Articles (Save the Nation)

RESPONSE TO THE GREEN PAPER FOR POST-SCHOOL EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Submitted: 2012-02-09 10:54:19

Introduction. I would like to congratulate the Minister of Higher Education and Training and his staff members on preparing a brilliant analysis of the education, training and development (ETD) environment. The team clearly did immense research and came to largely valid conclusions on the needs for improvement in skills development. There is, unfortunately, one aspect which I felt erodes what otherwise would have been a most professional report and a very good foundation for future legislation. I will elaborate more on this in my closing remarks.

I will follow the sequence of the Green Paper in my response, except where issues from different sections belong together, in the event of which I will refer to the page numbers.

Minister's preface. The intention of the Green Paper to provide high quality education to a larger number of South Africans on college and university level can serve as the foundation for the achievement of most of the objectives of the NSDSIII, especially since the focus will be on the provision of skills needed to be productive, flexible, innovative and able to earn sustainable livelihoods in a fast changing economy. If this is the focus of the skills development drive, then I am confident that we should achieve at least some success.

Terminology. Renaming FET Colleges as Vocational Education and Training Colleges (VET Colleges) will probably have a remedial impact on many of the challenges which the ETD community is facing at the moment. To begin with, this will be in line with international practice, so that portability of credits and qualifications between South African learning institutions and learning institutions in countries that have VET Colleges will be simplified. Secondly, it might eliminate the predicament of having vocational and occupational ETD, so that the simplification of the NQF system will be easier to achieve.

Main purpose of the Green Paper: A Vision for the Post-School System.

Page 5 of the Green Paper:

"By 2030, we want to see university headcount enrolments of 1 500 000, a projected participation of 23%, and 4 000 000 headcount enrolment (approximately 6%) in colleges or other post-school institutions such as the proposed community education and training centres discussed below."

I find it difficult to understand the rationale behind figures like this, because if not based on economic growth projections and projected knowledge and skills needs, then it might create more problems than it solves. As it is we are now already faced with 180 000 matriculants who cannot be accommodated by our universities[1] while there are nearly 600 000 unemployed university graduates in the country.[2] In the process we might be creating expectations that cannot be fulfilled and this will lead to a myriad of new social problems which we do not need. We need to accept that not all people need university and college education - there are numerous other areas in which people can excel without having to boast a degree or diploma. The problem is probably that we see unschooled labour a being inferior, probably a vestige from the apartheid era, when black people did the hard labour while the white bosses did the office work. In a country like Switzerland this is completely different - work is respected, unemployment frowned upon. When I still worked there, the man who swept the road next to our embassy every morning came to work in his Porsche, and nobody looked down on him for being a street sweeper.

Page 6 of the Green Paper:

"...and there should be no qualifications which lead nowhere and do not assist people to further their studies."

It is true that portability and lifelong learning are important and that learning should as far as possible facilitate both. However, there is room for stand-alone qualifications for the simple reason that the primary purpose of learning is not to enable further learning but rather to improve productivity, to which we can add preparing people for jobs. ETD is about the industry, not education per se, and there are people who need certain proficiencies in certain specialised fields only. This does not mean that they will not embark on further studies, but only that they might follow different disciplines, depending on the needs of their workplace and their personal career planning.

Challenges in Post-School Education and Training.

At the bottom of page 7 the following is written:

"To cater for these demands, the Department of Science and Technology has targeted a five-fold increase in PhDs over the next ten years."

Together with this I would like to comment on what is written on page 6 of the Green Paper:

"This research is crucial not only to the creation of new knowledge and the deepening of our understanding of our society and our environment, but also to the innovation of new products and processes with economic benefits for our country."

I do not understand the emphasis placed on PhDs in a country where we are struggling to get our youth through matric. Even EU Member States feel that vocational education and training is much more important than PhDs. As Kelly, B. said when I interviewed her:[3]

"PhDs give countries international status and some new knowledge, but it is workplace training that changes the economy."

Point is, our emphasis is way too much on the visible tokens of qualifications, i.e. degrees and diplomas when it should be on acquiring new knowledge and skills with which we can find jobs, do work, improve the economy and the quality of life of the community in general. We need to be careful not to chase numbers (again) at the detriment of quality, because chasing numbers can lead to South African universities issuing PhDs of poor quality, which will do our image more damage than good. Besides, and in this respect we have ample examples on all levels of education, accepting poor quality learning adds no value to the industry or the student. If we really want to improve both the quality and quantity of PhDs we will start at the very bottom - the problem starts at ECD level, and our main focus should be on this level, followed by school education and youth development, then adult learning at VET colleges, then university studies and only then post-graduate studies. Even so, research for Masters and PhD purposes can be valuable if it addresses real community needs. Internationalisation of higher education (page 51) and addressing disability within post-school education and training institutions (page 54) are examples of issues from which an array of masters and PhD topics can be identified. The following paragraph, quoted from page 13, is also relevant:

"But poverty is a significant constraint on the ability of many students to obtain masters and PhDs, as poor students are under enormous pressure to leave university and get a job as soon as possible."

The following quoted from page 42 is also relevant:

"Barriers to increase the productivity of PhD programmes at South African universities include financial constraints, the quality of incoming students, blockages in the graduate and postgraduate pipeline, and limited supervisory capacity. The DHET recognises that the provision of overall postgraduate provision deserves attention and that we need to drastically increase the number and quality of both the masters and the PhD degrees obtained. This includes providing assistance to some of those wishing to do postgraduate studies abroad as suggested by ASSAf. Improvement of undergraduate throughput rates must be a key strategy for increasing graduate outputs, for increasing the skills available to the economy, and providing larger numbers of students available for postgraduate study."

It is normal for any country that only a very small percentage of the population has the intellectual capacity to successfully complete masters degrees and PhDs. However, poverty should never stand in the way of gifted students. They should be identified as early as possible and be given every opportunity possible to achieve their full potential. Some universities, for example the University of Maastricht, accept gifted students for PhD studies for free - the students do their research on behalf of the university, they are employed by the university for the duration of their studies and they receive a salary while they are studying. They are required to offer a small number of lectures, though. Increasing the number and quality of both masters and the PhD degrees is a contradiction in terms and unlikely to be achieved, and quality should most certainly be the focus on this level, not quantity.

Workplace-based training.

On page 11 of the Green Paper the following is written:

"However, there are also unscrupulous providers who take advantage of people's thirst for education. The Regulatory environment has not always been supportive of the former, and has frequently failed to root out the latter."

The crowds of young people trying to register for studies at universities this year is a very good demonstration of how desperately the South African youth want to study and obtain qualifications. And it is true that there are still way too many providers (sadly private and public) who do not offer good quality ETD. This calls for urgent attention and drastic steps to get rid of people posing as learning providers but they do not carry the interests of the learners at heart.

Lack of Cohesion and Articulation in the Post-School System.

On page 14 the following is written:

"There is yet little integration across different types of provision. It is still difficult for students to move between colleges and universities, between different universities, between schools and post-school institutions and between educational provision and the world of work."

The ideal would be to have full portability of credits and qualifications between different learning institutions offering the same or related qualifications, but to expect VET colleges to prepare students for further studies at universities is most unlikely. I am not aware of one country where students can move from VET colleges to universities without first having done some bridging training or top-up learning. Transferability of knowledge and skills from the learning institution to the workplace is a completely different issue, and it is mostly universities that do not prepare students sufficiently for the workplace.

Achieving reflexive competence at a learning institution is often almost impossible, because reflexive competence requires time and practice. Even a qualified medical surgeon does not have reflexive competence after having completed her or his studies, including a year practical work at a hospital. The best example that I can think of where students achieved good competence is some of the old teachers colleges, like the Wellington teachers college that had its own school where students had to teach as part of their study programme. The Minister will make a substantial contribution to the education of the youth if the teachers colleges are brought back if it is not already too late.

The following extract from page 45 looks like a step in the right direction, though:

"The Teacher Development Plan signals exploration of new sites of delivery for teacher education and this will impact on student enrolment."

Also on page 14, the following is written:

"The NQF was introduced into the South African education and training system with, among other objectives, the hope that it could create a coherent education and training system, by creating a set of levels (now ranging from level 1 to level 10) on which all qualifications would be placed. This has not fully succeeded."

I do not quite follow how levels can be a hindrance in the way of quality ETD. Quality assurance derives standards from the NQF, and it would be difficult to define standards in the absence of levels. Even so, it is true that levels can be an obstacle in the way of achieving coherence in qualifications if it is used as rigid criteria for registration.

The following is also written on page 14:

"There is inadequate information about labour market needs and future growth possibilities. This makes planning and targeting of provision difficult. Articulation with the labour market has two elements. Firstly, it is about matching the supply of and demand for skills in this market. Secondly, it is about developing opportunities for apprenticeships, learnerships, work experience and training. At present, statistical information on labour market demand remains thin and lacks uniformity across the different SETAs responsible for gathering this information. Central co-ordination of such data is also inadequate."

This is an immense problem and I am almost tempted to name the SETA that I deal with. But it is often individuals in the SETA who is incompetent, so one cannot really blame the SETA in its entirety, because not everybody is incompetent. Also they are not entirely to blame, because it is some private consultants, so-called SDFs, who submit worthless information, which the SETAs accept, knowing well that it is not worth the paper it is written on. Some consultant SDFs prepare what I would call one "dummy" WSP and ATR that they then submit as if completed by a number of levy payers separately. When you analyse the data it is quite evident that the so-called scarce and critical skills needs have never been raised by the industry. In fact, employers are seldom involved in the identification of skills needs. For this they are often also to blame, because they regard skills levies as just another tax that they want to forget about, and if there is a private SDF who wishes to earn a slice of what they can claim back after having submitted WSPs and ATRs, then it is also fine.

The argument on page 14 continues:

"One reason why the resources available to the post-school system have been in short supply is that very little skills levy funding has been used to pay for education in the public universities and colleges. The SETAs have yet to start using public education institutions extensively to assist in coherent planning of education. SETAs and colleges were, until recently, constrained from working with each other by the 80/20 rule which required colleges to use 80% of their state funding on the NCV or N programmes. The new National Skills Development Strategy III, as well as new regulations and pending legislation affecting the SETAs and the National Skills Fund are now attempting to reverse this trend. With their close contacts with employers and the labour market, the SETAs and the NSF have the potential to expand their support to universities and colleges in various ways. This could ensure a closer coherence between the needs of the labour market and the identification of areas of focus for education institutions."

Using skills levies to pay public learning institutions can only be justified if the skills needs of the levy payers are satisfied by the learning institutions.

On page 16 the following is written:

"...this Green Paper suggests that unit standards in particular may have made it very difficult for providers to be responsive to employers and communities, as courses have to be developed against them, and cannot be customised for the specific requirements of the workplace or community in question. International and South African research has demonstrated that unit standards tend to fragment knowledge and militate against the coherence necessary to address the mastery requirements of specific professions."

There are instances where communities sought learning that is not captured in unit standards, but this is often because unit standards were written without consulting communities and employers about their skills needs to begin with. This does not mean that unit standards are to blame for poor or irrelevant learning. In fact, unit standards offer numerous benefits if they are written properly, for example they promote credit accumulation, they allow employees to obtain qualifications without being away from work for long periods of time, they lend flexibility to the unpacking of qualifications, allowing learners to attend learning in knowledge and skills that are relevant to their needs, etc. Claiming that "international and South African research has demonstrated that unit standards tend to fragment knowledge" without specifying the research or sources and "militate against the coherence necessary to address the mastery requirements of specific professions" without naming the professions is not scientific and therefore also not reliable.

Starting on page 16 and running over to page 17 the following is written:

"With the exception of Umalusi, which was built on the previous South African Certification Council, these new bodies had no institutional history. Shortly after their formation, they were required to make complex judgements about educational quality. We may have expected too much of new institutions, such as SETAs, and in particular the ETQAs, which had to establish themselves, find appropriate staff and develop new systems for a new function. Some of them have now started to build capacity, but others remain weak."

There is a desperate need for quality assurors to be trained in quality assurance and related subjects. Ironically, my impression after having spoken to quality assurance managers at most quality assurance bodies is that those who should be the custodians of quality in ETD are extremely reluctant to be trained in their own field of operations.

A Strengthened, Expanded and Diversified College Sector. On page 19 the following is written:

"Private provision of education at all levels of the post-school system will play a complementary role in ensuring an expanded and diversified system. The regulatory system must be streamlined, to ensure that accreditation and quality assurance requirements strengthen educational institutions, without becoming barriers for them."

It is encouraging to see that the Minister appreciates the contribution that private providers can make towards the achievement of NSDS III objectives.

Strengthening and Expanding the FET Colleges.

The following is written on page 20:

"There are high expectations of this (the FET Colleges) sector as a central component of South African's skills development system. FET colleges must become institutions of choice for young school leavers, offering general vocational training as well as providing academic and theoretical education for apprentices. They must articulate wit universities so that those who choose a vocational training route can later continue their studies at university level if they choose to do so. They must develop close ties to workplaces in the public and private sectors, becoming responsive to the needs of the employers in their surrounding communities, and offering tailor-made programmes where possible in addition to their core programmes. In line with NSDS III, colleges must develop close ties to SETAs, which will play an increasingly important role in linking colleges with employers."

Articulation between FET colleges and universities will be extremely difficult to achieve without some form of bridging training or top-up learning in between. I am not aware of a country where such a system works. Close co-operation between learning institutions and workplaces can only be achieved if employers are truly involved in the identification of skills needs. Denmark has such a system that works extremely well with the result that ETD is articulated to skills needs so that students are mostly guaranteed employment once they completed their studies.[4]

On page 21 the following is written:

"Weaker colleges will be steered and supported centrally to a greater extent and their councils will have more limited powers until the college develop the necessary capacities and systems. Norms and standards will be created for key areas, which will apply to all colleges."

One can understand that this kind of autocratic approach is probably necessary in some instances. However, there must always be a policy of hope, meaning that the door must be left open to learning institutions who show that they are serious about offering good quality learning and that they can manage themselves to do so.

Also on page 21 the following is written:

"Key short-term steps to improve throughput rates will include lecturer training, particularly in subject expertise, and allowing colleges to select the students most likely to be successful while strengthening their ability to do so. In the long term, centrally designed admission tests may be an important tool to ensure that only students with a reasonably good chance of success are admitted, and that bridging programmes are designed to assist where necessary."

Lecturer training is an excellent intervention. Experts in quality assurance in Finland, Denmark, Austria and Germany feel that lecturer training is the most important step in capacity building.[5] We have some experience in training FET college lecturers and, even though the large majority of them do have good potential I feel that there is room for improvement in so many fields, especially management of time, ethics, facilitation skills, learner guidance and support and many more.

Page 22 of the Green Paper discusses the potential and problems with NCV training. I strongly feel that NCV training, if utilised correctly and recognised sufficiently can add value in terms of both preparing people for jobs as well as for future learning. I do not think NCV training should be limited to pupils who successfully completed either grade 9 or grade 12, but rather a flexible approach where the students (they are actually now entering the adult world) be allowed to make their own choices. Of course they can and should still receive guidance and support. RPL is not an alternative option because all learning programmes with really few exceptions should be achievable through RPL, including NCV training. Also keep in mind that RPL is not necessarily just recognising prior learning - it can include some top-up learning as well, which is probably what the majority of pupils who completed grade 12 at school will need.

The following is written on page 23:

"A serious problem facing students who have completed the NCV is that universities do not normally admit NCV graduates, even if their marks are good, unless there is a specific agreement between a particular university and the FET college where the student completed their NCV."

As I already wrote, I am not aware of any country where VET (or FET, even though other countries do not have FET) will allow students access to university studies without bridging training or top-up learning, and I fail to see the problem in this. Why MUST all young people obtain university degrees? There is no country in the world where this is the case, and not having a university degree does not make one person less important than the one with the degree. Perhaps the problem lies with our remuneration system - people with degrees are, perhaps, paid too much or people without degrees are paid too little or a bit of both. A street sweeper in South Africa cannot afford to buy a Porsche.

Strengthening Colleges: Lecturers.

On page 24 is written:

"This could include, as an interim measure, importing experts from other countries to train lecturers in subject expertise, in cases where our universities and universities of technology do not have the requisite expertise."

There is something seriously wrong here. What happened to all the lecturers of some ten, fifteen years ago? Did the government work them out, and if so, why? Mentornet is a tiny private learning institution, and I have seven educational researchers with masters degrees and four with Doctors degrees. I can appoint double as many if only I could afford them. They are all either brilliant researchers or facilitators or both, so why are they not lecturers at universities? I will return to this argument in my closing remarks.

Page 25:

"Another aspect of lecturer development requiring urgent attention is keeping college lecturing staff in touch with workplace environments. Towards this end the DHET and the SETAs will encourage and assist colleges to establish partnerships and linkages with employers to ensure that all lecturing staff are given adequate and ongoing workplace experience."

This argument is as old as ETD itself. Of course it is the ideal, as it is the ideal to assess students by means of naturally-occurring evidence, i.e. in the workplace. We all know the saying: "Those who can do and those who can't teach." There do seem to be some kind of differentiation between those who teach and those who apply what they learned at university or college in the workplace. This is one of those visions that we must always strive towards, knowing well that we will not achieve it, because if we stop trying our ETD system will deteriorate. Just actively involving employers in the learning process will already make a substantial difference, and there are organisations that do this. The SANDF and the SA Police Service are examples of organisations that achieve wonderful success by integrating learning with day-to-day work. The following extract from page 36 can be added to this:

"The public service should be a training space. It has the potential to absorb large numbers of young people for internships, learnerships and apprenticeships, as well as providing work experience for FET and university graduates."

Strengthening Colleges: Learner Support.

Page 26:

"This means that every student who qualifies under the NSFAS means test is eligible for a bursary if doing NCV or N programmes."

The training offered by public FET colleges can be substantially enhanced by private FET colleges if they are also given government subsidies. The main argument against private learning institutions is, as I understand it, that they are focused on making profits and, therefore, unnecessarily expensive. However, if the subsidies per student that public FET colleges receive are added to what the students pay then the large majority of public FET colleges receives substantially more than what private FET colleges charge.

Community Education and Training Centres. This is a very good idea and it will have financial, psychological and economic benefits for the South African community. South Korea kick-started their educational system with something similar in the early seventies of the previous century, and today they have one of the best educational systems in the world.

Workplace-based Learning.

Page 36:

"Only providers offering national qualifications or awards should have to be registered. Government departments must also be made aware that alignment with unit standards is not a requirement for training, as this appears to be a common misconception."

This is quite understandable, because the SANDF, Correctional Services, SAPS and many more have their own courses and some form of quality assurance. One need to have some form of monitoring though, since this can easily lead to a waste of money and time with people attending exciting, but empty workshops, sometimes offered at really luxurious conference facilities where excellent food and drinks are served. This is not unique to South Africa - it happens everywhere and we cannot afford it, or at least not too much of it.

Student Success. It is true that accommodation, the quality of food, living conditions on campus, student support services and many other hygiene factors need to be in place if students are to perform well at university or college. However, more important than all of this is the issue of hope. Students will not be motivated to study and work hard if they don't believe that their efforts will enable them to find proper jobs and to live a good quality life. This is supported by experts in quality assurance in EU Member States, notably Denmark, Austria and Germany.[6] There is no doubt in my mind that co-operation between the Department of Labour, DHET, organised labour and employers to promote job creation will have a significant positive effect on the success rate at both universities and FET colleges.

Research and Innovation. The entire page 44 of the Green Paper is relevant to these remarks. Achievement of DHET strategic objectives can and should be achieved or at least promoted through research on topics relevant to the objectives. This is actually a very exciting concept, because such research will most certainly be relevant and directed at real challenges that the South African community faces, so that such research will be efficient and add value in some form. This, however, will require very good monitoring and control to ensure that research does not produce yet more stacks of paper that will be neatly bound and put in the university library never to be read or implemented by anybody.

Access and Expansion.

Page 45:

"The aim is to raise the participation rate in universities to 23% by 2030 from the current 16%."

This argument actually applies to many other "objectives" or "visions" in the Green Paper, and DHET might have this in place anyway, because one cannot capture everything in a document of this format. Point is; the achievement of strategic objectives needs to be broken down into shorter term (smaller) objectives and progress need to be monitored at much shorter intervals than the almost twenty years given as the time allowed for achievement. If we are to wait until 2030 to see if we achieved the objective we will probably be in for a nasty disappointment, but I am sure this is probably under control.

Staff.

Page 46:

"Management problems continue to exist in some institutions. A number of universities have been subjected to some form of investigation or independent assessment in recent times. The viability of some of our institutions has been threatened by weak leadership, governance structures and procedures, as well as accountability... This may necessitate a review of the legislation and accompanying regulations."

Reviewing legislation and accompanying regulations might help, but I doubt if it will solve the problem. What is needed is training and education of leaders on all levels in learning institutions and careful selection of such leaders based on merit.

Funding.

Page 47:

"Research is an area that has multiple funders, with the DHET as a significant contributor."

Funding of studies need to be very specifically linked to the achievement of success and this need to be carefully monitored. We need to accept that not all students will achieve success. This is normal, and the diligent and gifted students are the ones who will rise to the top. Funding must start at the basis, i.e. on ECD level, because if the children are not given a sound foundation at this early stage already they will struggle to catch up for the rest of their lives.

Spending large amounts of money on infrastructure is probably necessary, but we need to budget for the maintenance of all the schools, colleges, university buildings now already if we are not to lose everything within ten or twenty years, because like everything else buildings age and get damaged.

Student Fees and NSFAS.

Page 48:

"Most institutions charge student fees. While they are essential to institutional survival in the current funding environment, in many institutions fees have been increasing dramatically and are a major barrier to access. The DHET remains committed to progressively introduce free education for the poor up to and including undergraduate level. This is the basis towards which the DHET needs to work."

Managing student fees needs a good understanding based on thorough research if efficiency is to be achieved. The perception amongst those who do not have accurate information is that private learning institutions are exorbitantly expensive, and in some instances this is probably true. However, the large majority of private learning institutions, especially those who offer learnerships, find it very difficult to survive. SETAs set specific fees for learnerships, mostly between R16 000.00 and R18 000.00 for the equivalent of a one-year national certificate. Private providers need to manage what they are paid very carefully to make ends meet, especially since they are expected to pay for travel costs, accommodation, training venues, even lunch for the students from this. Especially unemployed learners require substantial guidance and support and this costs money, and when it is necessary to repeat training or schedule additional top-up learning and portfolio building workshops, costs escalate immensely. The less money is available the less can private providers do to help the learners achieve success.

Private FET colleges often offer good quality ETD, and their fees are much higher than that of public FET colleges because they do not receive government subsidies. This means that their services are available only to those who can afford their fees, when what is needed is that gifted students should have access to quality ETD, not necessarily rich ones. It is only when the government subsidises the learning institutions that they can dictate who should have access to the learning.

Also on page 48:

"Starting from 2011, as part of government's policy of progressively introducing free university education to the poor, students in their final year of study who qualify for NSFAS assistance will receive the full cost of study as a loan."

Free education is a good idea and countries like Switzerland have this for their own citizens, although school fees for foreign students studying in Switzerland are exorbitantly high (they do have bursary schemes for a small number of foreign students, though). It will, however, be necessary to link free education on higher levels to performance if the system is to be efficient. We need to realise that not all people are equally gifted to study, and people must be allowed to develop to their full potential in the areas in which they have the most talent. This is merit, not discrimination, and everybody will benefit from this kind of approach. Learning performance must be rewarded.

Private Higher Education. The Minister's understanding of the role of the private learning institutions in higher education is appreciated.

Page 49:

"Any re-conceptualisation of a post-school education and training system would ... be incomplete without reference to both public and private spheres. At the same time, the DHET acknowledges limitations in its understanding of the size and shape of the private higher education system."

The Further Education and Training Awards Council of Ireland (FETAC) uses objective and transparent criteria to evaluate the capacity of learning institutions. B. Kelly[7] defines a learning provider as "anybody or person who delivers, produces or organises training." The motivation for this is that a minimalistic system, well communicated and integrated into the normal activities of the provider, will generally be more effective than one which is overly bureaucratic. Point is; it is unrealistic to evaluate small providers against the same criteria as large ones. Furthermore, small providers sometimes offer much better quality ETD than large and bureaucratic organisations exactly because they are small. Quality assurance bodies need to articulate their evaluation criteria to the size and purpose of learning institutions. The most important and decisive criterion should be if the learning institution can achieve its learning objectives and not if it has sport facilities, large libraries, hostels or any other criteria that are not relevant.

Also on page 49:

"This means that a considerable number of institutions offering qualifications based on unit standards (as reflected on the SAQA database) are not registered with the DHET."

This is a major frustration for especially private learning institutions and it actually makes a mockery of the Skills Development Act. The CHE refuses to recognise qualifications (on NQF levels 5 and higher) that are unit standard based, while Umalusi is not allowed to accredit institutions offering qualifications on these levels. Private providers accredited with ETQAs are not allowed to register with the DHET, so technically speaking they are operating illegally if thy offer unit standard-based qualifications on NQF levels 5 and higher. The problem is that quality assurance bodies who do not recognise unit standards and, consequently probably do not even know how to write a unit standard, is allowed to decide if learning institutions may accredit with them or not. The general resistance against unit standards by the CHE, to a lesser extent Umalusi and the QCTO is probably based on lack of understanding of the concept so that the value of the approach cannot be appreciated. The Minister is advised by people who are not qualified to judge and those who work with the system are not asked for their inputs, so that we are on the brink of losing an approach that is admired by some other countries, notably EU Member States and a good number of SADC Member States.

Page 50:

"The possibility of partnerships between public and private institutions should be explored within a clearly defined regulatory framework that sets out the parameters for operation."

This sounds like a good idea in principle. However, it is not clear how this should work. I've been aware of this concept for probably two years already and have spoken to the relevant departments of three prominent universities and five public FET colleges. Not one of them knows how this can be achieved. As one professor at a university said to me: "You are our competition, why would we work in partnership with you?" Almost all FET colleges are really very diplomatic about this, but in only two instances could we come to a rather limited agreement. The cost of training is high and both public and private learning institutions find it really hard to make ends meet, so it is unlikely that sharing the limited funds available will be viable. Even so, I am aware that a similar system is working in Australia and New Zealand, so I will see if I can learn something from them.

Also on page 50:

"The demographic features of students registering at private post-school institutions. The data seems to suggest, for example, that private higher education institutions attract a different student population than private FET and adult education institutions..."

Of course this will be the case. The DHET is actually denying poor students access to private learning institutions by not subsidising them, so that only the rich can enrol their children at such institutions. Even so, I am sure that many private learning institutions do a lot to accommodate poor, but gifted students. Mentornet allowed eight such (black) students to attend learning for free during 2011, and one of them has subsequently been appointed as our receptionist and we are providing her with additional training, so that she will also be used as a facilitator from 2013, if everything goes according to plan.

Building State Institutions and Streamlining the Regulatory System.

Page 62:

"SETAs must also ensure there is strong employer and trade union leadership and ownership of sector skills activities, and be able to articulate the collective skills needs of their stakeholders. SETAs are responsible for monitoring and managing occupational standards to ensure that provision of training, including the qualifications gained, meets sector, cross-sector and occupational needs."

Organised labour and the industry are not sufficiently involved in skills development. As already explained, WSPs and ATRs are submitted just to have something on paper, but the scarce and critical skills needs listed on them are often incomplete, invalid and irrelevant. The following quote from page 65 of the Green Paper confirms this:

"There is general agreement that Workplace Skills Plans (WSP) and Annual Training Reports (ATR) need to be improved. The current Workplace Skills Plans submitted by business do not reflect real priorities for business."

It would have been a much more simple and efficient system if employers were allowed to plan and conduct (or outsource) training needed to satisfy their knowledge and skills needs and then claim skills levies to cover their training costs. Their claims can then also serve as a "training report." The complicated WSP/ATR process leads to bureaucracy, corruption, fruitless expenditure and worthless training.

Scope and Role of Seta Work. The entire section on pages 63 and 64 are as we experience it, and the knowledge, skills and work ethics of some SETA managers need urgent attention. A possible alternative to the SETA structure would be to integrate their functions into one organisation with one purpose and different sections responsible for different economic sectors. The Danish Evaluation Institute is not exactly what is needed, but it can serve as an example of an organisation that physically liaises with employers to identify real skills needs and co-ordinate ETD with private and public learning institutions to ensure that the real skills needs of the country are satisfied and that successful students find employment.[8] Demark has an almost 100% success rate in placing successful students from this system in jobs where their newly acquired knowledge and skills are needed.

Page 67:

"The counter-argument is that the levy grant was not introduced as a general skills tax but as a mechanism to encourage employers to train more workers."

This is the reason why skills levies were institution to begin with, and using it for any other purposes can lead to resistance and dissatisfaction. We must remember that skills levies, like taxes, do not ever become the property of the government. The government is the elected leaders of the community and they are entrusted with money belonging to the community. As such they are accountable to the community for how and on what the money is spent.

Simplifying the National Framework.

Page 74:

"Option two is to introduce simplification by removing the levels on the NQF and instead indicating relationships between the key qualification types in the three sub frameworks."

This is not a realistic option. Complete equivalence of vocational and academic qualifications cannot be achieved, so that integration of qualifications frameworks for the two (three if we stick to FET, HET and OD) cannot be fully achieved. There are some values and principles in quality assurance, notably the definition of standards, that apply to all levels and fields of learning, which is why an Apex Quality Assurance Body with two, three or four second level sections or branches (HE, VET, and school education or FET, HE, OD ETD and school education) is needed.

Removing the levels would, in my opinion, be as much a step backwards as doing away with unit standards is. CEDEFOP (the EU body for quality assurance in VET) is in the process of adopting levels, with some countries, like Ireland, already using them. I sometimes wonder if our NQF and levels did not emanate from them, or perhaps they copied the South African system, because the similarities are uncanny. There are many reasons why levels are necessary.

• Levels facilitate judging equivalence internationally as well as locally.
• Levels help learning institutions to design and develop learning materials and assessment instruments on the level of the curriculum.
• Levels help the facilitator or lecturer to develop learning event plans on the level of the curriculum.
• Levels help students to enrol for qualifications on a level that they will feel comfortable with.
• Levels enable learning institutions to judge if students can be accepted for learning programmes by comparing the level of their previous learning with the new.
• Levels enable planning learning interventions in a scaffolding manner so that it will promote and support lifelong learning.
• Levels provide structure and status to qualifications.
• Levels promote portability of knowledge and skills from learning institutions to the workplace.

Page 76:

"Once the notion of level 5 as part of higher education is removed, there should be no problem with Umalusi continuing to quality assure qualifications that are part of the post-school system, but are not part of the higher education system. Even if levels on the NQF remain, the demarcation of quality assurance bodies does not need to narrowly correspond to these levels."

The solution lies in the last sentence above. There is no need to demarcate quality assurance bodies based on NQF levels. They can be demarcated in terms of VET, HE and school education.

Simplifying and Strengthening Quality Assurance.

Page 77:

"It is increasingly clear that quality assurance and qualifications systems can tend towards bureaucratic implementation which eliminates professional judgement, while professional judgement, learning and continuous improvement are essential."

The main deficiency is lack of leadership on organisational and individual level. I recently wrote a book entitled Leadership in Quality Assurance of ETD. If everything goes according to plan it will be published before the end of February and I will send a copy to the Director General of Higher Education and Training.

Closing remarks. I really and truly wish it was not necessary to write the observations below, and have been thinking about this the entire week while working on the report, but the Green Paper is such a rich and well-prepared document that I cannot but raise my concerns about something that is ruining what could have been a brilliant contribution to the quality learning that students In South Africa receive. South Africa is internationally famed as THE RAINBOW nation, and in our diversity there is the potential to be strong. One can fully understand that black people feel that our apartheid past robbed them of many opportunities to achieve their full potential. I don't think white people can really understand how our previous political dispensation must have humiliated black people, often stripping them of their identity. It is also understandable that people might sometimes have this urge to take revenge. It comes out in some of the utterances in the Green Paper and apart from the fact that this kind of emotional outburst do not belong in a scientific report, it has the potential to doom the plan to failure even before it began.

Apartheid denied black people education, self-respect, quality life and many other human rights when it was still the government policy, we must not allow it to destroy our new-found democracy as well. As it is we have already lost a huge number of scientists, lecturers, teachers, doctors, managers, etc. because of skin colour. Imagine how much black people could have benefited from the knowledge and skills of those people if only they were still available and if only government would employ them.

Blaming "the legacy of apartheid" for things that go wrong in South Africa is often valid, but one must guard against not always looking for an excuse why we fail rather than to just work hard to overcome our obstacles. The young people who are enrolling at universities at the moment were not even born when we had apartheid in South Africa, and we must not burden them with the perception that they have a reason to fail. Let's rather give them a reason to succeed.

In 1994 a new democracy was born in South Africa and it brought with it freedom and many rights and opportunities. But it also brought with it responsibility and accountability. The majority shareholders of this wonderful country must now show the world that they can govern themselves - they must prove that apartheid was wrong and unjustified.

There is no doubt in my mind that the large majority of white people in this country want to see the country flourish. Ignoring them, discriminating against them, not utilising the knowledge and skills that they can bring to the table will only make it so much more difficult to shake off the injustices of the past. After all, white people had all the opportunities to study and find good employment, i.e. gain experience, so it is only right that they must now share it, not so? And believe you me, the large majority of them are more than willing to do so. But if you push people, they will push back, and nobody knows this better than those who now govern the country.

So, let's all work together towards a new and prosperous South Africa where there is room and a future for everybody.

Dr J.P. Nel, MD Mentornet

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GLOBAL WARMING

Submitted: 2012-02-09 10:50:45

ARTICLE 2: GOBAL WARMING EXPLAINED

Introduction. In the previous article we discussed aliens and the greenhouse effect. We also mentioned that the greenhouse effect is actually necessary for our survival on Earth, but that man-made pollution is causing the process to go out of control, leading to global warming.

What is global warming? Throughout its long history, Earth has warmed and cooled time and again. Climate has changed when the planet received more or less sunlight due to subtle shifts in its orbit, as the atmosphere or surface changed, or when the sun’s energy varied. But in the past century, another force has started to influence earth’s climate: humanity.

Global warming is the unusually rapid increase in the earth’s average surface temperature over the past century primarily due to the greenhouse gases released by people burning fossil fuels. Current climatic warming is occurring much more rapidly than past warming events. There are still some natural causes of climate change, but their influence is too small or they occur too slowly to explain the rapid warming seen in recent decades.[1]

Models predict that as the world consumes even more fossil fuel, greenhouse gas concentrations will continue to rise and earth’s average temperature will rise. The melting of the arctic glaciers, the retreat of the ice cap and the global rise in sea levels is clearly a cause for major international concern. Climate change is one of the most important global challenges facing the international community – it is a threat to all nations, and requires a coordinated, determined and united response.

Up to these recent years, there remain to be many controversies surrounding global warming. Most government agencies seem to ignore the issue totally, although more people are becoming more aware about the possibility that it is indeed happening. And if the climate is getting warmer and warmer on a global scale, what does that mean for the future? The future does not look too bright if global warming is indeed happening on a large scale. In fact, researchers are dreading the sudden entry of a new ice age. They are looking into the possible results: if the heightened atmospheric temperature indeed causes the polar ice caps to melt, it will cause much fresh, icy water to flow from the poles and Greenland into the northern Atlantic. What will then happen? The Gulf Stream will inevitably be shut down. This is that which is responsible for keeping North America as well as Europe warm. The same applies to Southern Africa – some scientists are of the opinion that the sea level can rise to such an extent that almost the entire Cape Town on the southern side of Table Mountain will be under water.

As a worst case occurrence, the last ice age may make its ugly head reared in as little as two to three years, which seems largely unlikely. Instead, a more possible scenario would be a little bit like the tiny ice age that happened several centuries ago: a time when worldwide patterns of the weather was disrupted and resulted in droughts, harsher winters than usual, crop failures, and worldwide financial collapse, all of which may have contributed to the rise in wars worldwide. The explanation is that the climate in different parts of the world is determined by ocean currents. For example, although most of Europe is located in the same latitude as Alaska, central Siberia, and northern Canada, the climate for this continent is more akin to that of the United States. It has been found that the warmth in a country’s climate comes from ocean currents, which bring warm surface water from the equator up to the northern areas; without this warm water, even the summers would have these places covered in ice. The Gulf Stream is included in what is known as the “Great Conveyos Belt,” and it is also among the biggest areas of concern. This “Belt” is generally affected by a force made by the differences in salinity and water temperatures. For example, the North Atlantic Ocean is colder and saltier than the Pacific Ocean, caused by its being much smaller and kept in place by the Americas on one side and the continents of Africa and Europe on the other. This results in the warm water evaporating from the North Atlantic, making it the only thing that stands between a comfortable series of summers and an ice age doomed for the east coast of North America and for Europe. More or less the same will happen in Southern Africa, with the warm Mozambique/Agulhas current east and the cold Benguela current west.

Studies in recent years of the glacial surfaces in Greenland have reportedly shown that the levels of snow took only a few years to happen, unlike previous beliefs of their being gradual. This has caused many environmentalists to react in alarm, believing that it is therefore also possible for a similar thing to happen in this generation.

Close. It looks like global warming hold nothing good for the future of the Earth as we know it. But as usual it seems like everything is happening in the Northern hemisphere and that even global warming is ignoring us here at the Southern tip of Africa. Actually it would have been nice, but like with the financial crisis in the USA and almost all the European Union Member States, we will not be spared the punishment of an angry Earth. We will discuss the effects of global warming on South Africa in the next article.

(Dr J.P. Nel)

MD Mentornet

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AN ANALYSIS OF THE ETD ENVIRONMENT

Submitted: 2012-02-09 10:45:45

ARTICLE 6B: EMPLOYERS IN THE ETD SECTOR

Prepared by the Mentornet research team.

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The Higher Education Act defines a Higher Education Institution as “any institution that provides Higher Education on a full-time, part-time or distance basis.” The three core functions of HEIs are post-school teaching and learning; research publication and presentations; and community engagement. They provide learning programmes that culminate in full qualifications as accredited by the Council on Higher Education; Higher Education Quality Committee (CHE HEQC) on NQF levels 5 to 10. HEIs provide the socio-economic and industrial sectors with qualified, potential employees who have graduated variously with national certificates, diplomas, undergraduate degrees, honours degrees, masters degrees, doctoral degrees, or post-doctoral research degrees.

Universities are the largest learning institutions. Of the 23 recognised HEIs which qualify as “employers” in this organisation, four are located in the Western Cape (WC), two in the Free State (FS), four in Kwazulu-Natal (KZN), four in the Eastern Cape (EC), six in Gauteng (GP), two in Limpopo (LP), and one in North West (NW) province. The Mpumalanga (MPU) and the Northern Cape (NC) do not have any universities.

Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape, which can arguably be regarded as “rural provinces” do not provide for Higher Education. Whether this should be a driver for change is debatable, because such institutions will in all probability not be viable for various reasons.

The twenty three universities can also be divided into three categories, namely “academic universities” (eleven); “comprehensive universities” (six) and “universities of technology” (six). Universities can be further categorized in terms of their enrolment: “large” (enrolments of 30 000 and above); “medium” (between 20 000 and 30 000); “small” (fewer than 20 000).This is illustrated in Table 2-3 below.[1]

Table 2-3: Universities grouped by type.

SUBGROUP	RANGE	INSTITUTIONS IN GROUP
ACADEMIC UNIVERSITIES (AU)
Large AU	Enrolments of > 30 000	UP, NWU, UKZN
Medium AU	Enrolments of 20 000 – 29 999	UFS, Wits, UCT, SU
Small AU	Enrolments of < 20 000	UL, UWC, UFH, RU
UNIVERSITIES OF TECHNOLOGY (UT)
Large UT	Enrolments of > 30 000	TUT
Medium UT	Enrolments of 20 000 – 29 999	CPUT, DUT
Small UT	Enrolments of < 20 000	VUT, CUT, MUT
COMPREHENSIVE UNIVERSITIES (CU)
Large CU	Enrolments of > 30 000	Unisa, UJ
Medium CU	Enrolments of 20 000 – 29 999	WSU, NMMU
Small CU	Enrolments of < 20 000	Univen, UZ

As of July 2009, there are 97 private higher education institutions in South Africa registered with the D HET and accredited by the CHE HEQC.[2] The following diagram (see Table 2-4) shows the distribution of the private higher education institutions by province. Most of the institutions are located in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape. Only 17 of the 97 institutions are offering degrees at post-graduate levels. The majority of institutions are offering post-school certificate programmes.

Table 2-4: Registered Private Higher Education Institutions.

Province	Number of institutions	Province	Number of institutions
Eastern Cape	3	Mpumalanga	0
Free State	0	North West	2
Gauteng	55	Northern Cape	0
KwaZulu-Natal	15	Western Cape	21
Limpopo	1	South Africa	97

(Dr J.P. Nel)

MD Mentornet

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GLOBAL WARMING

Submitted: 2012-01-27 11:52:28

ARTICLE 1: GLOBAL WARMING: THE WORLD IS COMING TO AN END!

Introduction. Yip, it is official, the world is on it’s way out. As you will see from this article and the ones following on it global warming will have such a devastating effect on the earth that we will no longer be able to live here. Ironically it is the very living beings who are most alarmed about the developments that are also responsible for it. If human beings were removed from the face of the earth today, it will survive, because nature always keeps a balance. It is only people who disturb the balance of nature. Of course there is always the (extremely remote) possibility that a huge meteorite might strike the earth, but the chances of this happening are really remote and, therefore, a topic for a different article.

Even so, some so-called scientists believe that extra-terrestrial intervention because of global warming can lead to our demise. A team of American researchers recently produced a range of scenarios in which aliens could attack the earth because of climate change. The rationale behind this argument is that aliens might be so appalled by our planet-polluting ways that they view us as a threat to the intergalactic ecosystem and decide to destroy us.¹ Alternatively, they might regard pollution on earth as a sign of rapid development so that they might be concerned that we night eventually be in a position to attack them!

Oh, all right, I guess the alien scenario is probably far-fetched, but the chances of global warming threatening the future existence of the earth is way too real to be ignored, and we need to do something now while we still have the time (some are of the opinion that it is already too late). This series of articles is about global warming and what we can do to treat the only earth that we have with more respect and to secure it for future generations.

The greenhouse effect.² Life on earth depends on energy from the sun. About 30 percent of the sunlight that beams toward Earth is deflected by the outer atmosphere and scattered back into space. The rest reaches the planet's surface and is reflected upward again as a type of slow-moving energy called infrared radiation. The heat caused by infrared radiation is absorbed by "greenhouse gases" such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, ozone and methane, which slows its escape from the atmosphere.

Although greenhouse gases make up only about 1 percent of the Earth's atmosphere, they regulate our climate by trapping heat and holding it in a kind of warm-air blanket that surrounds the planet. This phenomenon is what scientists call the "greenhouse effect." Without it, scientists estimate that the average temperature on Earth would be colder by approximately 30 degrees Celsius (54 degrees Fahrenheit), far too cold to sustain our current ecosystem.

While the greenhouse effect is an essential environmental prerequisite for life on Earth, there really can be too much of a good thing. The problems begin when human activities distort and accelerate the natural process by creating more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere than are necessary to warm the planet to an ideal temperature. The following are causes of a distortion of the greenhouse effect:

• Burning natural gas, coal and oil -including gasoline for automobile engines-raises the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
• Some farming practices and land-use changes increase the levels of methane and nitrous oxide.
• Many factories produce long-lasting industrial gases that do not occur naturally, yet contribute significantly to the enhanced greenhouse effect and "global warming" that is currently under way.
• Deforestation also contributes to global warming. Trees use carbon dioxide and give off oxygen in its place, which helps to create the optimal balance of gases in the atmosphere. As more forests are logged for timber or cut down to make way for farming, however, there are fewer trees to perform this critical function.
• Population growth is another factor in global warming, because as more people use fossil fuels for heat, transportation and manufacturing the level of greenhouse gases continues to increase. As more farming occurs to feed millions of new people, more greenhouse gases enter the atmosphere.

Ultimately, more greenhouse gases means more infrared radiation trapped and held which gradually increases the temperature of the Earth's surface and the air in the lower atmosphere.

Today, the increase in the Earth's temperature is increasing with unprecedented speed. To understand just how quickly global warming is accelerating, consider this:

• During the entire 20th century, the average global temperature increased by about 0.6 degrees Celsius (slightly more than 1 degree Fahrenheit).
• Using computer climate models, scientists estimate that by the year 2100 the average global temperature will increase by 1.4 degrees to 5.8 degrees Celsius (approximately 2.5 degrees to 10.5 degrees Fahrenheit).

Scientists agree that even a small increase in the global temperature would lead to significant climate and weather changes, affecting cloud cover, precipitation, wind patterns, the frequency and severity of storms, and the duration of seasons.

• Rising temperatures would raise sea levels as well, reducing supplies of fresh water as flooding occurs along coastlines worldwide and salt water reaches inland.
• Many of the world’s endangered species would become extinct as rising temperatures changed their habitat.
• Millions of people also would be affected, especially poor people who live in precarious locations or depend on the land for a subsistence living.
• Certain vector-borne diseases carried by animals or insects, such as malaria, would become more widespread as warmer conditions expanded their range.

Carbon dioxide emissions are the biggest problem. Currently, carbon dioxide accounts for more than 60 percent of the enhanced greenhouse effect caused by the increase of greenhouse gases, and the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing by more than 10 percent every 20 years. If emissions of carbon dioxide continue to grow at current rates, then the level of the gas in the atmosphere will likely double, or possibly even triple, from pre-industrial levels during the 21st century.

Close. According to the United Nations, some climate change is already inevitable because of emissions that have occurred since the dawn of the Industrial Age. While the Earth’s climate does not respond quickly to external changes, many scientists believe that global warming already has significant momentum due to 150 years of industrialization in many countries around the world. As a result, global warming will continue to affect life on Earth for hundreds of years, even if greenhouse gas emissions are reduced and the increase in atmospheric levels halted.

We will discuss the phenomenon “global warming” in the next article.

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AN ANALYSIS OF THE ETD ENVIRONMENT

Submitted: 2012-01-27 11:47:55

ARTICLE 6A: EMPLOYERS IN THE ETD SECTOR

Prepared by the Mentornet research team.

Designing and developing a learning programme is only justifiable if it addresses real skills needs. It does not matter if it is a university, college, technical university of technology, private institution or employer who offers the learning – if it does not satisfy a real skills need it will not lead to employment or lifelong learning. That is why employers must be actively and directly involved in identifying scarce and critical skills needs. Once such skills needs are identified, learning programmes should be developed or enhanced to satisfy the needs. A convenient and practical manner in which to link workplace skills needs with learning programmes is to codify them. The table below list the scarce and critical skills needs in ETD that have been identified through our research. They are linked to Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) and Organising Framework for Occupations (OFO) Codes.

Table 2-2: Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Codes Covered by the ETD Sector.

SIC Code	OFO Code	Major Activity (Designation)
87110	2251	General Research, e.g. CSIR.
87132	1325	Research and Development.
92001	421104	Pre-primary Education and Activities of After School Centres.
92002	2411	Primary and Secondary Education.
92004	242101	Education by Technical Colleges and Technical Institutions.
92005	242101	Education by Universities of Technology.
92006	242101	Education by Teacher Training Colleges of Education for Further Training.
92007	242101	Education by Universities.
92008	241504	Education by Correspondence and Private Vocational Colleges tutors and music, dancing and other art schools, etc.
92009	2411	Other Educational Services – own account teachers, motor vehicle driving.
9200A	4113	NGOs involved in Education.
92010	N/A	Examination and Assessment Bodies.
95121	2249	Professional Organisations in Education.
95200	223103	Activities of Trade Unions.
95920	272411	Activities of Political Organisations.
96310	2246	Library and Archives Activities.
96311	399302	Provision and Operation of Libraries of all kinds.

Trade Unions/Labour Organisations. The current role of the South African trade union movement is the result of several dynamic events that have occurred during the decline of apartheid. The South African trade union movement, the fastest growing in the world, is dominated by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). Trade union federations are cooperating through tripartite mechanisms to decide many major issues.¹

The following are the most important trade unions/labour organisations in South Africa:

• Trade Unions federations.
  • Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU).
  • National Council of Trade Unions (NACTU).
  • Federation of Unions of South Africa (FEDUSA).
• National Education and Health Allied Workers Union (NEHAWU).
• National Union of Tertiary Educators of South Africa (NUTESA).
• National Tertiary Educators and Staff Unions (NTESU).
• Teacher Trade Unions/Organisations as represented in the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC):
  • South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU).
  • National Professional Teachers Organisations of South Africa (NAPTOSA).
  • Suid Afrikaanse Onderwys Unie (SAOU).
  • Professional Educators Union (PEU).
  • National Teachers Union (NATU).

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AN ANALYSIS OF THE ETD ENVIRONMENT

Submitted: 2011-12-12 12:39:03

ARTICLE 5: THE COMPOSITION OF THE ETD SECTOR

Prepared by the Mentornet research team.

Introduction. The Skills Development Act (SDA) No. 97 of 1998 as amended on 1 December 2008¹ makes provision for the establishment of Sectoral Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) for each national economic sector as determined by the Minister of Labour in terms of Section 9 of the SDA. In terms of Section 10(1)(a) of said Act every SETA is required to develop a Sector Skills Plan (SSP) within the framework of the National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS).

The draft framework for the new NSDS, titled the NSDS III, was released by the Minister of Higher Education and Training in consultation with the National Skills Authority (NSA). In addition, guidelines for the preparation of SSPs in such a manner that they will support the NSDS III were distributed to SETAs.² This proved to have a rather important impact on the format and content of SSPs – not only will SSPs in future reflect scarce and critical skills needs identified by means of a gap analysis, but also skills needed for the implementation of the NSDS III as well as related part strategies.

The SDA, furthermore, establishes the framework within which the SETAs must operate. It provides for the composition and functions of the SETAs and determines the minimum requirements of their Constitutions.

This article presents a descriptive picture of the education, training and development (ETD) Sector at current levels, how it has changed over time as well as any future anticipated changes.

The profile of the ETD sector presented in this article was constructed from a variety of informed and current sources of information, including a substantial number of official reports and other official documentation, literature studies and interviews with prominent role players in the ETD Sector.

The profile of the ETD Sector. Any organisation that employs people have an interest in education, training and development, with the result that one can probably argue that the ETD Sector spans the entire South African economy and communities. This emphasises the pivotal role that the sector plays in the seamless functioning of the South African economy. The sector includes a rather diverse assortment of organisations, some of which have an indirect interest in ETD, since their core business is not ETD. The large majority of the organisations, however, are involved in ETD, so that they logically belong to the ETD Sector.

Organisations in the ETD Sector can be subdivided into Learning Providers, Trade Unions/Labour Organisations, Employer Organisations, Professional Bodies and certain Government Departments. Together they include 57 984 organisations.³ These organisations are listed below in Table 1.

Table 1: Organisations in the ETD Sector.

No	Organisation	Number
1	Trade Unions/ Labour.	464
2	Higher Education institutions (HEI).	37
3	Further Education and Training (FET). Public FET colleges. Private FET colleges.	52 529
4	Research Organisations – organisations from the 8 statutory science councils from which research is done in the social, scientific and technological fields: National Research Foundation. Agricultural Research Council. Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. Council for Geosciences. Human Sciences Research Council. Medical Research Council. Mintek. (Mineral Processing). South African Bureau of Standards. Others: South African Association for Research and Development in Higher Education.	66
5	Libraries and Archives.	21
6	Early Childhood Development Institutions.	13 736
7	Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) Institutions.	506
8	Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) and Community-based Organisations (CBOs).	150
9	National Independent Schools.	1 174
10	Schools Governing Body employees and Public Schools.	30 710
11	Association of Private Providers in Education, Training and Development (APPETD). Higher Education Providers. Accredited private ETD Providers.	77 619 9 636
12	Department of Education consists of: National Department of Basic Education. Nine Provincial Departments of Basic Education. Department of Higher Education and Training.	11
13	Political Parties – this include all parties on provincial and national base.	104
14	South African Council of Educators (SACE).	1
15	South African Board of Personnel Practice (SABPP).	1
Total:		57 894

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COVERING UP THE FLAWS IN OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

Submitted: 2011-12-12 12:38:37

Some two years ago, when the matric results were announced, a prominent person in the field of learning said that we should close down the private schools because they make public schools look bad. During a conference where I was a speaker yet another prominent person in education accused me of being unpatriotic when I pointed out some deficiencies in the quality assurance systems of South African quality assurance bodies. It is almost time yet again for the matric results to be announced, and one cannot help but wonder if the results will be a true reflection of the knowledge and skills of the learners.

Some qualifications registered on the NLRD have as a qualification rule that students must attend and successfully complete learning in one official South African language on NQF level 4 and a second on NQF level 3, regardless of whether the individual successfully completed two official languages in matric. When I queried this with SAQA I was told: “Given the state of literacy and numeracy levels of our schools, which is spoken about almost daily in the press, I am a little disappointed to hear a provider imply that offering the languages leads to a lack of efficiency in the offering of qualifications.” My word, how can we issue people with matric certificates if, when they wish to continue learning, we expect of them to repeat the same subjects and on the same level that they already achieved in matric? This, in my mind, is totally unacceptable. If a pupil does not meet the requirements for a subject on a particular level she or he must never, ever be given a certificate. Having to repeat learning that the individual is certified by an official matric certificate to have completed successfully is most certainly inefficient education.

Clause 29. (b) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, No. 108 of 1996 specifies that “Everyone has the right to further education, which the state, through reasonable measures, must make progressively available and accessible.” Refusing an individual access to further learning when she or he can provide evidence (in the form of a matric certificate) that they meet the qualification rules is, therefore, unconstitutional. Issuing individuals with matric certificates when they do not meet the requirements for such a certificate is, equally, illegal. Requiring individuals to repeat learning that they successfully completed at school is an admission that our educational system is a failure.

So, if the educational system is a failure, then surely that is where the problem should be solved. If private schools are making public schools look bad because their learners are performing much better, then the obvious solution is to improve the level of teaching offered by public schools, not closing down the schools that are performing well. If we are serious about promoting lifelong learning and providing people with knowledge and skills that will enable them to find jobs and to add value to their places of work once they are employed, then we urgently need to stop covering up the flaws in our educational system. The purpose of quality assurance is to identify flaws so that we can correct, not hide, them.

(Dr J.P. Nel)

MD Mentornet

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AN ANALYSIS OF THE ETD ENVIRONMENT

Submitted: 2011-12-05 14:13:06

ARTICLE 4: THE SUPPLY OF SKILLS IN THE ETD SECTOR

Prepared by the Mentornet research team.

You will notice that the first four articles are in actual fact a summary of the articles following on them. They can be regarded as the scope of the Analysis of the ETD Environment, so that references will only be acknowledged in the articles following on this one.

The most important factors influencing the supply of skills in the ETD Sector include the following:

• Budget constraints.
• Environmental factors.
• Lack of trust and innovation.
• Lack of career development opportunities.

The most important skills that the ETD Sector needs include the following:

• Mathematics and science.
• HIV/AIDS.
• Legislation.
• Personal development.

With the exception of the School Governing Bodies (SGBs) and Public Schools who feel that regaining educators lost to the system is currently more important than coping with new challenges in the environment, all organisations in the ETD Sector institute steps to respond to changes, including expanding their services to rural areas and continued professional education.

Skills development priorities should focus on two main areas of development, namely the support of the strategic objectives of the NSDSIII and other national strategic initiatives.

In terms of support to the achievement of the NSDSIII strategic objectives scarce and critical skills needs in the ETD Sector should be addressed with the aim of:

• ending poverty through the creation of decent work,
• promoting equity through the elimination of discrimination,
• providing learning programmes that will enable people to obtain and keep decent employment opportunities,
• providing support to PIVOTAL programmes that will facilitate economic growth and social development,
• offering skills programmes and other non-accredited short courses,
• offering programmes that build the academic profession and engender innovation, and
• participating in the upliftment of the capacity of programme delivery partners.

Other national strategic initiatives that ETD should support include:

• The president’s outcomes approach to planning government’s work.
• The Human Resources Development Strategy for South Africa.
• The Targeted Teachers Skills Development Strategy.
• Promoting the protection of the environment.
• The Industrial Policy Action Plan.

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VISIONARY THINKING

Submitted: 2011-12-05 14:11:20

Last week I had the honour to act as the main speaker at a conference where the delegates were from many different African countries. The topic of the conference was leadership in quality assurance of education, training and development, so that it was kind of logical that at some stage we would also talk about visionary thinking. I told the delegates that I feel one should formulate a vision as a statement of fact and saw from the facial expression of one of the delegates that he disagreed. Of course I asked him to explain his point of view. He strongly disagreed with me, stating that a vision is a preferred future state and that it should be formulated like that. I wish we had more time to discuss the matter, but unfortunately all I had time for was to briefly explain my point of view and to invite him to try it out. I will do my best to send him this article, but feel that, perhaps, there are others who also might be interested.

We all know that a vision is a preferred state, and indeed it is a statement of where we would like to go with our organisation. A learning institution can, for example, adopt the following vision:

“Brilliant College will be the most successful developer of the skills of the youth in Gauteng in order to benefit employers, workers and employees in the mining sector (one can even add a time factor, for example “within five years”).”

The unstable and continuously changing environment in which we currently find ourselves requires more from us. It requires that we have the ability to adapt to change rapidly, accept change as a given, accept that we have no other choice but to take decisions based on incomplete information. It furthermore requires of us to act decisively and with confidence and to accept that we will sometimes make mistakes. The social and economic environment of today is much like a tank battle – a static tank is a dead tank (I saw and heard this on the History channel). Our tanks must keep moving, even if they might sometimes move somewhat off-course. And as we obtain new and more accurate information we must be ready to change our plans without hesitation. This also applies to our vision.

In a management of change strategic scenario we should rather formulate our vision as a statement of fact, even though we have, perhaps, not yet arrived. We should, therefore, formulate the above vision as follows:

“Brilliant College is the most successful developer of the skills of the youth in Gauteng benefitting employers, workers and employees in the mining sector.”

One of the reasons why we need to formulate our vision in this manner is because if we don’t we will never achieve a preferred state – we will always be striving to achieve an objective that we know very well we will never achieve and this can be extremely demoralising to the members of the organisation. In a dynamic environment (like ours) a vision will always be a shifting goalpost and we need to accept this and manage it. A vision is merely an indication of the direction in which we are moving and not a report that we have arrived. A second reason why we should formulate a vision as a statement of fact is because it creates a value system in the organisation. Everybody in the organisation should have had an opportunity to give inputs in the formulation of the vision so that they would accept ownership of it, and they must adopt it as “who they are and what they stand for”.

Perception plays a vital role in our personal, social and corporate lives and we need to adopt a positive perception of our organisation. It is all about reinforcement – if all the employees in the learning institution see themselves as the best they will initially become the best in their minds, and the fact will automatically follow. We do the same with our children – you instil a healthy self-image in a child by telling the child that she or he is clever, beautiful, etc. Of course you must never lie, because the child will grow into an adult and you will be exposed. For the same reason your vision must always be achievable. It serves no purpose having a vision like “Brilliant College is the most successful developer in the world…” because this is probably not achievable.

In closing, remember that the vision is the heart of any growth-organisation, and we need to grow continuously if we are to survive change. That is why the vision must be a clear image of the future even though we formulate it as a statement of fact. People in the organisation will accept the vision as a yardstick of their own actions, and the vision must always serve as a standard to be worked towards. By stating it as fact we actually commit ourselves to the achievement of the vision, and subconsciously it motivates people to work harder and better.

(Dr J.P. Nel)

MD Mentornet

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WHERE DO PRIVATE ETD PROVIDERS FIT IN THE QCTO?

Submitted: 2011-11-28 09:41:39

The bomb exploded in 2007 when some consultants and the GTZ (now Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)) started informing SETAs and other stakeholders in occupational education, training and development (OETD) about the QCTO. The general perception was that the ETQAs would be closed down even though the consultants denied that this would happen. Some SETAs and other bodies who now would probably deny it aggressively fought the establishment of this new body. Some ETQA managers even jumped ship. There were also a number of entrepreneurs (or are they opportunist?) who quickly recognised the opportunities in what was happening, so they joined the club.

Private training providers were not really alarmed at what was happening back then, and rightly so, because it was not really the QCTO that threatened their future existence, but rather a medley of environmental changes, such as the Minister of Higher Education and Training’s NSDS III objectives, the refusal of the CHE/HEQC to recognise unit standards, the complicated QCTO system, the poor performance of students at universities and public FET colleges and the unethical practices of some private learning institutions. But let me get to the point – the question is “Where do private ETD providers fit into the QCTO? In order to answer this question we need to dissect the QCTO system.

Arguably the hub of the QCTO system is the Development Quality Partners (DQPs). DQPs are responsible for writing curriculums. It is claimed that they will develop qualifications, but in my opinion they can’t and won’t, but this is a different story that we can, perhaps, discuss some other time. DQPs are required to liaise closely with the industry, i.e. the people who should raise skills needs, as well as with all other stakeholders in skills development, including learning institutions, organised labour, professional bodies, etc. This means that scoping will be, actually already is, an important part of qualifications design. Stakeholders must agree about the contents of curriculums, i.e. what knowledge and skills should be included in a particular qualification. DQPs are established once they are accepted by the majority of stakeholders in a particular field and approved when they close a service level agreement (SLA) with the QCTO. In practice DQPs will be relatively large organisations with sufficient funds to sustain their operations. They will probably come from the current SETAs, although any organisation can become one if they meet the requirements. It is, however, highly unlikely that private providers will meet the requirements to become DQP’s for obvious reasons, so we can rule this out.

The second structure that private providers should consider is the Occupational Qualifications Development Facilitators (OQDFs). OQDFs must meet certain competency criteria and demonstrate that they have the capacity to act as facilitators. This can be achieved by attending formal training in the curriculum writing process offered by a qualified OQDF. They are individuals who register with the QCTO as such. DQPs may not write curriculums without the supervision of an OQDF. Some of the consultants who were involved with the establishment and structuring of the QCTO saw in this an opportunity so that they became ODQPs. They offered workshops on the new curriculum format and writing process but do not easily allow others to join their ranks, even though a substantial number of people attended their workshops and know the process. The result of this is that the writing of curriculums is progressing extremely slowly at the moment because the (some twelve) OQDFs cannot cope with the demand for new curriculums. The QCTO is aware if this and it is their intention to expand the number of ODQPs in the near future. Criteria are being written for registration as ODQP and one can imagine that it will not only include knowledge of the QCTO curriculum model but also knowledge and experience in learning programme design and development. This is one area where some private providers might find a new niche.

An area over which private providers will have almost no control but which offers some opportunities for individuals who are willing to become expert in the field is the Organising Framework for Occupations (OFO). However, the OFO is becoming more a “filing system for jobs” rather than a bridge between skills needs in the workplace and learning programme design and development. It is hoped that this will be rectified by the National Occupation Pathways Framework (NOPF), which is intended to be an articulation route between skills needs and qualifications. This structure is still in its infancy and those with the required knowledge and skills can approach the QCTO to become involved.

The fourth area that deserves attention is the Assessment Quality Partners (AQP). AQPs will be responsible to oversee accreditation of assessment sights, assessment centres, the conduct of assessment and moderation of summative assessments. The design and development of assessment specifications will be done by DQPs in cooperation with AQPs. The criteria for the establishment of AQPs are similar to the criteria for DQPs, and it is possible that the same person or organisation can develop both. This implies that DQPs will identify and recommend AQPs. Like DQPs the AQPs must also have credibility with the stakeholders in OETD, must be financially viable to conduct assessments nationally, since this function will be delegated to the AQPs by the QCTO. AQPs can be free structures/bodies, but it is unlikely that private providers, especially the smaller ones, will meet the requirements for an AQP. Some professional bodies might meet the requirements although it is currently debatable if the AQP concept is financially viable, bearing in mind the proposed QCTO fee structures (way too expensive).

On the issue of finances and fee structures – as the quality assurance body for the entire South African workforce it is inevitable that the QCTO will be a resources hungry structure. The government probably did not foresee this when they established the body and they still do not understand that the QCTO cannot operate on the same budget as the CHE/HEQC and Umalusi. Furthermore, skills levies are paid by the industry, i.e. employers, and it is only logical and fair that skills levies should be used to satisfy the skills needs of the industry. A much bigger part of the skills levies should be channelled to the QCTO than what is currently happening. The idea to use skills levies to build capacity in public FET colleges and universities will probably not work. The Mail and Guardian of 18 to 24 November 2011 report on the fruitless expenditure by government on building capacity in universities, and I see no reason why this will change. Although they will probably not openly admit it, DHET, SAQA, QCTO, CHE/HEQC, Umalusi and the SETAS know this, but they still go along for reasons that we might discuss in a different article. Some SETAs are already supporting the QCTO financially, which shows a good understanding of the occupational learning environment.

Back to the AQPs – private providers will probably not be able to establish such bodies, but they can become involved as assessment sites and centres. The QCTO already realise that they cannot design and develop all the assessment instruments that will be needed in the near future, so they are currently much more flexible and willing to adopt more realistic options, such as allowing assessment centres to design and develop assessment instruments based on assessment specifications written by DQPs in cooperation with AQPs. At the same time they are still thinking in terms of charging fees for AQP services. It is not clear what they will charge fees for, but one can imagine that there will be external moderation and perhaps, assessment of integrated summative assessments testing exit level outcomes at the end of learning programmes.

The most obvious place that private learning providers can and should take up in relation to the QCTO is – exactly what they have been doing all these years, namely just to accredit and offer learning. You will be surprised at how well most of the QCTO officials appreciate the work being done by private ETD providers. The only possible stumbling block is the process of accreditation which has been adapted to the QCTO structure. From this emanated a number of criteria contextualised to the occupational arena and articulated to the general spirit of the NQF. I am not a QCTO official, so I am in no position to propagate policy on their behalf. Therefore the following is just my opinion. I believe that, in addition to the “standard” criteria relating to capacity, private providers will need to do the following in order to accredit with the QCTO:

• Accredit for full national qualifications with the ETQA with which you are accredited now already. The QCTO appreciates that there is a need for part qualifications, specifically short courses and they are working on this, but it would be prudent to obtain proper accreditation now already, because it would be really difficult, probably impossible, to register with the DHET if you offer less than full qualifications and you will not be allowed to offer official learning programmes if you are not registered by the DHET.
• Negotiate with one or more universities and/or public FET colleges to offer learning programmes in association with them. This will not be easy because there simply are not enough funds going around to sustain both the public institutions and private learning providers. It will take really good entrepreneurship to solve this one.
• Make sure that you will be able to offer the workplace learning (experiential learning) part of qualifications in addition to the traditional contact or distance learning that you currently offer. Your SETA might be able to arrange this, but SETAs are now paying much more attention to public learning institutions, and it will take some time before they realise their mistake.
• Make sure that you have the capacity in terms of finances, resources, professional staff and infrastructure to offer best quality education, training and development.

In closing, the QCTO officials to whom I spoke are acutely aware of the important role that private providers play in the development of the South African community. They do not have in mind closing down private providers, so they are not exclusively to blame for the turbulent times in which we are finding ourselves. There are some areas in which private providers can play a role, for example as part of the stakeholders in OETD, the so-called Community of Expert Practitioners (CEPs); in registering as OQDF or assessment centres or sites or both; as consultants in the further development of the QCTO model and as accredited ETD providers. The QCTO is also very open-minded about their model and nothing is really cast in concrete yet. For example, the QCTO will also need to submit qualifications in the format prescribed by SAQA (Policy Document 1340/00: Criteria and Guidelines for the Generation and Evaluation of Qualifications and Standards within the National Qualifications Framework, Revision 4 – 23 August 2005), and the current computer-based curriculum model does not meet these requirements. I will not be surprised if they go back to the curriculum model used by the CHE/HEQC or perhaps even the unit standard-based format. This implies that they might also rethink the idea of using OQDFs – I sincerely hope so, since this is a hugely deficient structure. I am not so sure that we have seen the end of the old unit standards – there are those in the QCTO and SAQA who, like me and many other learning providers, firmly believe in the merits of unit standards, and they might just listen to reason. And yes, the more private providers join The Mentoring Network the easier will it be to protect and promote the interest of private providers with DHET, SAQA and the quality assurance bodies.

(Dr J.P. Nel)

MD Mentornet

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AN ANALYSIS OF THE ETD ENVIRONMENT

Submitted: 2011-11-24 09:30:53

ARTICLE 3: THE DEMAND FOR SKILLS IN THE ETD SECTOR

Prepared by the Mentornet research team.

In the previous article we looked at the factors in the internal and external environments that have an impact on ETD. The ideal would be for ETD initiatives to support the implementation of the NSDS III. However, there are a number of factors that can hamper the achievement of strategic community development objectives. Responses from qualitative data analysis done by Mentornet researchers concluded that the following environmental factors have an impact on the ability of the ETD Sector to support the NSDSIII priorities:

• Implementation of short-sighted legislation.
• Social, political, economic, environmental and technological factors.
• Different skills needs in different industries and differences in the learning priorities of ETD providers.
• High turnover in educators.
• Lack of training available to ETD providers.
• Bureaucracy in ETD provision.
• Lack of experienced staff.
• High attrition rates in the ETD Sector because of HIV/AIDS.
• The impact of people's basic needs on the learning offered.

The general trend in the ETD Sector is that qualified people available for employment are becoming increasingly less. This is amplified by lack of formal training opportunities in some fields, for example early childhood development (ECD). This is especially critical in rural areas. In 2009 only 25% of two-year-olds attended early childhood development centres, compared with 60% of four-year olds.[1]

A general complaint by people employer in the ETD sector is that there is no clear career path for them. Firstly, good work needs to be recognized and suitably rewarded but this seldom happens. Secondly, security should be provided by offering long-term employment opportunities and competitive compensation packages but such security does not exist. The frustration of people in the ETD Sector due to poor working conditions, insufficient financial compensation for work and lack of incentives to perform is demonstrated by the mass action by most members of trade unions in the ETD Sector during especially 2010. Particularly alarming is the lack of support by the trade unions for education. In November 2011, while Minister Trevor Manual was talking in Pretoria about a plan that invites teacher unions to participate in the National Development Plan the South African Teachers' Union was advocating what they call "war talks" in Bhisho, bringing 53 000 Eastern Cape teachers to the brink of striking when matrics are already writing their final exams.[2] All of this leads to a substantial decline in people who are willing to work in the sector.

The current decline in employment numbers in the ETD Sector calls for:

• Improvement in incentives for filling unfilled posts in rural and some urban areas.
• Establishment of clear targets for the education system.
• The setting up and implementation of quality assurance systems.
• The establishment and implementation of a system for the development of ETD practitioners.
• Improved teacher recruitment programmes.
• Government involvement in renewed remuneration packages.

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CHASING NUMBERS

Submitted: 2011-11-24 09:25:40

Most of us, if not all of us, have been victims of SETAs inviting us to tender for learning programmes where the terms of reference specify that you must guarantee them that least 90%, 95% or even 100% learners will be found competent. And if it is not in the terms of reference, then in the contract that you are expected to sign once your tender has been accepted. I can understand that it is really difficult for any private learning institution not to agree to this short-sighted, selfish and damaging practice.

The rationale for this practice offered by SETAs is that it forces learning providers to provide the learners with proper guidance and support. This is absolute nonsense! All it does is to promote malpractices. It is very difficult not to be paid after you have spent so much time, effort and money on training the learners, so some private providers will do anything to be paid. Mentornet once found 50 out of 52 learners not competent because they did not submit their practical assignments. From the onset the learners showed no interest in learning anything - they were there for the food and drinks. We were never paid, but our reputation is worth much more than what the SETA would have paid us. Not so long ago four learners on a learnership offered by us copied an assignment from one another. We gave them a chance to resubmit, but they refused, knowing that we would not get paid if they were not found competent. Surprise, we did not find them competent and never will as long as they don't meet the requirements. Yes, the SETA did not pay us.

But hey, people talk and people see what we do and stand for, with the result that those who are serious about their employees attending training that will add value to the workplace approach us. Some of our learners even brought certificates that they received from other providers to us, asking if they could exchange them for Mentornet certificates. No, we did not. We do guarantee our clients that we will provide professional facilitation, assessment and moderation and that all learners will receive as much guidance and support as we possibly can provide. Learners may resubmit portfolios and rewrite theoretical examinations as many times as they wish. We never let our learners down. As long as they are willing to try again we are willing to guide and support them and mark their assignments or examinations. And we maintain a pass rate in excess of 80%. And our learners are proud to display our certificates on their walls.

Finding learners competent when they are not is an injustice to the individual and a disservice to the industry and community. Why would learners learn if they know that they will be found competent and receive a certificate anyway? All the SETAs are doing is to chase numbers - they think that the Minister of Higher Education and Training will be impressed if they boast high pass rates on learnerships. But deep in their hearts the Minister and the SETAs and the learners know that they are fooling nobody, because when they return to work they are supposed to add value, and they can't. And the rest of the world is looking on, and they are laughing at us - no wonder South African learning institutions and qualifications obtained at South African learning institutions are almost worthless abroad. In closing, by yielding to the blackmail practices of the SETAs you are joining those who are systematically destroying the South African educational system and, ultimately, economy. Stop it, don't do it if you really care for the people of South Africa.

(Dr J.P. Nel)

MD Mentornet

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ARE UNIT STANDARDS REALLY SUCH A BAD IDEA?

Submitted: 2011-11-14 09:02:09

We all have "rules" or "values" according to which we live and operate even if only subconsciously. I have two such rules which look like they are in conflict with one another. One is "change is good as long as it is not a step backwards"; and the second is "don't change something that works."

In the case of unit standards I can understand that the powers-in-being want to get rid of them, although I have yet to come across anybody at the CHE/HEQC or Umalusi who can explain to me why they have such a resistance against unit standards. And even though the QCTO claims that they will still use unit standards, only in a different format (split into three sub unit standards; one for theoretical learning, the second for practical work in class and the third for practical learning in the workplace), it simply will not offer the same benefits as the current unit standards.

The problem with the unit standards that we have is that most of them are really badly written, they don't always represent real workplace skills needs and some learning providers offer learning that they claim are based on unit standards when what they are offering is nothing more than a workshop discussion. Private providers sometimes offer learning programmes based on unit standards worth, say, 20 credits in two days, which is totally unrealistic in terms of the achievement of the required notional hours. I am of the opinion that this is one of the main reasons why the Minister of Higher Education and Training is threatening to close down private learning institutions and to do away with unit standards.

So, most of the problems with unit standards have to do with the manner in which they are written and used. This is no reason why we should do away with what, in many other respects offer a multitude of opportunities to offer efficient learning. Firstly, unit standards represent small chunks of learning that achieves competencies in their own right. Large projects are achieved by breaking them down into a number of smaller projects. Unit standards are the small projects in learning that, together constitute a large project in lifelong learning. Unit standards enable us to follow a building blocks approach to learning in a well- structured manner.

Secondly, a unit standards approach is the easiest way in which to satisfy the skills needs of a variety of different industries. It lends flexibility to the learning process, allowing employers to select the skills that their employees should have in order to deliver productive work. But this can only be achieved if we really communicate closely with employers before we write unit standards. Many of the current unit standards were based on what existed in other countries, notably Australia and New Zealand, or they were thought out by SGB members or SETA ETQA staff members just to put something on the table.

Thirdly, and this is probably the most important reason why unit standards are essential for a country that desperately needs rapid community development; the large majority of employers cannot afford to send their employees on learning programmes that take a year or longer. What they need is short learning interventions (not more than five days at a time) that provide workers with new skills and that eventually leads to full qualifications. This is a real credit accumulation and transfer (CAT) system. What universities call CAT systems are not really credit accumulation systems but rather credit consolidation systems. Modules and subjects at universities often cannot stand alone, unit standards can.

Fourthly, students at universities or FET Colleges can write subjects or modules behind their names after they wrote their final examinations, but they still do not have anything to show for their efforts before they completed a full certificate, diploma or degree. Learners who complete unit standard-based learning programmes receive credits and certificates for courses completed, and this is a strong motivational tool. It is much easier to transfer credits from one learning institution to the next or from the learning institution to the workplace if learners have certificates or, even better, statements of results issued by a reputable quality assurance body. Unit standards facilitate this, curriculum-based learning do not.

In closing, the solution to the problems with unit standards is not to do away with them, but rather to review them and to make sure that they satisfy the real skills needs of the industry and public sector. In 2007 I did research on quality assurance in Europe by interviewing experts in quality assurance representing a number of EU countries. They were really interested in the unit standard concept and some of them expressed the wish that their countries would adopt such a system. Since then I did not see much progress in this respect in such countries, probably at least partly because they don't see it working here. In Australia and New Zealand they seem to have more success with the system even though they also have their followers and detractors. Point is, employers want a learning system that will enable their learners to learn new skills in short bursts of learning and unit standards are perfectly suited to satisfy this need.

(Dr J.P. Nel)

MD Mentornet

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AN ANALYSIS OF THE ETD ENVIRONMENT

Submitted: 2011-11-14 09:00:39

ARTICLE 2: FACTORS INFLUENCING THE ETD SECTOR LABOUR MARKET

Prepared by the Mentornet research team.

Both external and internal factors have an effect on the ETD Sector labour market. The most important factors are the following:

Factors in the external environment.

• The global recession. The global recession has a negative impact on employment and funds available for ETD related projects. Less money is available to spend on education and community development projects.
• Globalisation. Globalisation leads to an increase in the competition for skills and talent so that qualified ETD practitioners (teachers, lecturers, researchers, assessors, moderators) emigrate to countries where they are paid more and where they receive better intellectual stimulation. On the positive side globalization makes information more readily available so that people can learn from other countries and share ideas on new developments.
• Emigration. Emigration is the result of globalization. Of course there are some factors internal to countries that can either promote or discourage emigration, but such factors determine where people go once they have decided to emigrate rather than if they will emigrate or not.
• Global warming. Global warming has become a most important factor that impacts on the future demand for workers with specific knowledge and skills - environmental protection is being introduced in most learning programmes so that ETD practitioners will need to have the knowledge and skills to offer the new curriculums.
• Changes in technology. Changes in technology stand in opposition to environmental protection. Changes in technology lead to ETD Practitioners rapidly becoming redundant if they don't keep pace with the latest technology. Changes in technology are primarily responsible for an escalation in skills shortages and mismatch and for the decline in the need for unskilled labour. On the positive side, changes in technology enable us to offer ETD much more efficiently than in the past.

Factors in the internal environment.

• Unemployment. All the other factors discussed here increases the chances of people becoming unemployed in the future. Unemployment has a detrimental effect on lifelong learning, especially because graduates cannot find employment, so that people are not motivated to learn.
• Skills shortage and mismatch. The shortage of skills in mathematics, science, computer science and accountancy is arguably one of the most important challenges of the ETD Sector. People still tend to follow learning programmes for which there is no or very little skills needs in industry.
• Change from unskilled to skilled labour. Structural changes in the South African economy from intensive use of unskilled labour to an increased demand for technology-based skills is partially responsible for the changing demand for skills, which results in higher unemployment.
• Social development issues. It is especially in rural areas where communities have a desperate need for almost any ETD, although the need for education in social issues, such as HIV/AIDS, literacy and ECD is the most severe.
• Performance by learners. The need for better quality ETD is undisputable if the current poor performance of learners at school and students at universities and colleges are to be turned around. This is especially important in the case of mathematics, science and accountancy.
• Educator supply. High turnover in educators due to poor remuneration, inadequate benefits and lowered job satisfaction is responsible for a decrease in the number of qualified ETD practitioners that are available, which increases the demand for such people. Teacher attrition is signaled to be restrained by recruitment programmes that will ensure that vacancies are filled in the near future.
• Shortages of mathematics and science teachers. One of the major stumbling blocks in the education and training system relates to weak mathematics and science learner performance at all levels in the system. Students can't perform if their educators can't offer them good quality ETD. Over the past several years the overall grade 12 pass rate has shown a steady decline, even though the end of 2010 statistics showed a promising positive trend. This development has placed undue pressure on universities who have to work with students with a poor academic background. Mathematics and science investments in schools are gravely needed. Poor performance in these subjects and learner aversion to the selection of mathematics and science courses and careers will have a serious impact on the economy.
• Education quality. The challenge brought about by poor education quality is demonstrated by the findings of a presidential review into education highlighting a teaching practice where books were not being used as a teaching aid. It was noted that, although books were available for both language and mathematics in all but two of the schools reviewed, no books were seen being used in 43% of language classes and 69% of mathematics classes. The most common form of reading in these classes consisted of teachers writing 3 or 4 sentences on the board and then leading the reading of these, with children following in chorus. There are many other examples of poor teaching practices and the detrimental impact of this on lifelong learning and economic growth is obvious.

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AN ANALYSIS OF THE ETD ENVIRONMENT

Submitted: 2011-11-09 14:21:10

ARTICLE 1: THE PRIMARY ROLE PLAYERS IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN ETD ENVIRONMENT

Organisations in the ETD Sector can be subdivided into Trade Unions/Labour Organisations, Employer Organisations, Professional Bodies and certain Government Departments. Together they include 57 894 organisations.

The South African trade union movement, the fastest growing in the world, is dominated by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). Trade Unions are not actively involved in offering ETD. However, they can play an important role in ensuring that best practice ETD in real workplace skills needs are offered.

Universities are the largest learning institutions in the country. Of the 23 recognised higher education institutions (HEIs), four are located in the Western Cape (WC), two in the Free State (FS), four in Kwazulu-Natal (KZN), four in the Eastern Cape (EC), six in Gauteng (GP), two in Limpopo (LP), and one in North West (NW) province. The Mpumalanga (MPU) and the Northern Cape (NC) do not have any universities.

There are 52 Public Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges and 529 Private FET Colleges in South Africa. They have the potential to make a substantial contribution to the promotion of lifelong learning and it is foreseen that their role in the South African education environment will grow rapidly in the near future.

Research initiatives are essential to boost economic growth and foster development in South Africa. At present, there are eight statutory research councils and it is through these bodies that the South African Government commissions research to aid in development. The research organisations have the potential to do research in all the areas identified as strategic priorities in the NSDSIII, but it is in doing social research in rural areas that they will probably have the most impact.

Libraries and archives are predominantly public institutions. They are currently experiencing difficulties offering an effective service to communities for various reasons. It will probably be necessary to review the format, role and functions of libraries if they are to remain viable in future.

Early Childhood Development (ECD) institutions are critically important for the future development of South African communities. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are actively involved in the field and there are numerous projects currently being executed. The need for ECD is especially critical in rural areas even though the larger number of people involved in ECD reside in the cities. People and projects in ECD change rapidly in numbers as do sponsorships for such projects. ECD should receive much more support from government if it is to be stabilised and if it is to deliver the constructive outputs that are necessary.

The majority of NGOs and community-based organisations CBOs in South Africa are community based structures that play a pivotal role in local development within their respective localities. The activities of the NGOs include combating HIV/AIDS, women's issues, adult basic education, rural issues, early childhood development, disability, environment issues, gender, voter education issues, science and technology.

There are four main types of training centres for adult-based education and training (ABET) learners, namely Government Institutions, Business organisations specialising in providing ABET training for the individual, Business organisations specialising in providing ABET training for company employees and SETAs. ABET can serve as a bridge between ECD and, ultimately, Higher Education.

Independent Schools have adopted a much more community-focused approach to ETD than in the past. School fees are in many instances affordable and best practice ETD is still offered. There are not many independent schools in rural areas, so that they are primarily attended by learners in urban areas, especially the larger cities.

There has been an increase in the employment of teachers who are paid entirely out of school fees received from learners and their parents (school governing body (SGB) teachers). The number of SGB teachers have increased from an estimated 5 943 in 1999 to 36 559 in 2008, which represents an increase of 515.2%. This is one of the reasons why the quality of learning at some public schools has improved.

The Association of Private Providers in Education, Training and Development (APPETD) was established in 1997 as a national body representing the interests of private providers. In time the APPETD has come to be recognised as a reputable body that works towards maintaining the highest standards of education and training throughout the industry. The organisation provides several chambers to cater for the needs of its members, including private providers offering one or more of face-to-face learning, distance learning, ABET, and ECD.

Private learning providers are actually much more actively involved in ETD than the APPETD. Different sources claim that there are between 6 000 and 13 000 private learning providers in South Africa. The large majority of them are currently with one or more ETQAs with a smaller number accredit with Umalusi or the CHE\HEQC.

Political parties are not directly involved in ETD, but they can make an important contribution by ensuring that sound quality ETD in scarce and critical skills needs is offered.

The South African Council for Educators (SACE) aims to enhance the status of the teaching profession, and to promote the development of educators and their professional conduct. SACE is currently experiencing financial challenges which hamper their ability to perform.

The South African Board for Personnel Practice (SABPP) is relatively small but can make a positive contribution towards the quality assurance of ETD and offering best practice ETD in HR Development.

(Dr J.P. Nel)

MD Mentornet

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CAN SOUTH AFRICA REALLY AFFORD TO LOSE OUR PRIVATE LEARNING INSTITUTIONS?

Submitted: 2011-09-29 14:24:55

The new National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS III) commits itself to a number of priorities aimed at the improvement of the quality of life of the South African community, of which the following are dependent on quality education, training and development (ETD):

• Overcoming the shortages in the supply of people with the priority skills needed for the successful implementation of current strategies to achieve accelerated economic growth.
• Increasing the number of appropriately skilled people to meet the demands of our current and emerging economic and social development priorities.
• Improving universal access to quality basic education and schooling.
• Implementing skills development programmes that are purposefully aimed at equipping recipients with requisite skills to overcome related sources of poverty and unemployment.
• Ensuring that young people have access to education and training that enhances opportunities and increases their chances of success in further vocational training and sustainable employment.

Some fifty to sixty years ago South Korea was more or less in the same situation as South Africa. Unemployment was a major challenge, mostly because of the poor educational system. In 1945 the adult literacy rate was estimated at 22 percent. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_ in_South_Korea. Accessed on 2011/09/22). After 1973 education was centralised under a Ministry of Education, and large amounts of money was poured into ETD by both the government and private sector. The focus was on ETD, any ETD, regardless if it was offered by private or public learning institutions. The strategy was aimed at improving the level of education of the entire nation, regardless of what ETD people attended, just as long and they learned something. By the late 1980s the adult literacy rate had increased to around 93 percent. In the International Maths Olimpiad for Schools in which 101 schools participated in 2011 South Africa came 41st. South Korea came 13^th, after having been placed fourth in 2010, 2009 and 2008 and third in 2007 and 2006.

Today private learning institutions globally account for some 30 percent of all students in higher education. In Asian economies, such as Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines, over 75 percent of enrolments are with private learning providers (Lifelong Learning in Europe, 2011: Trade in education services: Market opportunities and risks).

According to our calculations there were more than 96 000 private learning providers in South Africa in 2009. This figure has subsequently decreased, although it is now really difficult to obtain a reasonably accurate figure because of the volatility of the private learning environment. Private learning providers include really small providers offering one or a few unit standard-aligned learning programmes to large providers offering a multitude of qualifications. Some providers offer really poor quality learning, but there are also those that offer learning that is as good if not better than what is offered by some universities. It is envisaged that the large majority of private learning institutions will close their doors within the next five years or so because skills levies will be channelled to public FET Colleges and because of the QCTO learning system. If private learning institutions employ an average of only ten people each, and if 90% of the private providers close their doors, this will mean that 864 000 people will lose their jobs. This means that the implementation of the NSDSIII initiatives might just exacerbate the unemployment situation in the country rather than to alleviate it.

There are currently approximately 1 098 745 students enrolled with South African universities and Public FET Colleges (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_South_Africa. Accessed on 2011/09/22). The D HET is hoping to increase the capacity of universities and Public FET Colleges substantially in the near future, but there is no guarantee that the drive will succeed. If each private learning institution trains just two groups of Learnerships of 20 learners per year, they will be training 3 840 000 learners. I am of the opinion that this is a rather conservative estimate of the number of learners being trained by private learning institutions, and even if it is not accurate, then at least it is a good indication of the potential of the private learning sector, and what we stand to lose if the large majority of private learning institutions cease to exist.

In closing, it is quite possible that the focus on enhancing the capacity of public learning institutions at the expense of private learning institutions can have just the opposite effect of what the government had in mind. We might just end up with less ETD and more illiteracy, unemployment and poverty, especially if the QCTO model does not come to fruition very soon and public learning institutions do not perform as expected.

(Dr J.P. Nel)

MD Mentornet

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THE NEED FOR AN APEX QUALITY ASSURANCE BODY

Submitted: 2011-09-21 15:20:20

Quality assurance processes are supposed to help providers develop and maintain training programmes that meet the required standards. Assuring the quality training offered by training providers is the main purpose of any education, training and development quality assurance policy or system. There are many different ways in which such quality assurance can be executed, and different countries have different bodies and policies for this purpose. The general principle, nevertheless, is that quality assurance should be the responsibility of a national body, sometimes supported by lower level quality assurance bodies, formed on a regional, or functional (sector) basis.

But what do we have in South Africa? We have different quality assurance bodies responsible for higher education (the Higher Education Quality Council of the Council on Higher Education, CHE/HEQC) and further education (the General and Further Education Quality Assurance Body or Umalusi). Education and Training Quality assurance Bodies (ETQAs) that were either linked to SETAs or Professional Bodies were disbanded, supposedly to path the way for one quality assurance body responsible for the quality assurance of all workplace-related training. However, this body (the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations, or QCTO) is not functioning yet, with the result that its functions have been delegated to what used to be ETQAs. Some staff members of SAQA have also been made responsible for some of the functions of the QCTO. This is a recipe for conflict, misuse of quality assurance as an instrument of power, and even corruption.

What we need is one body that is responsible for acting as leader of all stakeholders in education, training and development (ETD) in the country. SAQA used to try to fulfil this role - they even had a quality assurance section. But a central quality assurance body can only function if it enjoys the cooperation and respect of all stakeholders in ETD. Most importantly, such an organisation must enjoy the support and backing of higher authorities, notably the D HET and DBE, and this did not happen. The South African Qualifications Authority Act, 1995 is repealed in the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) Act, 2008. However, the NQF Act also makes provision for SAQA to continue existing as the custodian of the NQF. Some people will not agree with my argument that the NQF forms the basis of quality assurance in any country. I base my argument on the following:

• The NQF should incorporate a National Quality Framework or at least serve as the foundation of such a framework.
• As stated in the NQF Act; "the NQF is a comprehensive system approved by the Minister for the classification, registration, publication and articulation of quality-assured national qualifications." Classification, registration, publication and articulation are all key elements of a quality assurance system.
• All the objectives of the NQF impact directly on quality ETD. In this respect I would like to single out "creating a single integrated national framework for learning achievement" as one of the main arguments why a central quality assurance body is necessary and why SAQA should be what I would like to call an "Apex Quality Assurance Body." Perhaps I should mention that I did not coin the name "Apex Quality Assurance Body" - it has been around for quite some time and to me it is quite descriptive of the organisation.
• SAQA registers qualifications, and this is only done once such qualifications have been evaluated against strict and specific quality criteria. The most important criterion for a qualification is that it must be based on a standard, which currently can still be a unit standard, but in future will probably be mostly curriculums, although a syllabus is also widely accepted as a standard.
• SAQA, as the guiding body in the South African quality assurance system, is an impartial 'overseer', i.e. not a state department or an arm of government, it is not an initiative of business, not of labour, nor is it allied to the education provider sector. For this reason, SAQA is independent of the agendas of each of these sectors and as such, is able to retain its integrity in facilitating negotiations between education and training stakeholders which sometimes have conflicting interests.

Sadly SAQA decided in 2006 to no longer act as a quality assurance body but rather to take on the role of mediator and facilitator, and be more critical of the constraints that are often the result of decisions taken elsewhere in the system. Further, in shaping an inclusive NQF, SAQA decided to become more involved in educational research, for example by investigating the impact and outcomes of the objectives of the NQF. SAQA also became actively involved in the promotion of employment and lifelong learning through initiatives like online learning and recognition of prior learning (RPL). In my opinion SAQA has lost its focus - no organisation can survive if they don't have a very clear and focused vision, and a vision is not a matrix.

A study of the quality-assurance policies of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries show that they take the lead in the development of quality-assurance systems from South Africa . So not only do we need an Apex Quality Assurance body for the country, but also one who can promote the quality of ETD in the region, i.e. Southern Africa or SADC Countries.

The ability of a system and all stakeholders in the system to manage quality is a direct function of leadership, and it is the Apex Quality Assurance Body that needs to provide that leadership. As I already wrote, leadership is enabled if the leader or leading organization enjoys the support of higher authorities and acceptance by lower level organizations and individuals within organizations. That is why it is important for the Apex Quality Assurance Body to have its mandate protected by law, and for all role players to respect the law. It is well-known that divided control seldom works. To this end, the Apex Quality Assurance Body should not be accountable to more than one higher authority. In addition, rendering a quality assurance body accountable to an organization that is also the "client" for the quality assurance body is not a healthy control practice and can lead to malpractices, if not corruption. Finally, allowing the controlling authority to interfere and make decisions that should be vested in the quality assurance body, can also lead to malpractices and corruption, especially where large sums of money is involved.

In closing, the Apex Quality Assurance Body should enjoy sufficient autonomy and authority to fulfil its role as the national leader in quality assurance. There may not be any leverage, such as finance, or motives other than best practice ETD that could erode the leadership position of the Body. The following are suggested functions of the Apex Quality Assurance Body:

1. Monitors portability of credits.
2. Monitors the impact of education, training and development on job creation and adding value to the workplace.
3. Recognizes, registers and awards national qualifications.
4. Programme approval of qualifications.
5. Ensures that all approved qualifications (learning programmes) meet the skills needs of the country.
6. Links legislation pertaining to different second level quality assurance bodies and ensures that different legislation do not contradict each other.
7. Ensures that all role players, including state departments, respect and obey legislation.
8. Initiates the formulation of policies and procedures for quality assurance (after public consultation - narrow, broad and special needs consultation).
9. Ensures co-operation between second level quality assurance bodies.
10. Captures the curriculum framework for all registered qualifications.
11. Ensures that all levels and groupings of the South African community enjoy access to lifelong learning.
12. Liaises with state departments to provide supporting initiatives to provide an environment that would be conducive to learning.
13. Establishes an atmosphere of mutual trust between all role players in quality assurance.
14. Establishes a professional level of knowledge and skill in quality assurance amongst all quality assurance bodies on all levels.
15. Functions as an information and knowledge centre on quality assurance, quality enhancement and collection as well as dissemination of information on quality assurance.
16. Monitors capacity building.
17. Does programme approval.
18. Co-ordinates curriculum design, development of standards, learning programme design and learning programme development.
19. Evaluates and approves private design and development providers.
20. Approves models for curriculum design, standard development, assessment design and assessment development.
21. Establishes and maintains a professional and effective management information system (MIS) and ensures that all quality assurance bodies and accredited providers use compatible systems.
22. Acts as mediator and facilitator between state departments, industry and training providers.
23. Liaise with SADC countries' quality assurance bodies on common issues of quality assurance.
24. Establishes and manages a quality culture.

The Apex Quality Assurance Body should be an impartial overseer of quality, i.e. it must not be a state department or an arm of government, nor should it be under the control of a state department. It should, however, be allied to state departments, trade unions, industry and education and training providers through representatives of these groupings in its Advisory Board.

(Dr J.P. Nel)

MD Mentornet

¹Based on the following sources: Keevy, J. June 2006. The South African National Qualifications Framework as key driver for the development of qualifications frameworks in the Southern African Development Community; The Tanzania system of quality assurance, 2006; Utlwang, A. 1006. Quality assurance, current state of the art: Botswana; Phoolchund, R. 2006. An outline of the quality assurance system for education and training in Mauritius; Ministry of Education, Zambia. 30 - 31 August 2006. Brief outline of the National Quality Assurance System of Zambia; Ministry of Education. Namibia Qualifications Authority. August 2006. National Quality Assurance System. Country Report: Namibia

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TIME SPENT ON LEARNING

Submitted: 2011-06-29 09:57:51

If there is one area in which training providers sometimes cheat their clients and learners (not necessarily the same) then it is in time spent on learning and assessment. I deliberately mention assessment separately because well-designed and developed assessments can save a lot of learning time. Some private and public learning providers do not know what notional hours mean or how much time one should really spent on learning. Others simply ignore notional hours because they focus on the needs of the client, they say. Then again, those who write standards, including unit standards and curriculums, often also just thumb-suck how many credits a learning programme is worth without even thinking in terms of time spent on learning. Do you remember the four old SDF unit standards, each worth 20 credits and how SETAs and clients insisted that they all be offered in five days or even less?

I am sure you all come across advertisements for learning programmes consisting of three, four or five unit standards worth 20 or even more credits that providers claim they can offer in two or three days? The situation is not much different at public learning institutions. I analysed the learning schedules of my children when they were at university. My eldest son studied B. Com and LLB, my daughter studied Tourism and my second son Graphic Design. They were supposed to study fulltime, but you know what? They spent only 6 to 15 hours in class per module or subject per year! Six hours spread over a year to cover a whole subject? Perhaps some of you advertise and offer such learning programmes? And the employers don't make it easier for us, because they insist they can't afford to have people absent from work for longer periods of time. Bad, is it not? They are fly-by-nights, not so? Not necessarily - there are ways in which one can offer learning in less time than what is dictated by the number of credits and the corresponding notional hours. After all, learning is supposed to be offered as efficiently as possible.

The first way in which we can save time is by offering overlapping standards in an integrated fashion. Conduct Outcomes-based Assessment and Design and Develop Outcomes-based Assessments are a good example. Together they are worth 25 credits, so one should actually spend 250 hours on learning. Even though the two unit standards are on different levels, there is a substantial overlap in the specific outcomes, assessment criteria, essential embedded knowledge and even critical cross-field outcomes, so that one can eliminate some duplication by offering the two unit standards together. But one should not misuse this by trying to integrate standards where there is no overlap. Then again, some unit standards belong together and should actually never have been written separately. Design Learning Programmes and Develop Learning Programmes is such an example. Design and development is actually one process and should be offered in this manner. And for those who were involved in writing the unit standards - design comes before development, not the other way around, so you designed and numbered them in the wrong sequence.

A second way in which one can save learning time is by using the 30/70 ratio between classroom learning and workplace learning. Yes, one need only spend 30% of the learning time in the classroom and give the learners practical assignments to do at their places of work, thereby allowing them to gain experiential learning in the remaining 70% learning time. But his must still be properly monitored because, believe you me, learners often find it difficult to find time for their practical assignments once they are back at work. Most employers will expect of them to do their normal day-to-day work rather than to work on their assignments, which is one of the reasons why learners, after a month or two at work, ask for more time to complete their assignments. And unemployed people who are supposed to gain practical experience at organisations who have Learnership agreements with SETAs are often used as cheap labour and also not given sufficient time or opportunities to gain relevant experience. It is often more efficient to just add a day or two to the contact learning phase in which learners do their practical assignments under supervision. In this manner time is utilised much more efficiently, learners can work in syndicates so that they achieve more critical cross-field outcomes and they can receive immediate feedback. In my opinion a one day portfolio building workshop is often worth more than a month at work if it is supervised and facilitated properly.

A third way in which learning time can be saved is by following a continuous assessment approach. Continuous assessment is a form of integrated assessment in the sense that formative assessment is also used for summative purposes. This renders the facilitation process much more effective and efficient because the facilitator can teach by means of practical reflective exercises rather than to lecture (do not confuse reflective with reflexive - the difference is important). Some of our learning programmes are designed and developed in such a way that each learning event rests on a reflective exercise, thereby eliminating unnecessary duplication. Of course it might be necessary for the facilitator to spend more time on some issues if the learners do not comprehend and achieve foundational competence. Let's face it; the notion that one can achieve reflexive competence in a short space of time is a fallacy. Besides we offer adult learning and adults are supposed to implement what they learned in the classroom once they are back at their places of work. It is only then that, in time, they will achieve reflexive competence and this need not form part of the formal learning process. It is also unrealistic to think that all learning will achieve reflexive competence. It has never been like that and never will be. Not every medical student becomes an expert surgeon and even a motor car driver achieves reflexive competence only after many years of driving.

The fourth way in which to save time is through best practice education, training and development. This requires a total quality approach, starting with the design and development of learning programmes, materials and learning event plans, facilitation, learner guidance and support and, ultimately, assessment. The more time and effort the provider spends on preparing and offering the learning, the less time will the learners need to achieve competence.

We can also list RPL as a way in which time spent on learning can be saved, but this is a slightly different situation because time is only saved because time has already been spent on prior learning. It is however import to check if relevant learning did indeed take place, else RPL can be misused to obtain qualifications and credits without learning actually having taken place at all.

In closing, it is possible to offer professional learning in less time than what is dictated by credits and notional hours, but providers should not use this as an excuse for offering anything less than best practice education, training and development. The acid test remains if your learners are able to do their work better after having been taught by you and if unemployed learners can find jobs because of the knowledge and skills that you gave them.

Dr J.P. Nel, MD Mentornet

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IS IT THE END OF THE ROAD FOR UNIT STANDARDS?

Submitted: 2011-06-29 09:57:23

I believe the unit standard concept is strongly rooted in the Australian and New Zealand educational systems, especially in vocational education and training (VET), and I guess we copied it from them and contextualised it to our own educational system and needs. For some reason there are those who oppose the approach. Together with outcomes-based education, training and development (ETD) it is blamed for the dismal education that the South African community receives. The Minister of Higher Education and Training reinforced the attack on unit standards by openly expressing his opposition to short courses (Making Setas his business, Mail & Guardian, May 27 to June 2 2011 page 45). Those who do not know what unit standards represent or how they work labelled them "short courses", so now they, too, are under attack. Then again, there are always two sides to a story, and as is so often the case those who scream foul play are (at least partially) to blame for the current situation. Yes, many unit standards are poorly written and do not satisfy any real skills needs because it is not employers who raised the need for training but rather consultants or quality assurance bodies who were more concerned about keeping the meter running rather than about adding value to the South African community and economy. Yet again we are destroying what could have been a most valuable system because those who were supposed to implement it could not make it work.

The CHE/HEQC (wish they would make up their minds of they are a professional or a quality assurance body) and Umalusi never accepted unit standards for reasons that one can only speculate about. Because of this an integrated or even linked NQF was ruled out before it even started. And then along came the QCTO with their "three unit standards" and gave portability of qualifications and credits the final blow that sank lifelong learning to the floor for a count of ten. Then again, this is not unique to South Africa. I do not know of one educational system or framework in the world where learners can move from vocational or further education to higher education without at least some form of bridging education and training. By the way, we should really get rid of the 'occupational' thing - the rest of the world talk about vocational education and training, so why do we persist in using a different term and then pretend that it is not the same?

So, is it the end of unit standard-based ETD? I don't think so! The industry is up in arms about the Minister's opposition to short courses and using National Skills Funds to sponsor short courses. Few private employers can afford to allow people to attend learning for a full year or even longer. To them the system of offering employees with short courses on knowledge and skills that they can use in the work place is a much more efficient approach, especially because this provides learners with very good opportunities to gain experience, and we know how important experiential learning is for the achievement of reflexive competence.

Time spent on learning is never wasted, no matter what the learning content is. Granted, learning might be a waste in terms of the skills needs of a particular employer at a particular point in time. But in terms of the national skills needs this is not the case. South Korea struggled with poor educational levels and unemployment in the early seventies of the previous century, much as we are struggling now. Their government (with some foreign assistance) decided to launch a national educational programme by means of which the educational level of every citizen would be raised. I guess there probably was a measure of prioritising in terms of scarce and critical skills needs, but the general idea was just to have everybody receive some form of training. At the end of the nineties South Korea also participated in the international mathematics and science competition for (if I remember correctly) grade 8 students. South Africa came stone last; South Korea came fourth.

Unpacking national qualifications in unit standards and offering those in this fashion enable employers to enrol their employees for "short courses" as and when they have the time. Each short course counts a number of credits, and adding all the credits together can eventually qualify learners for full qualifications. I suppose this can be regarded as a form of "nesting approach" to learning. Full qualifications based on an integrated curriculum can also be unpacked in this manner, but this is currently resisted by quality assurance bodies, notably the CHE/HEQC and Umalusi.

A third reason why I feel that we have not seen the end of unit standards is because the system has built up way too much momentum. There are simply too many employers who have invested too much money in the education and training of their employees in unit standard-based learning programmes to just throw everything away. Learning programme designers and developers have spent too much time, money and effort on the design and development of unit standard-aligned learning materials and too many learners have spent too much time studying towards the achievement of certificates to just lose everything now. And what about our neighbours, the SADC countries? They adopted our NQF and quality assurance systems, including unit standards. Must we now tell them that they have also wasted their time and money; that they must now also start from scratch? I don't think they will like it!

Ireland and most other EU Member States define a learning institution as anybody who can teach others particular knowledge or skills. This includes even an individual who offers one short course, and such providers are approved as such. According to our calculations there are approximately 96,000 private learning institutions in South Africa. We, furthermore, estimate that more than 60% of them are accredited to offer less than full qualifications. The large majority of them are owned and managed by previously disadvantaged individuals. If the Minister has his say all of those learning institutions will be closed down. The detrimental effect of this on community development would be immense, which is in direct contradiction to the objectives of the NSDS III.

All the current unit standards and unit standard-based qualifications expire on 30 June 2012, supposedly because they will then be replaced by QCTO qualifications based on curriculums and the so-called "three unit standards". It took twelve years to design the current unit standards and qualifications, how will the QCTO and their Development Quality Partners (DQPs) and Development Quality Facilitators (DQFs) replace the current unit standards and unit standard-based qualifications in just one year? What will it cost?

In closing, Denmark is a good example of a country where government and industry work closely together to identify and satisfy scarce and critical skills needs, with the result that the unemployment rate in that country, even in the current international recession, is 4% (www.tradingeconomics.com). How will the current changes in the skills development system, based on government priorities rather than private industry priorities, increase employment and reduce poverty and inequality?

Dr J.P. Nel, MD Mentornet

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COMMENT ON THE PROVISIONAL QCTO POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

Submitted: 2011-06-29 09:56:54

It is always much easier to criticize than to create, and it is not my intention to pretend that I or any of the Mentornet researchers would have done a better job than those who developed the QCTO model. In fact, I am of the opinion that the consultants and other role players who were and still are involved in the development and establishment of the QCTO did a splendid job for which they deserve our congratulations.

It is, furthermore, inevitable that not everybody will agree with creative work and, of course there will always be room for improvement. It is my sincere hope that the comments given here will add value to the already very good QCTO policies and procedures. Here are some comments.

1. The system is probably too sophisticated. The proposed system is extremely sophisticated and it is doubtful if those for whom it is intended will be able to implement it. There are two challenges in this respect, namely capacity and implementation. There is not a sufficient number of suitably qualified and experienced quality assurance practitioners to implement the current quality assurance systems (CHE/HEQC, Umalusi and ETQAs), so where will we find even more such experts? Secondly, it is doubtful if the providers (private as well as public) and the community (the learners) are ready for such a sophisticated system.


2. It is not clear what the purpose and composition of all the new organisations are. It would have helped if the documentation on the system included some examples of the composition of a DQP, AQP and QDF. From discussions with role players one gets the impression that the establishment of those bodies is reserved for a selected group of people. Discussions with such people and what is currently happening in practice (only selected consultants are allowed to act as QDFs even though many people already attended and paid for curriculum development workshops) looks like nepotism and monopolistic practices.


3. Incorrect choice of names. From the documentation available on the SAQA web site one gets the impression that Development Quality Partners (DQPs) will be responsible for the design of learning programmes (curriculum development is a design function in the broader context of learning programme design and development). A more accurate name would have been Design Quality Partners (still DQPs) unless DQPs will also develop manuals, reflective exercises, learning event plans, etc. Qualification Development Facilitators (QDFs) facilitate the design of curriculums and, perhaps, standards, so they should also be called Qualification Design Facilitators (still QDFs), unless they also facilitate the development processes.


4. Confusion on who pays for what. From the documentation one gets the impression that learning providers will pay the QCTO for the privilege of developing and offering learning programmes, but nothing is written about who will pay the providers. It is implied that clients, i.e. learners and employers will pay providers. And if DQPs, AQPs and QDFs are paid for their services, then it would most certainly create dissatisfaction if these functions are reserved for selected consultants only. The draft policy and procedures states that organisations may not earn profits. This creates further confusion about which organizations the QCTO has in mind to act as DQPs, AQPs, QDFs, ETD providers, learning programme developers, quality assurance bodies, etc. This needs to be discussed and explained in more detail with examples where possible.


5. Complicated fee structures. Fee structures for AQPs are given. However the formula by means of which fees are to be calculated is unnecessarily complicated. One will, for example, need to visit at least three web sites to obtain the values of some of the variables. Secondly, important variables are not taken into consideration. For example, the formula makes provision for the salaries of assessors, but assessment includes administrative staff, IT staff, management staff whose salaries are not taken into consideration. Thirdly, there is no consistency in the yardsticks used in the policies and procedures. For example, if one were to calculate the moderation sample size that would give one an acceptable probability of accuracy (usually 95% or 99%) you would not just accept a sample size of 10% as the norm, which is what the current policies and procedures suggest. In this instance one should use much more accurate statistical calculations than in the case of calculating remuneration. After all, the QCTO is about quality assurance of ETD, not about making profits, not so?


6. Lack of examples. This issue has been touched on in the comments above. It is not only organisations and structures for which examples are needed, but also systems, procedures and interventions. Providing only a selected few chosen consultants with such information can lead to conflict and resistance against the system. As it is the project team waited way too long before making information available to other stakeholders, notably private learning institutions whose accreditation and survival is in the balance because of the new structures.


7. An integrated NQF. No attempt has been made to integrate the three different NQFs for which the National Qualifications Framework Act, Act no 67 of 2008, provides. The table on page 10 of the Draft Curriculum and Assessment Policy shows a so-called integrated system, but this will most certainly not ensure integration. As it is the CHE/HEQC, Umalusi and QCTO NQFs do not facilitate portability of qualifications or credits from one quality assurance body to the next. This means, for example, that it is not possible to progress from studying for an occupational qualification to a further or higher education qualification. The one does not provide learners with access to the next so that lifelong learning is not promoted or supported. The three NQFs are not even linked, let alone integrated. The Progression System Overview on page 11 of the same document is a purely theoretical diagramme. It is not clear how such a structure can be implemented. This could, perhaps, be corrected by providing an explanation of how the process will work.


8. The Code of Conduct for Quality Partners. The Code of Conduct for Quality Partners is a valuable and necessary document. However, it should apply to all role players and not to just learning institutions. As it is consultants involved in the development of the QCTO model do not abide by their own code, as can be testified by any private learning institution who tried to obtain information on how the system works.


9. Too much focus on Trades. The QCTO Model focuses very strongly on trades and apprenticeships and not enough on "soft skills" related ETD, for example management, administration, training technology, etc. These qualifications exist, are occupationally directed and cannot be wished away.


10. OFO Codes. Linking OFO codes to qualifications is a good idea, but currently not implementable because many skills will be lost in the process. Secondly, qualifications will not satisfy the skills needs of a sufficiently large variety of industries. This situation is exacerbated by the fact that industries are not consulted sufficiently in the design of curriculums because qualifications are identified first after which employers are consulted about the learning programme contents, if at all. Employers must raise scarce and critical skills needs which are then transformed into learning programmes, not the other way around. If employers are not sufficiently involved in the identification of scarce and critical skills needs learning will not lead to employment or to adding value to organisations.

In closing, the most important flaw in the current QCTO model is a lack of open and regular communication with stakeholders. Consultants and those who have been appointed in positions in the QCTO refuse to speak to you for reasons about which one can only speculate (there are exceptions, though). This will have to change if the QCTO is ever to be implemented with success.

Sincerely yours

(Dr J.P. Nel)

MD Mentornet

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WILL THE QCTO EVER FUNCTION PROPERLY?

Submitted: 2011-06-29 09:55:38

I heard about the QCTO for the first time early in 2007 and felt it was necessary for me to find out more about this new creature that seemed to have quite a number of people up in arms. After all, quality education, training and development (ETD) is Mentornet's business, so I made a special effort to speak to consultants and ETQA Managers who knew what the QCTO was all about. I also read everything on the QCTO that I could lay my hands on. Even so, this chameleon changes colours so fast that I still cannot claim to know it.

After having spoken to quite a number of people in the know, I came to the conclusion the concept and the rationale behind the idea were sound. The only problem with such systems is that they cannot function on their own - you need suitably qualified and competent people to make them work. I am not so sure that the consultants responsible for the creation of the beast really knew much about the ETD environment, or for that matter, about quality assurance of ETD. I do not think they realised how many learning institutions involved in occupationally-directed ETD there are in South Africa. Our research indicates that there can easily be more than 90,000 such institutions. It was not possible to obtain an accurate figure because some quality assurance bodies did not and still don't provide accurate data on learning institutions accredited by them.

I don't think it would be possible for one quality assurance body to evaluate and accredit more than 90,000 learning institutions offering learning programmes in twelve different economic sectors. And to quality assure performance once learning institutions have been accredited would, likewise, be almost impossible. The twenty-five ETQAs that existed in 2007 (if we include the ones belonging to professional bodies) could not even cope with the distributed work load, how would one organisation ever cope with everything? Where would they find the capacity, especially since capacity implies suitable qualifications, experience and attitude? The European Union Member States realised this and outsources the compliance and performance quality assurance to what they call "approved" private quality assurance organisations.

I predicted that the QCTO would have no choice but to delegate the quality assurance function to the ETQAs, and that is exactly what happened, even though they are no longer called ETQAs. One can only imagine the management challenges that this holds for the future with some of the SETAs probably being reluctant to lose their quality assurance bodies and others being only too glad that they can get rid of them.

And then the consultants who created the QCTO invented some new structures with new names and fancy abbreviations for each. The documentation on these structures are not (yet) available to the public. And the consultants organise workshops where they inform people about things to come and they make some more money. And in future learning institutions will not be allowed to design learning programmes/curriculums any longer - one of the fancily abbreviated types of organisations will be responsible for this. Now I ask myself: Which organisation will be able to design curriculums to replace the current approximately 13,866 qualifications on the NLRD? Even if they are replaced by only some 130 qualifications, as is stated by some, who will have such a vast spectrum of knowledge and skills to write curriculums for all these qualifications? Secondly, qualifications (skills needs) should be raised by industry, most certainly not quality assurance bodies, consultants or learning institutions. If the QCTO design learning programmes that they enforce on the industry the entire system will collapse, because chances are that the industry will simply not be interested in the qualifications.

If I calculated correctly there are already more than 21,000 OFO codes. For the life of me I cannot see how 130 qualifications can provide workers with sufficient knowledge and skills to do all the work that this implies, especially if we bear in mind that the real jobs done by employees in different organisations can differ drastically even though they might have the same or similar job descriptions. For example, a traffic officer on public roads most certainly does not do the same work as a traffic officer in the military. Those responsible for the development of the OFO system will tell us that they know this and that they cater for such differences. Practice, however, proves differently.

My biggest concern, however, is the extremely sophisticated and complicated nature of the QCTO structure. We already have so many sub-organisations that even the people who are directly involved in the QCTO find it difficult to understand how everything fits together. The more complicated an organisational structure is, the more difficult will it be to manage. We could not even get the majority of ETQAs to function properly, how will we be able to make an organisation that is some twenty-five times bigger work? It is important that the organisations that we establish must be articulated to the level of the community from which the practitioners will come and whom the organisation will serve. And when the QCTO fails we will, once again, blame the organisation and not the people who designed it and who were supposed to make it work.

In closing, it is time that we align our systems and structures with the rest of the world. No country is an island, and hardly any other country talks about occupationally-directed and further education in the context that we do. They differentiate between academic learning (or higher education) and vocational education and training, and we should do the same if we are to align our educational system with that of other countries that are serious about quality education, training and development. And if we think we can simply ignore the rest of the world because we know better, we will reap the fruits of our short-sightedness. A closed system never survives.

Dr J.P. Nel, MD Mentornet

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INDICATORS OF QUALITY IN QUALITY ASSURANCE

Submitted: 2011-06-29 09:55:06

I can't remember the details, but do you remember the rugby player who was sent off by the referee because he, that is the player, showed the referee a red card? I still feel that the referee deserved the red card, even if only because of his non-existing sense of humour. Well, now it is probably my turn, because just asking the question if the quality assurance bodies in ETD meet the requirements to add value to the process of learning will probably have a number of people up in arms. So, I will not point even a single finger because I am not sure if those at the receiving end will take kindly to training providers evaluating them. Let's play safe and just list the ten most important indicators of a constructive and positive attitude towards quality assurance. Providers can measure the quality assurance bodies by which they are accredited while quality assurance bodies can also evaluate themselves.

1. Must have the capacity to conduct both compliance and performance evaluation in terms of qualified and experienced evaluators, finances and infrastructure. This implies that the evaluators must continuously improve their own knowledge and skills in quality assurance as well as the disciplines for which they are responsible.

2. Must be able and willing to provide ETD providers applying for accreditation with guidance and support. This implies a "second chance" approach, meaning that providers who apply for accreditation should be given an opportunity to correct deficiencies and to be evaluated again, should they not meet the requirements the first time around.

3. Must base their judgements on relevant criteria. This implies that all criteria cannot apply to all sizes and shapes of ETD providers. A small private provider offering one national diploma cannot be evaluated against the same criteria as a university offering a multitude of degrees on different levels. It also means that criteria should be articulated to the skills needs of the community and industry.

4. Must work in close cooperation with the employers. Quality assurance bodies cannot decide for employers what skills their employees should have, i.e. what learning programmes providers should offer. Employers must decide this.

5. Must have a self-regulating quality assurance system. Quality assurance bodies must have procedures in place that allows for learning institutions to do self-evaluations especially if they have already proved that they offer best practice ETD.

6. Must not use their position and bureaucracy as instruments of power. Quality assurance bodies should render a service to learning institutions and the community and not adopt an autocratic, prescriptive and persecutory attitude.

7. Must display sound ethical values. Quality assurance bodies must not be guilty of reserving certain privileges for a certain group or individual, must not lie to providers and must not become involved in corruption of any kind.

8. Must use criteria for what it is intended for. It makes no sense not to register a learning programme because the provider does not have a computer centre. There will in all probability be other providers who do have computer centres and who can offer the qualification, should it be one offering skills that employers need.

9. Must not make players referees as well. Providers accredited by a quality assurance body cannot act as evaluators of other providers for the same quality assurance body. This promotes fraud and discrimination.

10. Must promote lifelong learning. This implies an integrated approach to learning, and close cooperation between quality assurance bodies on different levels and in different fields.

Well, there you have it. How did the quality assurance body with which you are accredited fare? Perhaps they will also read this short article and even evaluate themselves. I sincerely hope so!

(Dr J.P. Nel)

MD Mentornet

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