A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts in partial fulfilment of the requirements for Master's degree in Recreation and Tourism, in the Department of Recreation and Tourism at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2011. / The South African tourism industry has largely been designated as the playing grounds for the previously advantaged communities [PACs] where they acquire many benefits, and not in favour of the previously disadvantaged communities [PDCs]. Various tourism-related government policies and strategies have been put in place so as to improve the status and access of the previously disadvantaged communities into the tourism industry. On the one hand, the tourism policies and strategies are viewed as reverse discrimination by some previously advantaged individuals [PAIs], while on the other hand, they are viewed as an outstanding opportunity and justice for many previously disadvantaged individuals [PDIs]. This is more specifically when the policy of skills development, among others, is designed to improve the living status and employment opportunities of the previously disadvantaged communities [PDCs]. This research study has the intention of investigation the status of tourism skills development practices for the previously disadvantaged communities around Richards Bay á Townships. The study also sought to establish whether there are any emerging opportunities of improving the lot of the black people within the areas where they stay. In other words, this study views the tourism policies and strategies as critical for establishing a demographic representation in the tourism industry. Furthermore, the study believes that in order for these policies and strategies to succeed they must adopt principles of skills development practice that are acceptable and well-regarded among the previously disadvantaged communities in the industry. The main objectives of this study seek to reveal the status of tourism skills development practices for the previously disadvantaged communities, in the study area. This goal may be achieved through objective such as: how stakeholders understand the importance of tourism skills development practices; respondents' access to the tourism skills development opportunities; how the Richards Bay tourism authorities facilitate tourism skills development; respondents' perceptions of the implementation of the tourism skills development policies and practices; and establishing whether there are any tourism skills development practice-benefits for the PDCs in the study area. The methodology of this study deals with the selection of the sample, instrument for data collection in 3 Richard Bay Townships and the analysis and interpretation of data. The form of research approach that was used in this research was the survey method. The face-to-face interviews were used where questionnaires were used to collect data from a sample of stakeholders in Townships. The sample size selected was 132 respondents which are not necessarily representatives of the entire population of Richards Bay and Townships. The sample size was categorised into the following stakeholders: tourism officials [15], service providers [20], and local community [97]. The sampling technique selected was the stratified random sampling techniques. In conclusion the study established that, on the whole, the respondents fully understood the meaning and importance of tourism skills development practices. The respondents also felt that the skills development opportunities were inaccessibility in the study area. The findings also indicated that the respondents felt that the provision of tourism skills development practices and policies in the area were not adequate. The respondents were seen to perceive the implementation of the tourism skills development policies and practices as not up to the required standard. Finally, the respondents felt that the tourism skills development practice-benefits were not adequate in the study area. The research study concludes by offering recommendations, which proposed that all the authorities ranging from tourism, labour, education and municipality must investment significantly in skills training and development practices. Finally, the community must be encouraged to learn more about the benefits of tourism.

Thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of M.Sc. (Building) in Property Development to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2017 / The lack of entrepreneurship is an obstacle to economic development. In South Africa (SA), disciplines are taught in a context that is enterprise-based, with no emphasis on the need to impart business start-up skills within specific disciplines. A culture of entrepreneurship is lacking, resulting in low records of entrepreneurship incidents in SA. The challenges and/or benefits of integrating entrepreneurship education within the South African real estate (RE) course and its effects on graduates’ entrepreneurial intent, is not well understood. The purpose of the research is to investigate whether the introduction of entrepreneurship education within the RE discipline would encourage graduates to become entrepreneurial in the practice of real estates. A mixed methodology approach has been used in this research. Primary and secondary research data has been made available in the form of questionnaire surveys of graduates and course directors/lecturers from the University of the Witwatersrand and other international universities that have entrepreneurship education embedded within their real estate programmes, as will be selected by the researcher. The research has found that both pedagogical strategies of course work and applying experiential learning teaching methods would be required to effectively integrate entrepreneurship education within a real estate programme in a manner that would stimulate graduates to be entrepreneurial in the practice of real estate, although it was not known whether the graduates would actually start businesses and when they intended to do so. It was also found that those students whose studies took place in real estate programmes that had entrepreneurship education embedded in them were more commercially aware. The integration of entrepreneurship education also resulted in an improvement of graduate self-esteem and confidence. Graduates were endowed with adequate professional, interpersonal, technical and business skills. The research, however, found the majority of real estate courses lacked in teaching graduates to be more versatile. The courses largely lacked in the provision of industry exposure and were inadequate in teaching graduates how to market themselves and their real estate businesses. According to the findings on the individual entrepreneurship test, graduates that studied entrepreneurship-based real estate courses had a higher probability of starting a business. / MT2018

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.

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.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of: Master of Science in Building (Project Management in Construction) / In 2009 an article titled “Crisis hits another WITS department” appeared in the Business Day newspaper. The article was based on the results that came from an internal quality review performed by the university on the School of Construction Economics and Management. The issues pertaining to the article were that the school was experiencing a shortage in staff that led to the deterioration of standards and the quality of graduates in the year 2008 and 2009. The School of Construction Economics and Management is a major source of young professionals into the built environment, which is important for the country’s ability to deliver infrastructure projects. This research examines the graduateness and employability of graduates that were produced from the school in the period between 2008 and 2011. Questionnaires were sent out to graduates and employers in order to find out what the perceptions were of both the concept of graduateness and employability. The key findings were that whilst the graduates said that they were ready for employment after completion of their respective degrees, the employers said that graduates did not have sufficient experience to enter the working world. Thus it is clear a gap certainly exists between the perceptions of graduates and employers. It was concluded that an effort must be made between the different stakeholders to breach this gap.

The motivation for this study was the comments by supervisors in the radiography workplace about the students' lack of critical skills when they went for experiential learning. Higher education institutions are required to teach all students the critical crossfield outcomes (CCFOs) so that they can apply them in the world of work. The purpose of the study was to understand the problems in the workplace so that training gaps could be identified. The training gaps were to be used to improve the current curriculum so as to prepare the students more adequately for the workplace. The Durban Institute of Technology (DIT) prepares students to function as radiographers in hospitals and private practices where all the CCFOs are needed. This is done using the Outcomes Based Education (OBE) approach to teaching, where students work collaboratively in groups of various sizes ranging from two to six doing theory and practical activities. The training programme includes experiential learning that is done in accredited hospitals where students work under the supervision of qualified radiographers. The study focussed on the first year student radiographers at DIT who had been placed in the Pietermaritzburg hospitals for their experiential learning. All the supervisors in these hospitals were included in the study as well. Students were interviewed at the end of their first experiential learning block, before they commenced with their second year programme. A qualitative research approach was used to explore the perceptions of the students and supervisors in terms of the development of workplace skills by students. Questionnaires were given to the supervisors and students were interviewed. All questions asked in both the questionnaires and the interviews related to the CCFOs. The findings showed that the perceptions of the students and supervisors were not very different in terms of which skills had been developed and which ones had not. The results also showed that the teaching strategies used at DIT were effective in teaching the CCFOs. A number of issues emerged that affected the way students learnt these skills. These were related to teaching and learning, the institutions and the students themselves. These were found to have both negative and positive effects on the learning of CCFOs. The research also found that neither the DIT nor the hospitals were successful in teaching the art of reflective practice, possibly due to the type of assessment strategies currently used to assess experiential learning. From the findings a number of training gaps were identified and recommendations have been made to address them. The current curriculum should be reviewed and it has been suggested that a shift towards the emancipatory paradigm would be more effective in producing a critical reflective radiographer who possessed all the CCFOs. The first year curriculum should be reduced so that only relevant subjects are taught. The assessment of experiential learning should be restructured to align it with the DIT experiential learning policy and clinical tutors should be trained to work with students in the hospitals. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2005

The study examined the role of non-formal skills programmes at Further Education and Training (FET) colleges in assisting marginalized learners in their livelihoods. The high rate of unemployment and poverty in South Africa, and in Kwazulu-Natal in particular, highlights the need for non-formal programmes to be more responsive to the developmental needs of marginalized learners, and to the economy. There is a need to move away from programmes that are run in isolation, towards programmes that are more responsive, creative and holistic. A case-study of three different non-formal skills programmes from each of the FET colleges in the Durban area were used in the study. These included Coastal, Sivananda and Thekwini FETI's. The reason for choosing different programmes, was to get a broader picture of skills programmes offered at FET colleges. One of the programmes was a Welding one offered at the Swinton Road Campus of Coastal College. The second programme was the Organic Farming one offered at the Mpumalanga campus of Sivananda College, and the third programme was the Cooperatives one offered at the Asherville campus of Thekwini College. Interviews with learners comprised the primary data, while documents, observation and interviews with personnel comprised secondary data. The three different programmes provided an interesting contrast. While the Organic Farming programme and the Cooperatives were fairly new, the Welding programme had been in operation for some time. There were also differences in the design and implementation which impacted on the learners' ability to improve their livelihoods. Learners in the Organic Farming programmes for example, were technically unemployed. Yet they were producing organically grown vegetables to sustain themselves and their families. In contrast, learner in the welding programme were unable to find employment on completion of the programme. Using the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach used by international Aid agencies in developing countries as a bench mark, the programmes were examined to establish whether they were assisting their learners in developing sustainable livelihoods. What emerged was that there was a strong correlation between the design and implementation of the programme and the learners' ability to transfer skills to improve their lives. Programmes that provided support to learners aside from the actual training content tended to be more successful than programmes that focused only on training. The more a programmes incorporated the principles of SLA (responsive and participatory; learner-centred; conducted in partnerships; linking micro and macro-level activities, holistic and sustainable), the more they were able to assist learners in developing their livelihoods. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.

No abstract available.

No abstract available.

Owing to past injustices, the South African higher education sector is characterised by inequalities of resource allocation and of learning opportunities. Through the National Qualification Framework (NQF), recognition of prior learning (RPL) was established to address the previous inequalities in higher education and training. RPL can be used as a mechanism to offer non-traditional learners such as workers, adult learners, and community workers access to learning programmes in Library and Information Science (LIS) schools. It can also be used for up-skilling within LIS sector, to enable staff to migrate from paraprofessional to professional roles. LIS schools could possibly use this approach to offer experienced but unqualified library workers opportunities for progressive professional development and career growth. Despite it being a national policy and its obvious benefits, very little is known about RPL implementation in LIS schools in South Africa. This study was conducted to investigate the nature of RPL implementation in LIS schools in South Africa and make recommendations for effective and efficient RPL practice in these schools. The study used the questionnaire as the main data collection tool. In addition, document analysis was used to validate the collected data. The results of the study indicated that there were islands of good RPL practice in LIS schools in South Africa specifically with regard to the aspect of RPL assessment process. However, certain weaknesses were identified in other aspects of RPL implementation in LIS schools including the policy environment, training of personnel conducting RPL assessment and the quality management systems. Among other things, the study recommends that RPL quality management system (QMS) should ideally be driven by the head/chair of the school/department. Furthermore, an integrated student management system should be used to monitor the progression of RPL candidates through the formal academic system post RPL. / Information Science / D. Litt et. Phil. (Information Science)