. These responsibilities have first and foremost to do with meeting the needs of vulnerable and marginalised communities. Through the programmes it offers, the people it trains, and the community development initiatives it supports, the FET system can be a crucial resource and catalyst for change.

6. Responsiveness to diversity

6.1 Variety of providers

6.1.1 Different FET providers have complementary roles to play in responding to the diversity of social, economic and personal needs that confront the FET system. These roles are not based on arbitrary or rigid distinctions between types of institutions, but flow naturally from the various constituencies and purposes which institutions serve.

6.1.2 To meet these varied needs, the Ministry will promote the development of a coherent, co-ordinated FET system which recognises diversity. This system will include the following types of FET provider - public schools, public colleges, independent schools, independent colleges and on-the-job trainers. The Ministry believes that the boundaries between these types of providers should be permeable and that co-operation within and between the different FET sectors should be encouraged wherever possible. These sectors are briefly discussed below.

6.2 Senior secondary schools

6.2.1 The Green Paper proposes a number of important changes to the senior secondary phase of formal schooling. The development of the NQF as spelt out in the South African Qualifications Authority Act of 1996, the implementation of an outcomes-based approach to education and training, and the shift in learning and teaching frameworks from content-driven to programme-oriented models as outlined in Curriculum 2005 now need to be extended to the senior secondary phase.

6.2.2 A new qualifications structure is proposed. It will be based on a more flexible combination of fundamental, core and elective learning credits, with the aim of linking education and training, theory and practice, and head, hand and heart more closely together. The new structure will offer greater breadth, in terms of mathematical and communicative literacy, and depth, in terms of core and elective learning which links learners more closely to the needs of higher and lifelong learning, and to work and career development.

6.2.3 Closer integration of education and training in the FET band will also be promoted by encouraging institutional co-operation and joint curriculum development between senior secondary schools, FET colleges and private and enterprise-based providers of education and training. Such initiatives will expose young learners to a range of learning options which cut across the traditional divisions between academic and vocational learning, and between classroom or college-based and workplace experience. In short, what the Ministry envisages is a new, broad-based curriculum which encourages linkages between schools, colleges, higher learning institutions and work.

6.2.4 The Ministry has already established a Curriculum and Qualifications Task Team, which will be responsible for re-conceptualising and rewriting the subjects, learning programmes and instructional frameworks for senior secondary schools and technical colleges. This initiative will provide the basis for a new, integrated curriculum which will broaden the range of career options for young learners, and which will be more relevant and responsive to the real employment prospects and HE opportunities that exist beyond FET.

6.3 FET colleges

6.3.1 An expanded and revitalised FET college sector will have a fundamental role to play in meeting the diverse social and economic needs outlined above. The Ministry intends outlining a pathway towards increased autonomy for colleges, within the framework of a new Further Education and Training Act. Colleges will be encouraged to forge partnerships with employers and with other FET institutions, such as schools and training centres, in order to expand the range of learning opportunities that they provide and career paths to which they grant access. Diversity and responsiveness will be promoted through the  operation of the new funding, governance and curriculum frameworks proposed in this Green Paper.

6.3.2 As part of its new mandate, the FET college sector will be charged with progressively bringing about sufficient access to further education and training for all who qualify and are likely to benefit from it. This mandate will place FET colleges at the forefront of efforts to develop innovative and responsive open learning systems and to meet new social and economic demands.

6.3.3 Within this broad mandate some colleges may choose to focus their energies on self-employment, small business, entrepreneurial, community development and self-improvement programmes relevant to their local communities. Other colleges, more closely integrated into the formal economy, may concentrate on the provision of intermediate to high-level skills required by an increasingly export-competitive manufacturing economy. The different institutional missions and relationships to the economy will evolve in local and regional contexts, driven by local and regional needs. Access to HE will continue to be an important strand of FET college provision.

6.4 Private providers and enterprise-based training

6.4.1 The success of enterprise-based industrial training policies rests on a balance between market-led, enterprise-based initiatives in training, and effective state co-ordination of the larger institutional and governance environments.

6.4.2 The DoL's Green Paper, A Skills Development Strategy for Economic and Employment Growth in South Africa, adopts this balanced approach. It emphasises:

• a proactive approach to creating new skill demands
• long-term planning of skill priorities in strategic industries
• state leverage through the levy-grant funding scheme, and
• social protection for vulnerable groups.

6.4.3 The Skills Development Strategy makes the point that while responsiveness to demand must characterise a new human resource development strategy, skills development cannot be driven solely by short-term, market-led imperatives. Medium-term planning is required to meet the higher-level skill demands of the future.

6.4.4 All these factors suggest that while training systems are becoming more responsive to industry's immediate skills needs, it is important to maintain and develop supply-side capacity which addresses medium- to long-term skill needs. The role of the state is critical here. 

6.4.5 In short, an effective enterprise-based industrial training system is likely to emerge as a result of the responsiveness of FET to market demand, on the one hand, and state co-ordination of supply-side provision, on the other.

What this chapter means in practice

FET will be a major force in helping to democratise South Africa.

Strong links will be established between education, training and work. FET will be designed to assist South Africa to compete successfully in the global economy.

All education and training sectors will be affected.

FET provision will be diverse. It will be responsive to local economic and social needs. It will also help lay the foundation for lifelong learning and access to HE and high skill jobs. 

Contents | Chapter1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4
Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Appendicies