Crediting worker education? Insights from South African experiences

ABSTRACT

This paper explores South African experiences in using formal credentials in worker education. In specific, it analyses the value and use of the outcomes-based, unit standards-based qualifications registered on the South African national qualifications framework for “trade union practice.” Creating formal qualifications for worker education programmes was hotly debated for many years in the labour movement. The paper finds little evidence of positive achievement of the creation of a formal qualification route for trade unionists. The main stated reason for the introduction of the formal qualification route was to support the educational and labour market mobility of union activists. There is no evidence of this to date, and the paper argues that the design of the qualification makes it unlikely to become a possibility. The existence of the qualification has facilitated funding for worker education, but a greater success would have been to convince public bodies to fund worker education according to its intrinsic logic. The paper also finds that to date the negative consequences that many unionists predicted in these debates have not arisen. However, this seems to be in spite of and not because of the qualification model and may be attributable to the strength of the single provider of the qualification.

KEYWORDS:

• Worker education
• credentials
• trade union qualifications

Acknowledgments

This paper is based on a presentation to the annual conference of the South African Sociology Association organised by the Chris Hani Institute. I would like to acknowledge union educators past and present for stimulating conversations and insights on this topic, which have contributed to my analysis. I would also like to thank three anonymous reviewers, whose comments and suggestions enabled me to strengthen the paper. The development of the paper was supported by the South African National Research Foundation through the SARCHI Research Chair in Skills Formation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. http://www.ditsela.org.za/articles/first-formal-qualification-in-trade-unionism. Accessed November 25, 2018.

2. www.saqa.org.za. Accessed October 29, 2018.

3. In UNESCO’s International Standard Classification of Education this is ISCED-5, short-cycle programmes aimed at preparation for work.

4. South Africa currently has five trade union federations; the other two are Saftu (the South African Federation of Trade Unions, which was founded in 2017 when Cosatu split) and Consawu (the Confederation of South African Workers, which is the smallest federation, founded in 2003 to bring together unions previously not aligned to any federation).

5. Both systems are still operational in South Africa today.

6. www.ditsela.org.za. Accessed December 3 2018.

7. The COVID-19 pandemic has made this model very difficult, according to a Ditsela representative, personal conversation February 15, 2021.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stephanie Allais

Stephanie Allais is the SARCHI Research Chair of Skills Development and Professor of Education at the Centre for Researching Education and Labour at Wits University. Her research is located in the sociology and political economy of education, focused on relationships between education and work. Her books include Selling Education Out: National Qualifications Frameworks and the abandonment of Knowledge (2014); Knowledge, curriculum, and preparation for work (2018), with Yael Shalem; and Implementing National Qualifications Frameworks Across Five Continents (2013), with Michael Young.