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Technological advancements and digitalization are profoundly reshaping our work and lifestyle, business models and operations, and government policy choices. Digital transformation in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is the planned and structured introduction of automated and streamlined processes within institutions and national TVET systems through digital technology, with the goal of enhancing their scope, scale, efficiency and effectiveness and ultimately, driving their more sustainable development.

This document provides overall perspective and five country case studies on digital transformation in TVET. Most countries studied face similar enabling factors: the digital infrastructure available; legal and policy frameworks; focused institutional change to improve the acquisition of digital skills; and the promotion of equality and inclusivity. To understand how digital transformation in TVET is occurring, the report analyses it at four levels: technical and technological development; curriculum and qualifications; teaching and learning using technology; and its contribution to the sustainability and resilience of societies.

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Today there is an accelerating trend towards qualifications frameworks as an instrument to develop, classify and recognise formal learning across the African continent, as is also the case across most of Europe, Australasia and the Asia-Pacific region. As more and more countries and regions across the world develop qualifications frameworks to improve harmonisation of education and training systems and comparability of qualifications, it is becoming increasingly evident that Africa has not remained unaffected. At present more than 20 African countries are actively engaged in qualifications framework development, including all Southern African development community (SADC) member states and the SADC region as a whole, not to mention exploratory discussions in other regions and talk of a continent-wide 'African qualifications network.'

Starting from an exploration of the apparent Western and Eurocentric origins of qualifications frameworks, and a realisation that education in Africa was influenced by Western and European ideas long before the advent of qualifications frameworks, we consider the extent to which qualifications frameworks influence the way education and training is organised in the African context. As we critically reflect on the seemingly unquestioned, largely uncritical, and nearly always unopposed move towards qualifications frameworks in Africa, we consider whether qualifications frameworks are able to embrace the distinctive tenets of the African context that can, as described by Catherine Odora Hoppers (2008, 24), make it possible to 'place and name' the collective experiences and abilities that African people bring to the field.

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The Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) college sector in South Africa is seen as central to skills development and the revival of the economy. However, the sector remains one of the weakest in the post-school system. This chapter provides a synopsis of the evolution of the post-apartheid college sector context in South Africa, the nature of the new programme offerings for pre- and in-service training as well as increasing moves towards professionalisation of the sector. This discussion is presented against the backdrop of the broader policy context in the country, specifically considering the different needs of current TVET lecturers, who range from unqualified; academically qualified, but without workplace pedagogy; trained for the schooling sector; to the ideal - those who are both academically and professionally qualified. While this rather lopsided continuum is not unique to South Africa, the way it is being addressed is important to articulate and reflect on.

The changes in the management and governance of the colleges prior to the establishment of the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) and the impact these changes had on lecturers' job security and conditions of employment are key factors that we will explore in our contribution. The college sector lost lecturing staff during this time, further reducing its capacity to meet the training needs of the country. While seemingly intractable problems such as slow uptake of newly introduced qualifications for TVET lecturers and compliance oriented continuing professional development (CPD) programmes can be overcome, the impact of [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 on this sector should not be underestimated. Of course, this uncertain future also offers an opportunity to make changes that may previously have been politically unpalatable. In this chapter, we try to imagine what a more explicitly conceptualised workplace pedagogy would comprise to produce a pipeline of well-trained and professionally orientated TVET lecturers.

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This study set out to provide greater insight into the status of migrant teachers in South Africa. The findings have shown that migrant teachers are playing an important role in South African schools, but that the requirements they need to meet are onerous and misaligned. This lack of coordination between the agencies tasked to oversee different parts of the system not only results in the country's potential to effectively use the skills of migrant teachers being compromised, but also exposes the system to potential abuse and fraudulent practices.

The presence of migrant teachers appears to be tolerated as a stop-gap measure to assist with the immediate teacher supply-demand challenge in the country. An attitude of, 'let's use migrant teachers to assist in the meantime while we increase the capacity of our teacher education system to produce the teachers we need' appears to prevail. [The authors argue that,] whilst the country certainly must, and is, working to increase its own teacher education capacity, the perception that migrant teachers are a currently useful, but expendable resource is a flawed one.

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This country background report on the recognition of non-formal and informal learning in South Africa has been prepared by the South African Qualifications Authority as a participant in the OECD activity on recognition of non-formal and informal learning (RNFIL). The overall purpose of the RNFIL activity is to provide policy makers with information for generating beneficial and equitable systems of recognising non-formal and informal learning. The project aims to explore existing models by taking stock of existing arrangements, and collecting and exploring related evidence. The report is structured according to the guidelines provided by the OECD Secretariat, and contains the [following] six components: contextual factors; institutional arrangements; technical arrangements; stakeholder behaviour; case studies; and conclusion and way forward.

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What are 'transnational qualifications frameworks'? What does cross-border recognition of qualifications imply? What is the difference between comparability and equivalence? These are key concepts and questions that this report addresses. More fundamentally, the report examines emerging regional qualifications frameworks and their implementation strategies. Although it is premature to evaluate their impact, the reports looks also at the extent to which regional qualifications frameworks are able to achieve the various desired policy objectives associated with them particularly regarding mobility of labour and recognition of qualifications. Finally, the report examines the interplay between regional and national frameworks. The report traces, in a comparative approach, the short history of the regional qualifications frameworks to identify promising developments for the future.

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Qualifications operate as a form of currency and facilitate trade in skills in the labour markets. Lack of trusted third-party information about their skills often forces jobseekers to engage in the labour market at a huge disadvantage. This is particularly true for migrants - and even more so for refugees - who are often at a severe disadvantage when it comes to their ability to provide evidence of their qualification. In this context, recognition systems play an important part in generating information about people's skills that enables them to participate in the labour market in ways that allow them to be equitably rewarded for the skills they possess and contribute to the development of the country.

Drawing on substantial work of the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and other actors in this area, this report examines potential role of skills development and skills recognition for supporting and extending the impact of a regional system of regulated labour mobility within and between IGAD Member States. It contains seven country chapters, which include a brief overview of the geographical and political factors that have a direct influence on each country's ability to provide skills development opportunities, not only to its own citizens, but also migrants and refugees, particularly through Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET). It also provides an overview of the systems and processes in place to develop and recognize the skills of citizens and non-citizens and an overview of the skills dimensions of national labour markets.

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Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges are intended to equip youths with work-relevant skills, but the capacity of the labour market to absorb them is limited and South Africa has high levels of unemployment. Employers argue that young work-seekers from TVET colleges may well possess technical skills but lack employability skills, including appropriate work-based attitudes and values. In response to this scenario, a team of experts designed a short, interactive programme for TVET college students to acquire an improved understanding of and insight into their own values and how these inform their behaviour in the workplace. The values selected were respect, accountability, self-improvement and perseverance. The programme's intended outcome was to increase the participants' awareness of the link between values and their actions so that they could improve their own decision-making and their relationships with colleagues in the workplace.

Following this programme, the students were afforded a period of workplace exposure during which they were required to reflect on their experience and how workplace behaviour revealed their own and work colleagues' underlying values. A crucial challenge for the project team was to be able to measure any impact on the participants' understanding of the values and how this understanding might guide their behaviour. The focus of this article is on how the assessment instrument was conceptualised, designed and piloted in South Africa and Kenya. The instrument was required to measure effectively any changes in the participants' understanding of the meaning of each value and the adjustments in their ability to apply the values in real work-based scenarios.

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The South African National Qualifications Framework (NQF) is a first generation framework that has been developed since the 1990s and has been subjected to ongoing review since its inception. This has included both externally initiated processes, such as by the Departments of Education and Labour (DoE and DoL); and an internal evaluation process, the NQF impact study, initiated by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA). This paper provides a critical account of the review processes, drawing on the language of the now well-established conceptual framework for qualifications frameworks developed since 2004 (Tuck et al 2004, Raffe 2005 and 2009, Keevy 2005, Coles 2006, Allais et al 2009). The paper argues that transforming NQFs that challenge existing practices, such as in the South African case, are inevitably and continually reviewed as they become inextricably linked to power struggles. In this regard, South Africa is an interesting case study in that the critical voices, which are in most other countries on the periphery, continue to influence policy at the centre of the education and training debates. Drawing on the most recent debates on articulation and pathways in South Africa, the paper shows that these power struggles have compounded the review processes and contributed directly to an education and training landscape that has become unnecessarily cluttered and difficult for learners to navigate. The closing section of the paper provides some considerations for the review of NQFs in general, as well as specific suggestions for the review of the Namibian NQF.

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The development of national qualifications frameworks (NQFs) has become a world-wide phenomenon, not least in Southern Africa. There is a trend within Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries to implement qualifications frameworks, particularly in the technical vocational education and training sectors. Mauritius, Namibia, Botswana, Tanzania, Zambia and the Seychelles are all at various stages of NQF development. The South African NQF, along with those of New Zealand and Scotland, was one of the pioneering first generation of NQFs. The countries that are now at an earlier stage of NQF implementation have the opportunity to learn from the successes and mistakes of the first generation NQFs. The recent completion of the first cycle of the NQF impact study in South Africa has made a significant contribution to the identification of key lessons of NQF development that can be of benefit to second generation NQFs. Although initial results are only indicative, they represent a beginning of the process of developing a methodology for objective evaluation of the outcomes of NQF policy implementation. It is concluded that the measurement of the impact of the NQF on the South African education and training system is particularly useful to policy and decision makers in SADC countries that either are considering, or are in the process of implementing, qualifications frameworks in their own countries.

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