Vocational education in South Africa: strategies for improvement

This paper is based on research by Rolf Stumpf and Gustav Niebuhr for [Centre for Development and Enterprise] CDE on the international experience of vocationally-oriented education relevant to South Africa. It summarises what needs to be done to strengthen vocationally-oriented education in South Africa, where school leavers are exposed to engineering, technological, electrical, building related, agricultural and other occupations, but need further post-school training before they can enter the labour market. In the light of South Africa’s critical need for technical and artisan skills, plus the apartheid legacy that stigmatised vocational education, the research indicates that the country should develop a policy framework for making vocationally-oriented education (through specialist ‘focus schools’ or through general secondary schools) a much more attractive option within a system of diversified education provision.

Published abstract.

This paper is based on research by Rolf Stumpf and Gustav Niebuhr for [Centre for Development and Enterprise] CDE on the international experience of vocationally-oriented education relevant to South Africa. It summarises what needs to be done to strengthen vocationally-oriented education in South Africa, where school leavers are exposed to engineering, technological, electrical, building related, agricultural and other occupations, but need further post-school training before they can enter the labour market. In the light of South Africa’s critical need for technical and artisan skills, ...  [+] Show more