A national education policy proposal to integrate adult basic education and training (ABET) in South Africa came about largely because of pressure from trade unions to introduce training at the workplace which would make workers more marketable in case of retrenchment. Workplace ABET programmes provide literacy and numeracy skills, after which some workers have a chance of joining further training opportunities provided by their employers. The Independent examinations Board (JEB) provides adult examinations and certifies those learners who pass. This study aims to find out whether the ABET certificates issued by the IBB, particularly Level 3 certificates, open up job opportunities for their holders. A qualitative approach was adopted to research the views of ABET learners and their managers. A small scale survey was undertaken in which four industries providing ABET in the Gauteng area were visited. Interviews were conducted to access information on learners’ and managers’ views on ABET certification. This proved a suitable method for the study because the researcher managed to build confidence in learners and at times used the learners’ home language to clarify questions. The study concludes that ABET empowered learners by giving them reading, writing and communication skills. These skills helped them in building their confidence when communicating with their supervisors and to work with less supervision. On the other hand the study showed that there was no direct relationship between the certificates that learners earned and work opportunities. Managers could not clearly identify the kind of work that learner who had attained ABET Level 3 certificates could perform. The recommendations call for a clear' policy by both unions and employers on ABET. Workers need to be rewarded for the effort they put into learning, even if the rewards are not the reasons which lead them to learn.

My dissertation focuses on the heterogeneity in labor markets. The first chapter proposes an explanation for the unemployment rate difference between skill groups. Low skill workers (workers without a four year college degree) have a higher unemployment rate. The reason for that "... is mainly because they (low skill workers) are more likely to become unemployed, not because they remain unemployed longer, once unemployed" (Layard, Nickell, Jackman, 1991, p. 44). This chapter proposes an explanation for the difference in job separation probabilities between these skill groups: high skill workers have lower job separation probabilities as they are selected more effectively during the hiring process. I use a labor search model with match specific quality to quantify the explanatory power of this hypothesis on differences in job separation probabilities and unemployment rates across skill groups. The second chapter analyzes the effects of one channel of interaction (job competition) between skill groups on their labor market outcomes. Do skilled workers prefer unskilled jobs to being unemployed? If so, skilled workers compete with unskilled workers for those jobs. Job competition generates interaction between the labor market outcomes of these groups. I use a heterogeneous agents model with skilled and unskilled workers in which the only interaction across groups is the job competition. Direct effects of job competition are reducing skilled unemployment rate (since they have a bigger market) and increasing the unskilled unemployment rate (since they face greater competition). However number of vacancies respond to job competition in equilibrium. For instance, unskilled firms have incentives to open more vacancies since filling a vacancy is easier if there is job competition. Thus how unskilled unemployment and wages are affected by job competition depends on which effect dominates. The results for reasonable parameter values show that job competition does reduce the average unemployment rate. It reduces the skilled unemployment rate more, generating an increase in unemployment rate inequality. However, the employment rate at skilled jobs is unaffected. The third chapter focuses on skill biased technological change. Skill biased technological change is one of the explanations for the asymmetry between labor market outcomes of skill groups over the last few decades. However, during this time period there were also skill neutral shocks that could contribute to these outcomes. The third chapter analyzes the effects of skill biased and neutral shocks on overall labor market variables. I use a model in which skilled and unskilled outputs are intermediate goods, and final good sector receives all the shocks. A numerical exercise shows that both skilled and unskilled unemployment rates respond to shocks in the same direction. The response of unemployment rate to skill neutral shocks is bigger than the response to skill biased shocks for both skill groups. However, the unskilled unemployment changes more than the skilled unemployment rate as a response to skill neutral shocks. Thus, skill neutral shocks reduce the unemployment rate gap between skill groups. / text

The theoretical part of the thesis deals with some areas of the personnel management, i.e. creation and analysis of job vacancies, recruitment and selection of employees, education of employees and their assessment and remuneration. In the practical part these personnel activities are analysed and assessed in the Municipal Office in Moravské Budějovice. The individual subchapters include recommendations and proposals for improvement.