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Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Management Sciences in Administration and Information Management, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2017. / The secretarial/administrative profession is faced with the challenge of rapid advancement in office technology, organisational restructuring and changes in the global economy. This challenge does not only affect employees who are already working as secretaries/administrative staff in the workplace, it also affects institutions of higher education and students who are studying towards an administrative profession. This requires both the institutions of higher education and industry to better prepare students to meet the requirements of the workplace. Given this background, this study examines the current status of the Office Management and Technology curriculum to discover whether it meets the demands of the workplace. The study also investigates learning opportunities offered to Office Management & Technology (OMT) students during Work-integrated Learning (WIL) and the implications for the curriculum, with the aim of improving both classroom learning and workplace learning, and to suggest improvements in the OMT curriculum in Universities of Technology (UoTs). This study investigates and provides information on the skills, attributes and competencies OMT graduates are required to possess in the 21st century world of work. It therefore provides the departments of office technology in UoT’s with an in-depth study of the strengths and weaknesses of their current curriculum so that improvement can be implemented wherever necessary. This study is a case study that involves Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT) and Durban University of Technology (DUT). The method used was very largely a quantitative method because it was based purely on questionnaires, however, there was a small qualitative element which grew up on the open ended questions. The qualitative questions were used to provide participants with an opportunity to express their own opinions and to clarify the quantitative data within the questionnaire. The study utilised two sets of questionnaires which were distributed to two different groups within the targeted population – to industry supervisors who supervise OMT students at DUT and MUT, and to third year OMT students from MUT who underwent work integrated learning in 2015. The study shows that the current OMT curriculum is reasonably well in line with core industry needs. However, there was evidence that improvement is needed in both classroom learning and in workplace learning. The study also revealed new skills and attributes that need to be incorporated in OMT curriculum in order to be more responsive and relevant in the 21st century world of work. The study recommends that the Office Management and Technology curriculum should be reviewed regularly and that both university and industry should play a significant role in better preparing students to meet the requirements of the workplace. / M

Submitted in fulfilment of the Doctor in Technology: Human Resource Management, Durban University of Technology, 2017. / There is a concern that students are inadequately prepared before being placed in industry to do Work Integrated Learning (WIL). To add on to this, the Co-operative Education Practitioners as well as the external partners or employers are not sufficiently supported to drive this challenging work. This may have an adverse impact on the students as they would drop out or perform badly. Students are from different backgrounds, some of them are from rural areas where there is a scarcity of work opportunities. The opportunity of getting a placement in industry is an unusual experience to them. This research implements a Single Case Study (Durban University of Technology case study), a mixed method design is followed combining both qualitative and quantitative methods. One of the main reasons for using a single case study in this investigation is that the DUT practices of Co-operative Education and Work Integrated Learning are not unique. It is representative of other Universities of Technology in South Africa. The first stage involves collecting data from students that are undertaking WIL. The second stage entailed targeting the graduates that were enrolled for programmes that incorporated WIL. The third and fourth stages involved the Co-operative Education Practitioners or the Co-ordinators of WIL at DUT and employers or supervisors of WIL students in the workplace respectively. Furthermore, this investigation will focus on stratified random sampling. The aim of the pilot study was done in order to test the questionnaires with regards to the relevance and clarity of questions. The objectives are to investigate the role, responsibilities and qualities of university and industry staff for facilitating support for learners. This study revealed that a large percentage of employers suggested that lack of learner support can contribute to student failure. Also, WIL Co-ordinators need to be capacitated as the majority of respondents indicated that training to facilitate WIL is extremely important (64%). 72 percent of the respondents indicated that the visits by the Co-operative Education Practitioners in workplaces are extremely important. / D