published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

This project is a survey research work, which investigates the perceptions and implications of the Skills Development Act on the service industry in Durban. The study contained a qualitative and quantitative section, through the use of structured and open questionnaires. Target interviewees/ recipients of questionnaires were CEDs, financial managers or their designated representatives, who play a key role in making investment decisions in their respective companies. The sample took the form of a stratified judgment sample. The distribution of the companies in the sample was according to size, with an attempt made to reflect as accurately as possible the proportion of companies in the sector that are small, medium and large. The number of employees determined the categorisation by size. For the purposes of this study, a large company will have between 65 and 100 employees, a medium sized company will have between 30 and 64 employees. A small company will have between one and 29 employees. Because service sector companies tend to be small, this classification departs somewhat from that used in the National Skills Development Strategy. Information derived from the questionnaires and interviews were analysed using the SPSS package. This served as the basis for the discussion of findings and the recommendations, which appear in last chapter of this work. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002

The skills shortage and unequal standards of training in South Africa provided the stimulus for the Skills Development Policy. The purpose of the study was to analyze and appraise the Amaoti Vegetable Farming Learnership (AVFL), a skills development programme implemented in the Amaoti area. The aims were to establish what changes occurred to the scheme, which was implemented on a piece of land of land with no farmer as an employer; and to ascertain whether the AVFL achieved its intended purpose of providing participants with agricultural skills. Data were gathered via one-on-one interviews with six participants and two focus groups. One major finding that emerged from the study was that the programme equipped participants with agricultural skills. Another significant finding was that the elderly project learners did not accept being supervised by young mentors and perceived it demeaning. This resulted in a strained relationship between the two groups and subsequently led to non-productive supervision. The concurrent training of both learners and mentors also contributed to the strained relationship between the two groups. The study also found that the recruitment process did not adhere to the Skills Development Act, which prescribed that learnership participants should be recruited from labour centres. In the case of the AVFL, recruitment was conducted in the community. The use of land was problematic in that there were no resources. Recommendations included: 1) training of mentors should be done before the implementation of the learnership and should take into account cultural implications such as age differences; 2) resources need to be available on the land including water, ablution, and sick bay. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, Durban, 2010.

This dissertation is manuscript-based. It contains an introduction, a literature review, a conclusion along with the four research papers that constitute its core. The four substantive papers reexamine the sources of earnings differences by race and immigration status in Canada. I address two major methodological issues in the relevant literature: the measurement of experience and the modeling of the relations between the factors known to influence earnings. Data from Statistics Canada's Workplace and Employee Survey (WES) was analyzed. The first two papers examine biases in the estimates of wage disparities due to error in the measurement of experience. They do so using two conventional estimation techniques: ordinary least squares (OLS) with dummy variables, and the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition. The third and fourth papers explore deficiencies in OLS-based modeling techniques. The third paper does so by separately analyzing the relationships between racial and immigrant group statuses and access to job-related training, and then the relationship between statuses and training, on one hand, and earnings on the other. The final paper uses structural equation modeling to further examine the relationship between group status and earnings, this time explicitly incorporating the mediating effects of job types, and job-related training. The papers reveal that inadequate measurement of work experience results in overestimates of the wage disadvantage of visible minority immigrants. Furthermore, some of the wage disadvantage of this group stems from limited access to job-related training.

This thesis explores thoughts, observations and theoretical research associated with work-related career shifts, adult learning and education. In contemporary society, work-related values are changing. Workers need to be flexible, adaptive and in terms of skills, up-to-date. Since an individual may experience a variety of career shifts during the course of her working adult life, learning and education are essential. But how should work-related learning occur and what avenues are available for those who require it? Workplace learning occurs in many forms and settings, and since learning is a personal process, it is difficult to ascertain ideal learning situations for each employee. The purpose of this study was to reflect on and analyze the just-in-time learning experience of one individual who underwent a career shift in the high tech industry. This thesis recounts the learning journey of the author, a high school English teacher and graduate student, who embarked on a new career as an education consultant. It is a multifaceted and multidisciplinary narrative that explores three distinct areas: the narrative and personal observations central to the author's learning and work experience; theoretical perspectives relating to the contemporary workplace and adult learning; the characters, themes and metaphors from The Tempest that illuminate the author's learning journey. Principles of adult education and theory pertaining to workplace and other settings for learning, along with characters from The Tempest, are invoked to deepen the author's understanding of what occurred during her high tech adventure. The author highlights contradictions between corporate jargon and educational theory, and dwells on dilemmas problematic for protean workers and others destined for corporate education and training. Concepts relating to knowledge management, organizational learning and elearning are challenged in conjunction with issues of power and knowledge. Caught between the demands of the continuously changing corporate world and protected realm of academia, the narrator is forced to combat a storm. Her survival is testimony to her capacity to learn, adapt and rely on previous skills garnered from years as a graduate student and English teacher. Survival does not come easy—there are fumbles, frustrations, and follies along the way. This narrative provides a personal account of what it means to learn and work in the high tech industry. Although this is one person's story, the insights developed and theory invoked have utility that extends to other workers and settings.

<p>This study investigated the extent to which skills development is implemented within the naval dockyard Simon's Town within the context of the NSDS and the various forms of legislation. In March 2001 the Department of Labour embarked on an initiative called the National Skills-Development Strategy to address unemployment, and thus enhancing the economy. One of the areas that were identified to address the above concerns was the skills-development of its people. It is against this background that this study investigated the implementation of the NSDS within the Naval Dockyard.</p>

This doctoral thesis essentially investigates what is currently done by South African municipalities with regard to the training and development of their personnel. The study was necessitated by the fact that personnel plays an important role in the viability of any local authority. Therefore, the quality of manpower should be above suspicion. Moreover, with the advent of the expected implications of the new constitutional dispensation it is imperative that attention shall be focused timeously on the training and development of the human resources available to local government and administration. The need for training and development also dominates the arena in view of the continued extention of government activities and the concomitant creation of new State institutions. Thus, the above reasoning serves as rationale for the background description of the right of existence of local authorities. The term, local authorities, is, therefore, viewed as a collective noun for all institutions engaged in governing and administering community life on the local level, be it municipalities, village boards, health committees or institutions for the peri-urban areas. A discussion of municipal administration is also given as it justifies a review of the location thereof within the spectrum of public administration, given its distinctive environment and character. Furthermore, an exposition of municipal personnel administration within the context of municipal administration is imperative should one wish to understand the delicate processes of provisioning, maintenance, utilisation and above all, training and development of scarce manpower resources. Coupled with the description of the components of municipal personnel administration, follows an explanation of the constituent parts of the activities, training and development. The study revealed that training is a process of which the groundwork is done by a related field, called education. Education starts at birth and continues ad infinitum. Education also provides the preparation-for-life foundation, whereby training continues as the preparation-for-work process. As a prerequisite for both processes to be successful, is an intellectual process, called learning. The will to learn then also prepares the individual with a willingness to develop at the hand of various ways and means. Thereafter the need for and the objectives of training within the institution is acknowledged and a description is given of how to identify and describe these needs and objectives in order to meet the common objective of local authorities, viz. the improvement of the general well-being of the citizenry. A responsibility rests on the individual municipalities to provide, through training and development programmes, the opportunity for municipal officials and employees on all levels, to develop. It is to this end that municipalities should endeavour to provide suitable training and development facilities and to utilise it to its fullest extent. Whether the facilities utilised, refers to on-the-job - or off-the-job training, the methods should be applied only after its relevant advantages and disadvantages have been carefully weighed and if it meets the requirements of the specific circumstances of the municipality. The study proves that in South Africa, there is not necessarily a shortage of available municipal manpower, but that a question-mark could be placed after the quality thereof in terms of training and development. It is, therefore, recommended that, in an endeavour to promote training and development activities, the following aspects, inter alia, deserve consideration: (a) the introduction at school level, of a course in environmental or public studies; (b) the establishment of a school of municipal government and administration in the Core City of each region specified in terms of the Regional Services Councils Act, 1985 (Act 109 of 1985); (c) that municipalities should devise a unique approach to training and development methods; (d) that training sessions should provide for the individual needs of the participants; (e) the publication of an annual report by the Local Training Board giving a detailed exposition of the nature and extent of training individually and collectively undertaken by leading South African municipalities; (f) the provision of specially designed and well-equipped technical training facilities; and (g) the establishment of resources centres or reading rooms to put periodicals, journals and relevant newspaper articles at the disposal of all the municipal employees. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1985.

The White Paper on education states that students should be employable after graduation / Thesis

In South Africa, changes to the political landscape have highlighted the glaring differences in the previous government's policies in the provision of worker education and training for a highly skilled workforce throughout the different sectors. This situation invoked the need for changes to the skills development policies for improving the skills profile in the country. Through the introduction of the National Skills Development Strategy along with other supportive legislation and policies that serve as vehicles for redress and transformation of skills development and training in the workplace, workplace learning has become critical for attainment of national goals for a highly skilled workforce. Workplace learning discourse necessitates a multidisciplinary approach to understanding adult learning in the workplace. This study aims at establishing the perceptions held by employees from the eThekwini municipality on the use of the WSP as an instrument for promoting workplace learning. Comprehension of the usage of the WSP as a means of addressing the national skills development agenda is important in organisations concerned with the role played by their human resources for the success and sustainability of the organisations in the market as local and global players. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.

The goal of this research was the development of an e-learning model to address the needs of the South African corporate sector. To do this it was necessary to reach an understanding of: the South African corporate training needs; the difference between training, education, academic learning and learning theory; academic e-learning best practices and their integration into the e-learning model; various instructional /learning design models and how they can enhance e-learning in the corporate sector in South Africa and general and legislative requirements for the development of elearning portals in the South African corporate sector. Reeves and Hedberg (2003) recommend that research with a development goal should use an eclectic-mixed methods-pragmatic paradigm, and multiple research instruments to collect data. This study was conducted within an ICT company that designs e-learning courses for different companies. Three corporate learning portals developed by this company from the INSETA and BANKSETA were carefully interrogated to see if there is a match between the stated and the applied e-learning design methodology. A qualitative approach, with instructional design interviews, educational expert review forms and subject matter expert review forms was used for primary data collection and review of current e-learning design practices. The data was categorised into themes and topics using QSR NVivo 7. The patterns that emerged lead to a better understanding of local issues and these were linked to the best e-learning practices identified by the literature review and elearning practice in the South African corporate sector.. The SAeLAD model was then developed based on Trivedi’s e-learning best practices and using 13 e-learning design field-based findings namely; qualifications of practitioners, constructivism versus instructivism, learning through activities to support theoretical knowledge, need for a traceable recordkeeping system, testing and re-testing of the learning environment, incorporation of special needs in the learning design, access to ICT, level of ICT competence, learner motivation, prior experiences of learning, learners’ prior knowledge, cultural backgrounds and language skills and roles and responsibilities of the design team. Comments from practitioners were incorporated in the final design. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.