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ABSTRACT
This paper presents the results of a company survey focused on the role of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in industrial transformation and growth in three manufacturing sectors in South Africa. We find two main patterns from our data: Those companies that take training seriously do this in a comprehensive way and reflect on this training as a combination of formal, informal, and on-the-job training. Second, the industries in which the majority of companies report use of TVET qualifications for hiring and in-house training are those in which training is integral to industrial strategy pertaining to new technologies, work-organisation, and products rather than as an adjunct to these core industry imperatives. These patterns have implications for policy, which tends in South Africa, like many countries, to be strongly focused on formal TVET provision, with little consideration of the broader picture of training, and with little sectoral specificity and little integration into economic development strategies. This also has implications for research into TVET, which, especially in the African context, has tended to look at formal provision on its own rather than as one component of a broader set of vocational skills development interventions.
Acknowledgments
The research conducted was part of the Skills for Industry Project, https://phzh.ch/en/Research/skills-for-industry/, funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the Swiss National Science Foundation through the Swiss Programme for Research on Global Issues for Development. Additional support was obtained from the SARCHI Research Chair in Skills Development, funded by the South African National Research Foundation.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Skills for Industry: https://phzh.ch/en/Research/skills-for-industry/. The other countries are Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Laos, and Vietnam.
2. Data on employment and contribution to GDP based on Statistics South Africa www.statssa.gov.za/ accessed 10 January 2020; www.quantec.co.za, accessed 5 January 2020; own calculations, GDP and employment values refer to 2018.
3. This was a project-wide decision – to focus on formal firms, and to exclude very small firms.
4. We continue to use fixed effects to control for the nested nature of the firm level data. While multilevel modelling would be suitable for hierarchical data, we worry about the strong assumptions required for the use of this model. In this regard, we prefer including fixed effects. Also, in terms of reporting, the inclusion of sector fixed effects allows us to compare the industry intercepts with one another.
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Notes on contributors
Stephanie Allais
Stephanie Allais is the Research Chair of Skills Development and Professor of Education at the University of the Witwatersrand, based in the Centre for Researching Education and Labour.
Volker Schoer
Volker Schöer is an Associate Professor of Economics in the School of Economics and Finance at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Carmel Marock
Carmel Marock is a research associate of the Centre for Researching Education and Labour and the director of Singizi.
Victor Kgalema
Victor Kgalema is a researcher at the REAL Centre, University of the Witwatersrand. He has more than 30 yeârs' experience in diverse settings from the trade union movement, the corporate sector and government.
Nduvho Ramulongo
Nduvho Ramulongo is a PhD candidate and researcher at the REAL Centre, University of the Witwatersrand.
Tolika Sibiya
Tolika Sibiya is a PhD candidate and researcher at the REAL Centre, University of the Witwatersrand.