Transcript THE TITLE COMES HERE Day Month Year

TVET Policy and its Implications for the
HEIs and the School Curriculum
14 August, 2013
Robert J. Balfour
Dean of Education Sciences
Today’s discussion …
• The Policy on TVET
• Schooling and VET
• WIL and WPL: classroom and work
• Implications for HEIs and questions about
schools
• Recommendations
TVET: points of departure....
• a) transformation of the sector is desirable in South Africa in
terms of the need for differentiation: we need more choices
for more people to create a more skilled and entrepreneurial
workforce.
• b) We need a transformed sector in which articulation
between institutions and qualifications is possible for
workers to be life-long learners and aims for life-long
employment. At present universities don’t recognise
Colleges in supporting them with qualifications.
More points of departure….
• c) A large youthful population must be able to be
sufficiently skilled as to become self-employed;
• d) Our population needs to be sufficiently literate and
sufficiently skilled so as to be able to change with new
demands and circumstances;
• e) Education needs to shift from providing knowledge to
providing skills to learn about new knowledge as it
develops. Are research-oriented institutions best suited
to fulfill this role?
TVET Policy sum-up
• The Policy recognizes the professional status of technical
and vocational education, through the development of
FET TVET specific qualifications (p.4)
• Although the policy is not aimed at the training of
teachers; one of the clear implications is that there ought
to be scope for VET teachers to become lecturers in VET
(through a post-grad diploma) in education.
• In other words, a degree of coherence between part of
the HE sector is anticipated (FET and University, and
also School and FET).
Between (School) GET and College
• Even new school-focused qualifications (DTVT) risk
being too academic or theory-oriented.
• The teachers produced will need strong WIL and WPL
experience. In this context the needs are both workplace exposure, as well as classroom based (workshop,
lab and site based) exposure.
• This will enable teachers to make the links between work
and classroom for the learners and also lend credibility
to the system.
• TVET makes provision for strong industry-place
experience.
Integrated and applied knowledge…
• This is defined as knowledge about the subject (sck)
and knowledge about teaching the subject (pck) (p.9);
• The content knowledge and applications of such
knowledge are meant to come together in workplace
experience (field specific with cognitive subjects);
• The Policy describes what is termed ‘disciplinary
learning’ as containing both educational content (policy,
philosophy, history of education contextualised in the
FET sector) and specialised subject matter.
Integrated and applied knowledge cont.
• Workplace learning is thus where technical skills are
connected to the subject 'on the site'. Application,
Application…..
• In teacher training, the workplace is the school. One of
the dangers inherent in the new policy is that training
centres which provide workplace experience are in
themselves abstracted from industry-based workplace:
is it the same difference between
accounting for schooling, and
accounting for business practice in
industry?
TVET Implications for universities…
• Situational learning is defined as related to issues
(gender, poverty etc) which change the nature of the
subject, or the relevance or ‘locus’ of the subject.
• Fundamental learning has to do with the mode and
medium through the subject is communicated. Thus
indigenous language communicative competence, ICT,
life skills.
• The knowledge mix is critical: 50% (180 credits) is
considered to be ‘disciplinary’ and 50% education
(pedagogy).
• Up to 75 credits need to include a focus on ICT, an
African language (for the Degree or 3 year Diploma).
How much generic is too much/ enough?
• TVET qualifications presuppose a large degree of
generic education modules (in other words, those
modules taken from the school curriculum: maths,
science, accounting etc) to complement the vocational
choices made by students (travel and tourism,
hospitality, masonry, plumbing etc) (p.12)
• The education qualifications suggest articulation from
one level to another:
a) Dip Tech Voc and Teaching ;
b) BEd TVT
c) Adv Dip TVT
After the ‘teaching’ comes ‘training’…
• The post-professional qualifications emphasize
Education and Training over “teaching’:
a) a critical issue to be acknowledged is that the
emphasis on Training suggests that Faculties of
Education will need to collaborate with faculties in
which specialization areas may lie (engineering,
sciences, economics). At NWU the BTD is already a
programme in which such collaboration is evident.
Offered by Education, the development modules are
offered by the Faculty of Economics. (etc).
b) The Dip TVT aims to strengthen subject-content and
the award is based on the application of this
experience in the workplace and the FET College
setting.
WIL & Work Place (Industry) Learning
• As with Education qualifications (BEd and PGCE) 18-24
weeks of the Diploma must be spent in a “specialised
workplace” (p18) Specialised workplace is defined as:
a)classroom-based practical work (ie workshops,
kitchens, laboratories) AND
b)Workplace settings in industry (hotels, mines,
businesses, etc)
• This qualification will enable people who already have
Level 4 or 5 certificates or diplomas. Level 6 enables
access to the PGCE.
Implications
• The Bachelor qualification is defined as one which
qualifies a lecturer fully for the FET setting at Level 7. As
with the Diploma, at least 50% (240 credits) should be
aimed at developing the teaching specialization . 40% is
allocated to general education (pedagogy, situational
learning, assessment, moderation etc) (p20).
a)WIL is allocated between 32-40 weeks (p21) split
between teaching and specialised workplace settings.
• The new education qualifications make it evident that
trade certificates/ diplomas are no longer sufficient for
employment as an academic at a FET college.
Changes for the better?
• The policy implies that access from teacher level through
to FET College will require that teachers complete a
Diploma or Advanced Diploma.
a) Employer commitment to Workplace Learning or
WIL remains an issue to be worked out in publicprivate sector partnerships as regards TVET.
b) Apprenticeship as a concept is problematic in SA
(Wedekind, 2013) because of its associations with
exploitation (slavery, indentured labour, free-labour).
Indenture provided a transition from slave to
freeman (2013 p3).
Vocational/ Technical Schools
• TVET provides a challenge to South African universities
in that it demands stronger and structured collaboration
between faculties of education (traditionally concerned
with teacher education with the classroom in mind) and
sister faculties in order to qualify academics at a higher
level in relation to the FET Colleges. This is positive.
• The professionalization of TVT / TVET as a concern of
higher education (universities) is part of government’s
focus on the integration of the sector, and part of the
national skills development plan to ensure that
universities provide qualifications relevant to the needs
of the economy. A successful FET sector is critical to the
needs of the economy.
WIL & WPL (apprentice/ learnership?)
•
The economic decline of the 1970s in South Africa led to a skills
crisis in the early 21st Century (Wedekind, 2013).
a) This crisis was political (black people had no access).
b) It was also economic (sanctions, 0% growth in 1977).
c) The crisis was deepened by the policy changes in relation to
parastatals: (Transnet, Iscor, Armscor).
•
•
•
•
1985
1990
1996
2011
13500 (in apprenticeships)
7000
3000
13168
(source, Wedekind, 2013)
• The Private FET Sector (1 263 594 learners) in SA far outstrips
public FET education provision (328 898) learners.
Schools and the FET Sector
A change in the discourse (apprenticeship to learnership)
and a change of policy are worthy beginnings, but school
leavers do not access the FET colleges. As Wedekind
notes (2013, 7) Grade 9 never led learners to FET colleges
and 90% of SA learners are in the FET.
The GET remains invisible as an alternative path. And,
learnerships are hard to come by.
It is also clear that old models (the NATED courses) are no
longer appropriate to the changed context. A ministerial
committee has undertaken to review the GET band and the
articulation with the FET sector.
Implications for the School…
• Throughput in the FET Colleges is weak (61%) and upgrading
qualifications is important.
• And the NCV graduates are minimal and are then not recognised.
• Career guidance to advise and guide students in the GET is very
weak.
– Science and Mechanical and Electrical Engineering and Life
Skills (psychology) are in short supply.
– EMS is not a priority.
• The schooling level (Grade 9 learner) is not prepared by the GET for
the FET because these are usually weaker students in the system.
• Additionally, the FET College offers a higher standard than the
young learner can manage coming from the school.
• The Senior and Intermediate Phases as taught on the BEd ought to
prepare our students to manage the GET phase properly.
Questions for HEI's & Schooling…
• How can learners be encouraged and identified as potential FET
lecturers? This question addresses the issue of the pathways
created in the school curriculum in which the emphasis is on
technical development for an 'artisnal future'.
• Should FET Colleges be developed as the locus of the capacity for
FET lecturer development (in partnership with universities in
partnership with industry) since this is implied in the policy?
• At present FET Colleges absorb many school 'drop outs'. There is
an urgent need for systemic advocacy around the development of
trade-based skills in SA.
• Schools-based guidance and counseling ought to address selection
and advocacy into the GET stream and FET College better.
• FET lecturers are education professionals. HEI's needs to develop
that scholarship around FET professional development. This is a
long but critical process needing special support from the State.
Aknowlegements
Arno Combrink, NWU (for critical comments)
Volker Wedekind, UKZN (reference in text)
Thank you