The study explores the ways in which Skills Development Act is implemented in South Africa. This study provides skills development policy by looking at policy implications and policy implementation in the Office of the Premier: Human Resource Development directorate. The need for skills development in South Africa carries the potential for policy development as an essential feature for economic growth and service delivery. Not only to the field of public policy, but to every sector including science and technology. The passing of the Skills Development Act, (No. 97 of 1998) (SDA) and the Skills Development Levies Act (No. 9 of 1999) highlighted the need for more skills in South Africa to meet the demands of a changing global world economy. The purpose of the study is to provide a policy understanding of the SDA and its implementation using the Office of the Premier in KwaZulu-Natal as a case study. The study will illustrate the importance of skills development in the public sector of South Africa and how skills can be further developed in the public sector. Research in skills development policy primarily focuses on the private sector ignoring its relevance to the public sector. The primary research objective of this study is • To describe the need for skills development in the public sector in South Africa and • To critically analyze the Skills Development Act in South Africa. • It will also analyze national programmes and policies designed for skills development in South Africa. The theoretical basis of this project is found on theories of public policy and policy implementation. The crux of this study is to determine the extent to which the Office of the Premier's skills development policy seeks to implement the Skills Development Act in the KwaZulu-Natal province. The findings of the study show a broad policy commitment to skills development programmes. However, when one take a closer look at the policy implementation of skills development in Office of the Premier, a number of gaps become clear. The Directorate HRD has experienced a number of implementation problems. The most significant is their lack of capacity as well as their in ability to monitor and assess training programmes. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007. / Public Policy Partnership in South Africa.

Student Number: 0104318V - MA research report - School of Social Sciences - Faculty of Humanities / The corporate middle class, or managers, occupies a contradictory class location in capitalist relations of production. While they do not own the means of production, this class stratum is not exploited like the working class. This class position, however, is bound to be different for a black manager whose advancement in the workplace may be due to government attempts to economically empower black people to redress the injustices imposed by the racially dominated social structure of the past. Through a Weberian understanding of social stratification as based on class, social status and power, this research aims to unearth how members of the African corporate middle class understand their position and roles in South African workplaces and communities. It also goes deeper to scrutinise the impact of this structural position on their agency. It is shown that their contradictory class location is exacerbated by their race. African managers constantly negotiate their positions and roles in their workplaces and communities. Indeed, while their managerial position affords them spaces that they could not have occupied during the apartheid era, their racial character lessens their ability to manoeuvre within these spaces. This can be identified both in workplaces and communities. It is shown that their middle-class status cannot be consolidated because of their perceived lower social status and less power to influence decision making in their organisations. Furthermore, it is shown that, although not all of the interviewees moved to middle-class areas, there is an indication of alienation in previously white-only residential areas. This is further exacerbated by expectations from their former communities and members of their extended families. As a result of high levels of unemployment in African communities, members of this group are actively contributing to uplift members of their extended families.

M. Tech. Business Administration / The study aims to probe into the SANDFs strategic purpose for implementing the MSDS and whether the learners acquire the skills they regard declared as essential. The study will also investigate whether the MSDS fulfils the learners career aspirations and further asses their view regarding the programme.