Legacy of apartheid haunts vocational training

The legacy of apartheid has continued to haunt the progress of providing skills in South Africa, according to a new Human Sciences Research Council report on 'Vocational Education and Training in Southern Africa'.

"Access to structured education and training is far greater for urban than rural populations. Too little of the [new educational] system reflects the needs and interests of the most disadvantaged members of South African society."

Education and training resources under the pre-1994 government were "heavily biased towards furthering white progress, and the logic of apartheid required the wasteful multiplication of educational administration and institutions that were racially segmented," noted researchers Salim Akojee, Anthony Gewer and Simon McGrath in the chapter 'South Africa: Skills development as a tool for social and economic development'.

"The result has been a polarised and unbalanced educational end economic legacy, with which the new government has been grappling for the past decade," the authors commented.

There have been "long-standing complaints" that the country's economy has tended towards underdevelopment of intermediate-level skills. The researchers noted a "serious" skills shortage in some areas of the public sector, such as teaching and nursing, as well as shortages of skilled professionals and technicians in the information and communications technology sector.

Regarding the private sector, the report noted that there were concerns "about quality, and the need to shift from a pattern of employment with a heavy bias towards white males in senior posts".

Although "there has been a radical shift towards black employment at these levels in the past 25 years, it appears that the South African economy may face serious constraints in successfully expanding production for domestic and international markets in areas such as manufacturing, due to the weak skills base. The problem in the formal economy is also mirrored in the informal economy, where South Africa is far weaker in terms of technical and craft skills than the majority of other African countries," the researchers pointed out.

A lack of new demand in an economy where employment was not growing fast enough was a major factor, but it had failed to bring urgency to developing vocational training.

The role that institutions of higher learning could play in community development and the provision of skills was being hampered by a weak adult basic education and training sector, and a lack of communication between the departments of education and labour.

While the government has been trying to address these problems by developing a National Qualifications Framework, designed to integrate education and training by means of a common set of qualifications, it was increasingly difficult for college graduates and learnership programmes to find placement.

"Managing the 'paradox' of a developing skills in a hostile labour market and economic environment, where unemployment is growing steadily is "perhaps the greatest challenge for the emergent system," concluded the researchers.

Full report: www.hsrcpress.ac.za