FURTHER EDUCATION RESEARCH ASSOCIATION

Research in Post-Compulsory Education

Inaugural International Research Conference, Friday 11 July –Sunday, 13 July, 2014

Throwing good money after bad: the barriers South African vocationalteachers experience in becoming competent educators

Ronel Blom

Centre for Researching Education and Labour, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

Abstract

Since 2009, with the establishment of a separate Ministry of HigherEducation and Training in South Africa, there has been anunprecedented focus on vocational education and training. This hasbeen the result of a number of drivers: the massive unemploymentrate of youth, especially black youth; the struggling economy; theneed to (re)industrialise; and possibly, the belief that there is adirect relationship between vocational education and therevitalization of the economy.

However, the weakest link in these ambitions is the capacity ofvocational education teachers to deal with the pressures brought tobear on them. It is not simply a matter of updating pedagogicalpractice and/or subject matter (even though these matters also needattention) – it emerged that their current conditions of service andthe casualization of work in general has a major impact onvocational teachers’ motivation to learn. Further, their perceivedlow status, and the lack of a professional identity, compounded byapathy of institutional managers, exacerbates the situation.

Typically, the State has responded to these challenges by proposingpolicy and by conceptualising qualifications for vocationaleducators. While these impulses will undoubtedly be necessary atsome point, it may not be the most urgent, nor the most effective,interventions in the short to medium term.

This paper will therefore interrogate the non-academic, the non-subject matter barriers South African vocational teachers experience

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in becoming competent educators. It also asks questions about whatuniversities could do to address the situation.

Key words:

Vocational education teachers; conditions of service; professionalidentity; motivation to learn; policy responses; non-academic, non-subject matter barriers

1. Introduction

The vocational education and training sector in South Africa hasbeen subject to wide-ranging changes in the last 10 to 15 years –not all of which improved the sector. With the introduction of theSouth African National Qualifications Framework (SANQF) in 1998,technical and vocational education and training (TVET) wereearmarked to produce the next generation of skilled workers for theeconomy and much effort was put into the reform of this system.However, reforms and ideology in the post-apartheid South Africasoon became conflated, and it became clear that policy symbolism, inthe form of idealistic statements of intent, does not necessarilylead to workable and pragmatic approaches to change. Instead, morethan ever before, the public TVET college sector, in particular,became trapped in an education-training divide, quite contrary tothe stated ideal of an integrated national system which intended torepair this fundamental divide and the associated lack ofopportunity for so many South Africans under the previous regime(SSACI1, 2010). While an education-training divide is not unique toSouth Africa (see for example Education International, 2009), inthis country, it was strongly associated with the deliberatemediocrity in education for ‘non-White’ citizens, espoused by theapartheid system and education therefore became a site of thestruggle (Allais, 2003), with much being vested in parity of esteembetween education and training. It was thus with disappointment that

1 SSACI – Swiss South Africa Cooperation Initiative

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it became evident that the public TVET sector had to bear the bruntof a further divide in the post-apartheid era namely, a fight forturf between two national departments: the Department of Labour,responsible for sector education and training in workplaces (and thecustodian of an enormous source of funds); and the then Departmentof Education, responsible for TVET education in public colleges. Theresult of this turf war was devastating for colleges – an alreadydiminished apprenticeship system went into further decline; TVETcolleges and workplaces were increasingly de-linked; and, outdatedvocational education curricula were not updated as these were meantto be replaced by ‘learnerships2’ – a system entirely in the handsof Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs), in-house andprivate institutions under the auspices of the Department of Labour.In a short space of time, this situation essentially resulted in twoparallel systems: a private TVET system serving the SETAs and theDepartment of Labour, and a public TVET system experiencing severecontraction, and struggling to remain relevant to workplaces and theneeds of the economy. In the meantime, the Department of Educationdeveloped and introduced a new ‘school-like’ vocational curriculum,indicated their intent to phase out the old curriculum, andinhibited colleges from offering non-Department of Educationprogrammes through its restrictive funding formula. To complicatematters further, all of these developments were taking place againstthe backdrop of general reform impulses in, reviews andreformulations of, the broader South African system. Always the lastin line in the system, the public TVET college sector again founditself in an uncomfortable position.

However, with the new cabinet sworn in under President Jacob Zuma in2009, the Department of Education was split into two new departments– the Department of Basic Education, responsible for schooling andthe Department of Higher Education and Training, now responsible forall post-school education and training, including universityeducation, sector education and training and TVET and adulteducation, stripping the Department of Labour of all responsibilityfor vocational and occupationally-directed education. This move waslargely supported by the education and training system – it was

2 A learnership is a structured learning process for gaining theoretical knowledge and practical skills in the workplace leading to a nationally recognised qualification

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hoped that the divides evident under the previous administrationwould soon disappear.

As a consequence, since 2009, there has been an unprecedented focuson the public TVET sector. Apart from the systemic problems notedabove, this move seems to have been the result of a number ofdrivers: the massive (and growing) unemployment rate of youth whoexit formal schooling prior to achieving a school-leavingcertificate, especially black youth; the struggling economy; theneed to (re)industrialise the economic sector of South Africa; andpossibly, the belief that there is a direct relationship betweenvocational education and the revitalization of the economy.

Yet, in the second term of President Jacob Zuma’s cabinet, anddespite massive injections of funds to recapitalize and capacitatethe sector, the weakest link in these ambitions still seems to bethe capacity of vocational education teachers to deal with thepressures brought to bear on them. It is not simply a matter ofupdating pedagogical practice and/or subject matter (even thoughthese matters also need urgent attention) – it emerged that theircurrent conditions of service and the casualization of work ingeneral has a major impact on vocational teachers’ motivation tolearn. Further, their perceived low status, and the lack of aprofessional identity, compounded by apathy of institutionalmanagers, exacerbates the situation. These problems emerge only by‘reading between the lines’ of the numerous reports made to theDepartment of Higher Education and Training (DHET). Nevertheless,the DHET responded in a now typical fashion namely, to develop apolicy and to conceptualise qualifications for vocational educators.While these impulses will undoubtedly be necessary in the longerterm, especially to develop a new pipeline of TVET educators, it maynot be the most urgent, or the most effective interventions in theshort to medium term.

This paper will therefore interrogate the non-academic, the non-subject matter barriers South African vocational teachers experiencein becoming competent educators. It also asks questions about whatuniversities could do to address the situation.

2. Methodology

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The study is conceived to be undertaken in two phases: an analysisof high-level and influential reports submitted to the DHET over thepast 3 to 4 years in respect of public TVET colleges, many of whichwere compiled in preparation for the new White Paper for Post-SchoolEducation and Training (DHET, 2013), or as inputs to the NationalDevelopment Plan (NDP)3, where the general and specific problems ofthe sector have been highlighted. The analysis was supported bythree exploratory interviews with high-ranking people working in thesector4 with the purpose to start formulating research questions.This will be followed by semi-structured interviews with a smallsample of TVET college teachers. The subject of this paper is theanalysis of reports and the results of the first three interviews.

3. Reading between the lines

The DHET’s Green Paper for Post-School Education and Training (2012:20) stated that ‘there are high expectations of [the public TVET]sector as a central component of South Africa’s skills developmentsystem’, but in the same document, the DHET admitted that ‘most ofour colleges are weak institutions’. In the introduction to thispaper, some of these weaknesses were alluded to: weak subjectexpertise of TVET teachers, poor management capacity and financialmanagement and a poor understanding of workplace environments andrequirements (DHET, 2012). Added to these is the lack of theknowledge (and practice) of pedagogy appropriate to vocationaleducation (SADTU5, 2011). These issues are by no means minor,stemming from the troubled history of the sector. The sectorcurrently has staff with very different levels and types ofqualifications, ranging from those with formal teachingqualifications or degrees to those with trade qualifications/tradetheory qualifications or industry credentials, but no teachingexpertise, and vice versa (SADTU, 2011: 28):

3 The National Development Plan (2011) – an ambitious development plan,developed by the National Planning Commission appointed by the President ofSouth Africa4 The first respondent works for a Non-Government Organisation involvedwith college capacity building; the second is the Chairperson of theQuality Council for Trades and Occupations; and the third is an academicand ex-lecturer from a TVET college. Reference to these three individualswill be as follows: Personal communication (PC) 1; PC 2 and PC 3.5 South African Democratic Teachers’ Union

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Lecturers6 with industry experience have practical skills ofworkshop training but lack theoretical knowledge for classroomteaching, whereas lecturers from teaching backgrounds havetheoretical knowledge for classroom teaching but lackedpractical experience for workshop training.

Taylor (2011: 47) adds that until recently7 in South Africa ‘therewas no training base for FET college lecturers8, and no newqualifications framework as yet for lecturing staff’.

Again, this situation is not unique to South Africa. At a UnitedNations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO)conference in 2012 the participants noted that (2012: 5):

Existing [education] systems generally tend to provide thesame pre-service training preparation for TVET teachers asreceived by their counterparts across the wider field ofteaching. Moreover, many TVET teachers enter the classroomwithout the benefit of an industrial background, and havingoften lacked the opportunity to experience the world of work.

For South Africans it is comforting to know that TVET teachers allover the world seem to be in the same boat, and that our ownnational department has recognized the need for targeted educationand training through its development of a suite of qualificationsappropriate for TVET teaching (Government Gazette, Vol. 576, June2013, No. 36554).

However, given the centrality of the TVET sector for post-schooleducation for ‘the development of a skilled and educated population[and] for meeting the needs of an economy which suffers a seriousshortage of mid-level skills’ (DHET, 2013: 11), it is surprisingthat other possible reasons for the problems experienced by the TVETsector in South Africa is glossed over in the Green Paper (2012),which limits its comments to issues of conditions of employment.Further, nothing other than the general problems already noted ismentioned at all in the subsequent White Paper (2013). This is a

6 TVET teachers are called ‘TVET lecturers’ in South Africa7 A suite of qualifications aimed at the development of TVET college lecturers was proposed in 2013. 8 Until the publication of the White Paper for Post-School Education and Training, TVET colleges were known as Further Education and Training (FET) colleges.

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serious oversight and may cripple and inhibit the capacity buildingplans for the sector.

The next part of the paper deals with a summary of the high-levelreports and the open-ended interviews with the three individualsmentioned earlier. The interviews provided confirmation of some ofthe other underlying reasons for the weaknesses in the sector foundwhen ‘reading between the lines’. From this analysis, tentativeresearch questions, subject to a review by critical readers, will beformulated.

The paper starts by trying to understand the extent to which thediversity of qualifications held by TVET teachers may contribute tocapacity-building barriers; this is followed by a discussion on thecurrent conditions of service and how these conditions areincreasingly leading to lack of motivation to learn or a lack ofmotivation to train; the extent to which college programmes placetoo high demands on TVET teachers is discussed next; somedifficulties in dealing with some of the sociological problems ofthe students are highlighted; and the extent to which the currentfunding model may influence TVET teacher learning, is interrogated.This is followed by a section on what universities can do in thisregard, the conclusion and the draft research questions.

3.1 Understanding the diversity and levels of current TVET teacherqualifications

In order for school teachers in South Africa to be registered withthe South African Council of Educators (SACE), they have tosuccessfully complete a four year Bachelor of Education (B Ed)degree. Even allowing for differences in quality of programmesoffered by different universities, the B Ed can be considered theminimum standard to be achieved before entering the profession.Until very recently, no such minimum standard existed for TVETteachers in South Africa. The result is that the college sector’sstaff qualifications represent a hodge-podge of programmes whichcannot be considered to be at the same/similar level – either witheach other, or with school teacher qualifications. For example, in20119 there were 15 526 TVET teachers in the system with thefollowing qualifications (DHET):9 Unverified data from the Department of Higher Education and Training, 2011

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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y0

500

1000

1500

2000

19374296

1411

94 19317409

608

159349250

815735

189

14381750

310211142

13521378

1242

215

795

Number and types of college teacher qualifications - n15526

Figure 1: Number and types of TVET college teacher qualifications (2011)

(Key, overleaf)

Key:

A Adult Basic Education and Training Practitioner (Certificate) – 1 yearB Adult Basic Education and Training Practitioner (Diploma) – 2 to 3 yearsC Advanced Certificate in Education – 1 yearD Artisanal qualificationE Diploma in Specialized EducationF Doctoral degreeG Bachelor of Technology degree – 4 yearsH Bachelor of Arts degree – 4 yearsI Higher Diploma in Education – 4 yearsJ National Higher Diploma – 4 yearsK Professional Teaching degree – 4 yearsL Further Diploma in Education – 2 to 3 yearsM Higher Diploma in Education – 1 year/Post-Graduate Certificate in Education – 1

yearN Honours degree/Bachelor in Education Honours – 1 to 2 yearsO Master’s degreeP National (N) DiplomaQ National N3 to N6 CertificatesR Higher Diploma in Education – 1 yearS National Higher Diploma – 1 year/Bachelor of Technology Education ManagementT Post-professional Teacher’s Certificate – 1 yearU Bachelor’s degree – 3 yearsV Education Diploma/National Professional Diploma in Education – 3 yearsW National Diploma – 3 yearsX Educator Certificate – 2 yearsY Partially completed/no qualifications beyond school-leaving certificate

Q (1750), P (1438), D (1411) and W (1242) represent qualificationsof those TVET teachers who have completed a college programme andwho have either returned or stayed on as teachers at the college,but who have not been trained as teachers. The programmes they have

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completed are considered outdated and weak and yet, this is thelargest group in the cohort. G (317) and J (159) are programmesoffered by Universities of Technology and presumably areoccupationally orientated, but here also, staff has not been trainedin teaching methodologies. C (296), L (250), M (815), R (310), S(211), T (142), V (1378) and X (215) are mostly school teacherupgrading qualifications introduced over the years, (some of whichhave been discontinued), which has no vocational education focus. Asmall group of university graduates (H – 409) also teach atcolleges, again without teaching expertise. An equally small group(A – 193 and B – 74) have adult teaching qualifications. Theremainder of the staff has teaching backgrounds – a total of 1786(excluding the Doctoral and Master’s degrees). Another 795 havepartially completed qualifications or no qualification beyond theschool-leaving certificate.

In the personal communication with the first interviewee (I shallcall her PC1), the ways in which this situation plays itself out inthe sector became evident. She indicated that the people withdegrees and teaching qualifications, despite not having muchworkplace experience, feel that they do not need additional capacitybuilding as they are getting relatively good results. Furthermore,they are usually those TVET teachers who offering the basicsciences, English or mathematics (Education International, 2009).However, with the group comprising Q, P, D and W (a total of 5841college teachers), a number of issues emerge: their currentqualifications do not provide access to higher education withoutthem having to undertake substantial additional work before they canembark on under-graduate training; their own trajectory of havingachieved their qualifications at the college means that they are notacademically inclined anyway, so the ‘jump is too big, too onerous,and the demands are too high’ (PC1). Also, they see themselves notas teachers first, but as ‘technical’ practitioners – they thereforeplace more value on their industry background (if they have any)than on teaching, which reflects their lack of a professionalidentity as TVET teachers (PC2). This group is also most likely intheir 50’s and they therefore come from a technical college10

10 TVET colleges were called ‘technical colleges’ before the introduction ofthe Further Education and Training Act in 2006, after which they were knownas FET colleges – this in itself is indicative of the turbulent policy changes in the sector.

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background, which offered only those low-status, low-valuequalifications prior to the introduction of a new curriculum –consequently, they tend to struggle to come to terms with thedemands of the new curriculum (PC2). PC1 is also of the opinion thatthey may be ‘afraid to expose their own weaknesses and incompetencein terms of teaching’ so they avoid any development that may ‘showthem up’ (PC1). Finally, in respect of this group, PC3 suggests thatthere are no financial incentives for teachers to take on personaland professional development, and that higher education institutionsin any case, have not been offering programmes that are appropriatefor vocationally orientated teaching. PC2 agrees and says that inschool teaching there is a clear trajectory of promotion through theranks, whereas in the college sector this kind of trajectory is weakor doesn’t exist, which leads us to the next underlying problem –conditions of service.

3.2 Conditions of service

The extent to which the constant policy churn has impacted on themotivation and morale of TVET teachers cannot be over-emphasised. Ina short space of time, the sector and staff have had to accommodatesweeping changes, some of which included the conditions of serviceof staff. Prior to the introduction of the FET Act (Act No 16 of2006) for example, colleges were a ‘provincial competence’ – inother words, management and staff were appointed by provincialgovernments of education. However, with the FET Act, TVET teachingstaff was to be appointed by college councils. In the words of theGreen Paper (DHET, 2012), this move has had ‘many unintendedconsequences’ (p. 25):

One was that the change of employer from the state to theCollege Councils caused an exodus of around 12% of collegelecturers who did not have confidence in their council as anemployer and preferred to stay in the employment of the state.Another is a tendency for college staff to be hired on short-term contracts, aligned to learner enrolment for specificshort-term programmes. This is clearly contrary to any notionof long-term professional development for lecturers.

Subsequent to these moves and in terms of the amended FET Act, (asamended in 2012 in accordance with the Further Education andTraining Laws Amendment Act No 3 of 2012) TVET colleges became a

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‘national competence’, directly under the auspices of the DHET,which again means a change in management of the sector (DHET, 2013).Further, as noted earlier, the conditions of service do not appearto be considered in the White Paper (2013), suggesting perhaps thatthe problems above have been dealt with in the intervening year.Furthermore, apart from the devastating loss of staff due to theintroduction of the FET Act in 2006, the problem of replacingexperienced staff leaving the sector has been exacerbated by thefact that no pipeline of new TVET teachers are being developed. Thismeans that once again, colleges are forced to appoint their owngraduates who do not have the requisite qualifications orexperience, both in terms of teaching expertise and in terms ofworkplace experience. Both PC1 and PC3 confirmed that especially theshort-term nature of teaching positions has hardly changed. Theconsequence of this situation is that college management isreluctant to develop staff on short-term contracts, which in theopinion of PC2 reflects the lack of a culture of development andcapacity building for staff in the sector. Likewise, TVET collegeteachers themselves seem to be too anxious about their precariousposition: the teachers who are on contract ‘are always seekingpermanent employment opportunities’ and feel that they cannot ‘focuson their teaching’ (SADTU, 2011: 13). In addition, given thedistrust that seems to exist between staff and their management,staff feels that if they undertake training, the ‘college owns you’(PC3) and that they are obligated to stay in the service of thecollege when they have undergone training and development. Thisattitude is clearly in contravention of the intentions of the DHETnamely ‘to improve the qualifications and capabilities of collegelecturers’ (2013: 17) and is counter-productive in terms ofimproving teaching and learning at TVET colleges. Colleges are alsonot in a position to do internal training and development and wheretraining does take place, there seems to be a mismatch between whatTVET teachers feel they need, and what they are offered (SADTU,2011: 15):

The perception is that management is bribed to force lecturersto attend these programmes as most of them are not whatlecturers identified as part of their training anddevelopmental needs. Therefore, the prevailing view is thatFET college management imposes the academic developmenttraining on them as part of enriching themselves.

The type of training, in particular, is often seen as inappropriatefor the college environment:

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‘…assessor and moderator courses are not linked to the learningprogrammes [that they are teaching]’ (SADTU, 2011: 11). Thissituation will impact directly on the next emerging theme.

3.3 The demands of TVET college programmes

It is when the aspirations articulated by the DHET for the TVETsector and the reality on the ground is compared when it becomesevident how far the system still has to go (DHET, 2013: 12):‘Government expects that TVET colleges will become the cornerstoneof the country’s skills development system. Thus, a major effortwill be made to increase enrolments’. However, ‘the mix ofqualifications in TVET colleges is complex to administer, difficultfor learners and parents to understand, and often poorly qualityassured (p. 14)’. Nevertheless, the sense created is that‘everything can be introduced into the colleges’ (PC1). But, it iswhen these expectations are coupled with a variety of fundingstreams, which often drives implementation of new programmes (moreabout funding later), that TVET teachers seem to be very poorlyprepared to deal with all these expectations. PC1 for example noted,as an ex-TVET teacher herself that ‘we had five days training tointroduce a whole new curriculum’ and ‘subject matter support wasnot forthcoming’. This is confirmed by the requests for training anddevelopment, particularly in respect of workshop equipmentassociated with the new curriculum (SADTU, 2011: 16):

Lecturers reported that they [have never had] training on howto use new equipment that [was] purchased during therecapitalization of FET colleges. As a result some of theworkshops have modernized resources but are not fullyutilized. Some lecturers cannot operate new machines whichhave been at FET colleges for five years…

The new ‘school-like’ curriculum11 introduced in 2007 under theprevious Department of Education in particular, was therefore sodifferent from the previous programmes taught that many TVETteachers have taken a long time to adjust to a new, and very fullprogramme (PC2). Furthermore, they are often expected to teach theold curriculum as well as the new, and management seems to deploy

11 The new curriculum is known as the National Certificate Vocational (NC(V)).

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teachers interchangeably between these curricula, each of which havedifferent assessment, quality assurance and teaching demands (PC3).

PC 3 was particularly vocal on the demands of the new curriculum,for two reasons: she maintains that due to the number ofspecialisations associated with the new curriculum, TVET teachersare often required to teach disciplines which fall completelyoutside their subject matter expertise. This situation is oftenexacerbated by the fact that the teachers don’t have the pedagogicalknowledge to assist in switching between disciplines; and even moreseriously, it seems that lecturers dislike this curriculum becausethere are currently no clear articulation routes for further studyfor students completing these programmes. She claims that TVETteachers feel that ‘they are baby-sitting the students on thiscurriculum’ for the time that they are at the college, because it‘takes them nowhere’; and that college management feels ‘there isnothing they can do’ to improve the situation because funding islinked to this programme. The historic weaknesses of the TVET sectorare therefore simply perpetuated and the interventions so far seemto have been inappropriate and ineffectual (PC1).

Three additional matters are linked to the demands of TVET collegeprogrammes which are not necessarily linked to a particularcurriculum, but which are important to raise, namely the language ofteaching and learning; multi-level, multi-grade teaching; and over-crowding due to rapid expansion in student numbers.

First, PC3 makes the point that ‘we believe in the myth thatstudents who come to the college can cope in academic studies’. Thiscan’t be further from the truth. Even under the previousdispensation prior to the introduction of the recent policy reforms,the students who attended colleges were more often than not,redirected out of mainstream, academic schools to ‘go and learn atrade’. Now, with greatly expanding enrolments amongst all racegroups, more of the so-called weaker students are directed out ofmainstream schools, where the language of teaching and learning hasbecome a significant barrier to success. PC3 notes that ‘studentsoften only encounter English at school’. As a result, in mostcolleges, staff and students are teaching and learning in a secondor third language. Poor command of English, especially of those TVETteachers who come from industry, affect their understanding and

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utilization of textbooks (which are also only available in English),and their teaching (PC3). The result is that teachers teach to onlythose students who seem to be able to cope (PC3).

Second, when the new curriculum was introduced, ‘it was originallymeant for young people [who have completed] Grade 9’ (DHET, 2013:14), but due to confusing admission policies, TVET colleges soonadmitted students to this programme who have completed Grade 12.Apart from the fact that colleges soon found that students who havefinished Grade 12 were in a much better position to cope with thedemands of the programme, often classes were made up of multi-level,multi-grade students, placing even more pressure on TVET teacherssupposed to deal with different cohorts in one class (SADTU, 2011).

Thirdly, the DHET has been very successful in expanding enrolmentsat TVET colleges, both through enrolment targets and student funding(DHET, 2013: 13):

Head-count enrolments increased from 345 566 in 2010 to anestimated 650 000 in 2013; enrolments are expected to increaseto one million by 2015…

Therefore, in addition to classroom pedagogy and in many cases,workplace experience, TVET teachers are calling for ‘skills tomanage workshops and overcrowding in the classrooms’ (SADTU, 2011:15).

3.4 The sociological demands of students

TVET teachers, when asked about whether they see teaching as a‘calling’, indicate that in the past, college students were moremature and responsible (SADTU, 2011) and that they enjoyed teachingthem. However, with the introduction of the new curriculum, and theredirection of more of the weaker students to colleges, they nowdeal with adolescents, rather than with young adults (SADTU, 2011).TVET teachers find them ‘ill-disciplined’ and ‘lacking inmotivation’ (SADTU, 2011). They find that the students becomedemotivated due to their failure to progress, and then lose interestin their learning. TVET teachers do not know how to deal with thestudents’ issues (SADTU, 2011). They also blame this on thecommunities’ lack of understanding of TVET and poor careercounselling, both at school, and prior to admission to the college(SADTU, 2011). Furthermore, given the poor pass rates, many TVET

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teachers felt that ‘there should be a bridging course to assistlearners to cope with the demands of the [programme]’ (SADTU, 2011:12). TVET teachers are therefore of the opinion that many studentshave serious problems in adapting to college life (SADTU, date: 13):

Complaints were raised that learners do not submit class workand [homework], [they] come late, [and there is] noaccountability, [as] learners are allowed to writeexaminations even if they do not have the required entranceexamination marks.

Students also have learning difficulties, which are difficult todeal with in the context of the current teaching loads andovercrowding (SADTU, 2011).

Consequently, TVET teachers suggest that they need training anddevelopment in respect of (in no particular order) ‘teachingmethodologies, communication management, financial management,accounting management, conflict management, project management,office practice, adult and multicultural teaching, team building,student and classroom management and leadership’ (SADTU, 2011: 14).

In addition, they indicate that they need (again, not in anyparticular order) ‘office data processing, use of overhead and dataprojectors, how to use modern equipment in workshops, researchskills, computer literacy, implementation of [the curriculum],compilation of learning materials, educational psychology, teachingskills…’ (SADTU, 2011: 16), but to date, the training anddevelopment needs do not seem to match what has been offered.

3.5 Funding

Funding influences everything in public TVET colleges in SouthAfrica. In most cases colleges have two or more funding streams:funding in respect of the old curriculum, and then separately, forthe new curriculum; then they often receive funding in respect ofthe SETA learnerships; and finally, funding is provided for short-term projects, often from foreign donors (PC1). In the light ofthese funding streams, it is not surprising that TVET teachers arecalling for financial, accounting and project management in additionto teaching and classroom management. However, the funding model mayalso inadvertently inhibit colleges from introducing innovativeprogrammes, especially programmes that may provide articulation

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routes for the new curriculum. This situation arises because suchprogrammes are unfunded, despite the DHET’s encouragement toimplement them (DHET, 2013: 15):

Recently Level 5 (Higher Certificate) programmes have beenintroduced in some colleges in partnership with universities.This has worked well in terms of developing and enhancingintermediate skills which are in high demand. These programmesare often occupationally directed but have strong articulationpossibilities into higher education…

However, PC3, in working with some of these colleges attempting tointroduce Higher Certificates, maintains that TVET colleges ‘refuseto market programmes that have no funding associated with them’.This means that in addition to a lack of articulation with highereducation for students, collaboration with university teachers toimprove subject matter expertise of TVET teachers is discouraged bythe lack of funding.

Another consequence of the current funding model is that collegesare concerned with enrolment numbers, and not with the appropriateselection of students for particular programmes (PC3), with theresult that even greater demands are made of TVET teachers. Forexample, colleges enroll students for programmes without regard towhether the student needs a firm basis in mathematics or not. It isonly after enrolment that teachers for Financial Accounting,Information Technology and Engineering programmes, for example,discover the students’ deficiencies in the basics.

Nevertheless, the DHET (2013) is adamant that the TVET collegesector should be responsible for the development of mid-level skillsfor the economy and consequently is the college sector is targetedfor the greatest expansion in the Post-school system. The rapidlyincreasing enrolments is raising concerns about ‘further dilutingthe quality’ of teaching and learning in the colleges (PC1) and ofthe ‘lack of accountability’ in respect of the funding. PC3, forexample, indicated that no questions are asked about the poorthroughput and pass rates, which mean that TVET teachers do notlearn from the assessment of their students; all funding is inrelation to enrolment targets. She believes that this approach willbring about ‘reproductions of poverty’ as the success of students isnot the highest priority and that students consequently leave the

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college without being prepared either for further learning, or forwork.

4. What universities can do

4.1 TVET teacher training

In the international literature, there are debates about TVETteacher training. On the one hand, UNESCO (2001) recommends that thetraining of TVET teachers should ‘preferably be offered as atertiary programme’, combined with various in-service and lifelonglearning programmes (pp. 81 – 87 in Education International, 2009:17). Furthermore, the view is that TVET teacher training should belonger than training for school teachers ‘due to the requirement forthe VET teacher to have practical experience’ (UNESCO, 1973: 98 inEducation International: 17). On the other hand, the Organisationfor Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) recommends that the‘pedagogical requirements should be lower’, especially if TVETteachers are recruited from industry (OECD, 2009: 34 in EducationInternational: 17). Grollman and Rauner call this ‘a fundamentaldilemma between recruitment of VET teachers and the practices of VETteaching and learning’ (2007: 11 – 12 in Education International:17):

There is either, on the one hand, a highly professionalized modelof teacher education and recruitment associated with a strongalienation from the world of work, [and] on the other hand an adhoc-type model of recruitment based on experience in the field,leading to occupational localism or strong subject-basedidentities.

For South Africa this is an important caution to keep in mind whenspecific qualifications for TVET teachers are introduced byuniversities from 2015/2016. Nevertheless, the DHET has published asuite of qualifications meant to accommodate various entrance,articulation and upgrading routes. These qualifications provide forpre-service, but also in-service development, especially for thoseTVET teachers already in the system. There is also the recognitionthat many current TVET teachers may not meet the minimum entryrequirements for Bachelor degrees, by providing pathways through aDiploma in Technical and Vocational Education Teaching (Dip TVT).There is a strong Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) component in

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respect of the under-graduate Diploma and Bachelor degree (150 and120 credits respectively) which recognize that current TVET teachershave already developed skills and competencies which could becredited in terms of the qualification. A further important elementis the substantial Work-integrated learning (WIL) component in allof the qualifications. This is in keeping with the DHET’s intentionto prioritise workplace experience of TVET teachers: ‘to ensure thattheir training is up to date with workplace needs of employers intheir field’ (DHET, 2013: 17) and with the needs of teaching andlearning at the college. Universities will therefore play anincreasingly important role in the development and capacity-buildingof the pipeline TVET teachers, as well as the current cadre ofteachers in the sector – see below (Government Gazette, 2013):

Table 1: Proposed suite of qualifications for TVET teachers in SouthAfrica

Name of qual.

Diploma (Dip TVT) Bachelor (B Ed TVT)

Adv Dipl (Adv Dip TVT)

Purpose Initial (for new or practicing lecturers);

In-service or pre-service;

50/50 teaching methods/subject content;

Initial (for new or practicing lecturers);

In-service or pre-service;

40% teaching methods; 50% subject content; 10% flexible

‘Capping’ teaching diploma

For those with BA or Dip who wants to qualifyas TVET lecturers

60% education and teaching/40%practice (teaching and industry)

NQF Exit level

6 7 7

Min credits

360 480 120

Admissionreq’s

NSC/NC(V) – diploma pass;Appropriate L4 qualification (NATED)

NSC/NCV – bachelorpass;Appropriate L4 qualification (NATED)

Dip or BA degree

WIL 18 – 24 weeks 32 – 40 weeks 10 – 12 weeksArticulation

Adv Diploma/B Ed Adv Diploma/ Honours

Honours or PG Dip

Comments Strong RPL component –up to 150 credits through RPL

Max of 120 creditsthrough RPL

Max of 30 credits (the Vocational Education Orientation

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Programme)Without a teaching qual.

Name of qual.

Advanced Certificate (Adv Cert TVET)

Advanced Diploma (Adv Dip TVET)

PG Dipl (PG Dip TVET)

Purpose Specialization in anew role;

Retraining in a newfield;

In-service; Bulk of the credits

for new specialization, e.g. marketing

Deeper specialization in subject/field/role where lev6 learning is already in place

Flexible structure, focused on the specialization

As for Adv Dip TVET

For leadership role in a field

May insert a research dissertation component

Flexible structure

Exit level

6 7 8

Min credits

120 120 120

Admissionreq’s

Professional lecturer qualification

An appropriate Lev6/7 professional teaching qualification

Professional or post-professional teaching/lecturing qual. at Lev 7

WIL 80 hours of teaching/industry

24 credits for workplace exposure

None specified

Articulation

Adv Diploma PG Dip/Honours Master of Education

Comments This is a post-professional qualification

This is a post-professional qualification

This is a post-professional qualification

However, responding with a suite of qualifications addresses onlypart of the problem, as can be seen in the previous discussions.Developing qualifications will not magically encourage and motivateTVET teachers to embark on study.

4.2 Research

The Researching Education and Labour Centre (REAL Centre) at theUniversity of the Witwatersrand’s School of Education, hasconceptualised a research stream, as part of its broader researchfocus, which will deal specifically with TVET teachers and teaching.

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This research will include document analysis, review of existingresearch and conceptual and theoretical literature reviews. The REALCentre is particularly interested in developing a model whereuniversities can support colleges to train their own TVET staff inboth teaching and researching the needs of local industries. Some ofthe sub-themes include:

TVET teachers and their work (the subject of this paperresides under this theme);

What does it mean to be an instructor in training centres forskills development? and

The appropriate curriculum for the TVET teacher capacitydevelopment (the development and introduction ofqualifications reside under this theme).

5. Conclusion

In South Africa, as elsewhere in the world, TVET is seen to be anincreasingly important element in the education and training system.Countries respond to this imperative in many different ways. TheSouth African government has chosen to respond by completelyreorganizing the post-school education and training sector, developnew policies and rearranging the management of the sector. Itremains to be seen how successful this realignment will be, but eventhe best plans will fail if there is poor recognition of what thesituation on the ground may be. In this regard, some seriousquestions should be raised about the ambitions of the White Paper(DHET, 2013) in respect of its expansion plans of the TVET sector inparticular. Bursary allocation to students alone increased from R300million in 2010 to R1,988 billion in 2013 (DHET, 2013). While it islaudable that students from poor families are not only givenbursaries for class fees, but also for transport and accommodation,this indiscriminate expansion in student enrolments is placing ahuge burden on an already weak and poorly managed sector. The sheerpressure of student numbers will render policies ineffectual ifconcurrent improvements are not made in respect of TVET teachersthemselves, by seriously paying attention to their concerns. Theupgrading of qualifications and the capacity of TVET teachers toteach in diverse settings needs serious attention – however, theintroduction of appropriate qualifications is not enough, which atany rate will take a number of years to introduce, and more years

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still, to develop a new pipeline of TVET teachers. The stabilizationof staff conditions of employment is therefore paramount – the lackof trust between staff and college management still seems to bewidespread. This situation will without a doubt discourage newrecruits to the profession and it may therefore be difficult todevelop a pipeline. However, the two most important (short term)interventions seem to centre on the immediate needs of TVET teachersto better interpret and understand the current curricula they areteaching; and, for the TVET teachers to learn how to deal with someof the debilitating sociological problems experienced by students.In no small measure, the under-preparedness of students seems to belinked to TVET teachers’ sense of helplessness, which could lead totheir lack of motivation for self-development. In short, apart fromimproving management at colleges (which is clearly articulated inthe White Paper), TVET institutions need to be strengthened in termsof their capacity to meet the needs of teachers and students.Finally, since TVET colleges are known for the fact that they onlypromote programmes that are linked to funding, a more equitablefunding regime needs to be developed. Linked to funding is the poorselection of students, even if colleges discover later that theyhave oversubscribed certain programmes. If not, the massiveinjection of funds and the direction of these funds to bursaries andsubsidies to offer programmes, may indeed be a case of ‘throwinggood money after bad…’.

6. Emerging research questions

The overarching research question is: What is the South African TVET teachers’work? According to Grint (2005:1), work is seen as ‘…a symbol ofpersonal value: work provides status, economic reward, ademonstration of religious faith and a means to realize self-potential’. For TVET teachers, ‘work’ is clearly not only theenactment of a particular curriculum – there seems to be a number ofother factors which influence their work. The persistent poorperformance of the TVET sector in South Africa suggests that thereis more to teaching TVET than meets the eye. Given that the sectorcarries the burden of the expectations of the system, a study of thecontext, hopes and fears of TVET teachers, is important. Some sub-questions could include:

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What does it mean to become a TVET teacher (qualifications;teaching expertise)?

Are TVET teachers expected to work in exceptionalcircumstances (conditions of employment; switching betweentheory and practice; teaching and working in an industry)?

Which TVET teachers are successful/unsuccessful, and why?7. References

Allais, S. (2003). The National Qualifications Framework in SouthAfrica: A democratic project trapped in a Neo-liberal paradigm?Journal of Education and Work, 16(3), pp. 305 – 323.

Education International. (2009). Literature Review VocationalEducation and Training. Retrieved from http://www.ei-ie.org/,January 2014.

Grint, K. (2005). The sociology of work. Polity Press, Cambridge,United Kingdom.

Republic of South Africa, Department of Higher Education andTraining. (2012). Green Paper for Post-school Education andTraining. The doors of learning and culture shall be opened.Department of Higher Education and Training, Pretoria, South Africa.

Republic of South Africa, Department of Higher Education andTraining. (2013). White Paper for Post-school Education andTraining. Building an expanded, effective and integrated post-schoolsystem. Department of Higher Education and Training, Pretoria, SouthAfrica.

Republic of South Africa. (2013). Policy on ProfessionalQualifications for Lecturers in Technical and Vocational Educationand Training. Government Gazette, Vol. 576, 11 June 2013, No 36554.Pretoria, South Africa.

South African Democratic Teachers’ Union. (2011). The Impact ofAcademic Development Programmes on the Performance of Lecturers inthe Classroom at Public Further Education and Training Colleges.Retrieved from http://www.sadtu.org.za/, January 2014.

Swiss South African Cooperation Initiative. (2010). Report of theFurther Education and Training Steering Committee. Recommendations

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to the Minister of Higher Education and Training. Retrieved fromhttp://www.ssaci.org.za/, March 2014.

Taylor, N. (2011). Priorities for Addressing South Africa’sEducation and Training Crisis. A Review Commissioned by the NationalPlanning Commission. Retrieved from http://www.jet.org.za/, March2014.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.(2012). Strengthening TVET teacher education. Report of the UNESCO-UNEVOC online conference, 25 June to 6 July 2012. Retrieved fromhttp://www.unevoc.unesco.org/go.php, January 2014.

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