The study is centered on the current ineffectiveness of career development planning within MTN SA.

The study is centered on the current ineffectiveness of career development planning within MTN SA.

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Environmental Education in the Faculty of Education, University of Zululand, 2010. / Skills development is a crucial issue in South Africa as the economy of the country will only grow if there are people with the right skills and expertise to run all sectors of the economy. This study examined the career choices of Black Grade twelve learners in order to determine whether at this level learners have broadened their career choices to include scarce areas such as, for example, Science, Mathematics and Economics Management Science. The choice of careers is an important sustainable development issue, because without relevant expertise the economy of the country will not improve. Secondly, the demise of apartheid opened up careers which were previously denied to Black people; it is for this reason that the researcher examined the career choices of Black Grade twelve learners in the Province of KwaZulu-Natal in the Republic of South Africa. The study made use of questionnaires to establish what kind of career choices Black Grade twelve learners made and also to find out whether there was any difference between the careers chosen by girls and boys and also between rural and urban learners. The study found that the general career choices of both males and females had changed by the time they reached Grade twelve, seen against career studies done at Primary school level (Mmema, 2010). In this study, some males currently chose careers that were previously only popular with females in grade seven, such as nursing, information technology, tourism, and computer sciences. Similarly, girls had begun to choose careers that were traditionally popular with the boys, such as mining, land surveying, doctor, civil engineering, prison warden, journalism, electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. The strategy of the Department of Education in encouraging girls to participate in science projects seems to be working, even though it is at this stage concentrated at urban schools. The study indicated that the Department of Education needed to put more effort into career guidance in rural schools where the learners were not exposed to diverse career choices and information about technology. Learners in the urban areas seemed to be more familiar with career choices in general than the rural learners. Very few males and females intended to choose any of the many apprenticeships available in the trades, with the result that foreign people often take up the trades after following an apprenticeship. This is one of the important factors that cause xenophobia. Many of the sectors of the economy in this country are experiencing crisis. The result is that most of the economy of the country is controlled by people who have not chosen their professions with the necessary foresight and are therefore square pegs in round holes. This poses a serious challenge to the government and also to the Department of Education; they have to make learners more aware of the shortage of skills in the different sectors and prepare them to make wise career choices. As a recommendation, it is suggested that the government put more effort into assisting learners with career choices, particularly in the Black rural areas since Blacks form a two-third majority in the country. Career guidance will also stimulate and increase awareness of the professional and semi-professional careers that are available in the workplace.

South Africa is one of the leading countries globally when it comes to mining and extracting minerals from the Landscape. Mining companies in South Africa are not satisfying their legal responsibilities by effectively “closing down” mines. Derelict mine sites occur all over the country and are not rehabilitated or reused at all. These mines leave behind a trail of idle landscapes, influencing the environmental and social structure of its context. This dissertation investigates the role of the landscape architect in the revival of an abandoned dumping site on the Johannesburg mining belt, in the south of the city, within the proposed Corridors of Freedom Framework. It seeks ways of transforming derelict mining spaces into spaces for opportunity as proposed by the Johannesburg Spatial Development Framework and the Urban Framework for Turffontein. The two main issues caused by the derelict mining sites in Turffontein are that of unemployment and environmental pollution. The hypothesis states that landscape design can respond to the site’s socio-environmental issues through a: didactic landscape intervention that creates awareness of the unemployment and environmental pollution; and a programme that focuses on skills development, material generation and rehabilitation. In order to test the hypothesis, research was done on key contextual and site-specific issues through on site mapping and available desktop information. Existing urban frameworks and Spatial Development Frameworks regarding the future plans of the Turffontein precinct were consulted, along with a literature review and precedent study in order to identify made use of informal interviews to solutions and opportunities at a wide range of scales. The author gather insight on the site and context related matters. In conclusion, it is argued that a didactic landscape intervention, focused on skills development, remediation, and material generation can address the key social and environmental issues of the Turffontein area. The design programme directly responds to the contextual needs, while the experience of the site design is educational. By respecting the genius loci of the place, didactic moments are created along a route in the landscape to create awareness with the users of the socio-environmental constraints challenges of the site and context. The aim is to allow future generations to experience and learn through the design intervention that confronts them with the immediate challenges and creates opportunity for growth and change. / Mini Dissertation ML(Prof)--University of Pretoria, 2018. / Architecture / ML(Prof) / Unrestricted

This research report investigates the impact of skills development programmes on the informal traders in the City of Johannesburg (COJ). The research would like to determine if skills development provided by municipality has benefited individual traders, in terms of financial performance and increased employment. The researcher will ascertain the progress between informal traders who receive training and those who did not participate in the training programme. The report would further establish if there were any impacts at all. Was the impact directly influenced by municipal training or was because of some externalities such as trader’s innovation or trader’s organisations? To what extent has training been able to reduce the skills gap in the informal business? This research is responding to the lack of previous work on the impact of training offered to informal traders. There is a strong commitment on the part of COJ to dialogue with informal traders. Informal trading is regarded as integral part of broader economy (The Star: 2006: 21). The research was conducted through in-depth interviews with informal traders operating at Metro Mall in the City Business District (CBD). The researcher conducted interviews with service providers and municipality. The hypothesis suggests that informal traders who receive training are more productive than those who did not participate. The lack of skills in the informal business prompted the COJ to deliver skills training in an attempt to improve the condition of the informal traders. (Simon McGrath 1994), referred to this scenario as “planning for what was traditionally unplanned”. The argument is that training does not make successful informal traders. The report will argue that while training is important to informal traders who arrive in Johannesburg lacking skills, training should be monitored and be accompanied by incentives for example to help those who may not have a start-up capital. The selection criteria will have to be reviewed such that most informal traders are given equal opportunity to acquire skills necessary for the development of their business. As long as these factors, remain un-addressed there are limited potential growth in the informal business. Training should be an integral process linked to various structures such that survivalist activities are replaced by sustainable entrepreneurial business. The duty of the planners as the practitioners in the built environment is to ensure that informal trading coexist with formal business without one affecting negatively on the other. They also have a duty of influencing municipal decision-makers in ensuring that informal traders training programmes reinforce the enabling environment that would allow them to benefit and improve their business undertakings. This may be accomplished by restricting competition from illegal informal traders operating outside the mall, providing incentives to informal traders after the training and organise special events that would attract more customers at the mall. This is because “planning is a profession concerned with the management and development of human beings and their settlements within urban and rural settings. It is about the organisation of human activity in a way that will help to realise their hopes and dreams for future” (www.wits.ac.za/depts/wcs/archschool.html).

South African government has since 1995, developed a considerable body of legislation that defines a holistic Human Resource Development Framework for the Private Security Sub-sector. Through this legislation development process, the Private Security Sub-sector has made considerable progress in implementing this body of legislation. However, in spite of this achievement, policy implementation success indicators are not commensurate to the policy development success indicators and several challenges are still impeding skills development of workers. In particular, the Private Security Industry has moved steadily beyond the systems development phase. It has made strong progress in implementing stipulations of the skill development legislation in the sector with the support of the skills levy fund as well as donor support. Considerable attention has been paid to the implementation of the different types of skills development related legislation including funding the skills development initiatives and employment equity. The cases examined in the study reflect varying and different degrees of success in achieving set targets as well as challenges that have emerged in the implementation process. There is an indication that the dire shortage of skills in the private security subsector persists and the efforts of the drivers of training and development in the sector, the Safety and Security Sector Education and Training (SASSETA), the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSIRA) and employers have made little impact on this need. This state of affairs cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely. The study revealed a range of critical National Skills Development Strategy targets that have not been met throughout the period under study. For instance employers have failed to meet obligatory targets of employing training employees to achieve at least ABET level 4. In addition, only 54% women have been trained and 4% people with disabilities. Furthermore, there are a number of other training obligations that compounds the challenge by infringing on the rights of the affected groups. This also retards the social and economic development of workers as well as that of the country. South Africa continues to lack effective, robust crime fighting groups of skilled crime fighters in spite of the training levy funds that have been spent on skilling the Private Security Sub-sector. The point of departure of this study is that the Skills Development initiative is a sector programme which must be led by the sector itself, especially the employers. The employers in the workplace constitute a valuable source of capacity to effectively implement the skills development legislation. SASSETA and PSIRA are the promoters and drivers of the participation of Private Security Service providers in skills development in pursuit of the 2014 vision. It is imperative that SASSETA and PSIRA, as proponents and catalysts of skills development, listen to the concerns raised by employers and continuously engage them as well as the intended beneficiaries, the workers. The research revealed that benefits of the skills development legislation will only be realised when critical elements such as prioritising the identified challenges and shortcomings are the focus. The study highlighted the need for industries to capacitate their employees to understand the intended benefits of training regulations and requirements. Developing management and leadership capacity, creating conditions that are conducive for skills development at the workplace, and building the capacity of Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) through innovation and support were also identified as critical for successful implementation of policy in this regard. The need to train and capacitate leaders in corporate governance and financial management was also among the findings identified by the study. The findings will present an opportunity for scholars and researchers to debate and argue their merits and demerits which will in turn influence policy-making processes positively. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / School of Public Management and Administration (SPMA) / unrestricted

Research report / At the time of this study, South Africa found itself in an economic growth phase. This was coupled with an acute shortage of engineers in the country, as well as in a number of foreign countries, who found themselves in similar growth phases. Foreign firms actively embarked on campaigns to recruit South African engineers to alleviate their shortage, to the detriment of the donor country. The objective of this study is to determine the propensity of engineers to emigrate and the main drivers for this in order to provide information to craft strategies to combat and mitigate the shortage of engineers. The research process involved the consultation of relevant local and international literature regarding the skills shortage, the extent of emigration from South Africa and the main drivers for this. Data were collected by means of self-completed questionnaires in order to gauge the sentiment of graduate engineers towards emigration. One hundred and fifteen responses were received. Key associations and relationships were then analysed. The study found that the engineers most likely to emigrate were either in their late twenties or were older than 55. They are likely to be white males from either the public or private sector, or who are self-employed. Approximately 10% of graduate engineers are likely to leave South Africa within a short period of time (less than one year) as they have already taken some measures in order to do so, 16% may leave within two years and 27% may leave within the next five years. Australia is by far the most popular destination for South African engineers, followed by Canada, Europe and the United Kingdom. The main country-related drivers causing South African engineers to consider emigration are crime and violence, confidence in the South African government and political uncertainty. The main work-related driver causing engineers to consider emigration is the policy of affirmative action. Of the engineers with a “high” emigration potential, just over half indicated that they would emigrate permanently. In order to at least retain existing engineers in South Africa, the factors causing them to consider emigration should be addressed. In order to increase the number of engineers in the country, more emphasis should be placed on mathematics and science at school, thereby increasing the number of candidates who qualify for admission to engineering courses. It also needs to be ensured that universities have the capacity to train the increased number of engineers required on an ongoing basis.

No description available.

This research investigates the Corporate Schools' programme in Thailand. It aims to examine its implementation and progress from inception, evaluate its current status, and propose ways to enhance its future effectiveness. The programme was initiated through collaboration between the Government and the private sector in the belief that business can play an important role in developing public sector ability to improve educational accessibility and learning quality. The programme is expected to provide young people - particularly school-leavers - with opportunities for education and training. It is also intended to equip them with the knowledge and skills to match labour market requirements. A qualitative approach was employed throughout - governing research design, data collection and data analysis. Three participating companies: CP All Public Company Limited, S&P Syndicate Public Company Limited and the V-ChEPC programme, were selected as case studies. Data were collected through documentary research, semi-structured interviews and observation. The findings, which are based on thematic analysis, show two of the three case study companies were satisfied with the programme's outcomes. These two cases have been focused on their needs and they were aware of the importance of basic skills which young people required. This tends to confirm that the recruitment process has been conducted with due attention. This process, which is aimed at recruiting prospective candidates who hold basic knowledge and skills, could be further developed into one where technical and transferable skills best fit companies' needs. This thesis identifies the current challenges and suggests potential opportunities for three cases. Its outcome should provide a systematic insight to help increase understanding of the Corporate Schools' programme in Thailand with a view to assessing whether or not it has sufficient impact to merit its continuation.

Until 1996, all women in South Africa were prohibited, by law, from working underground. With the introduction of the Mining Charter all this changed and companies started hiring women for different positions. The objectives of the study were: to determine the perceptions of the working environment of women in the mining activities, to establish what changes were made to accommodate women in this specific mine and to establish if women can advance in this company. A field study was done at a chrome mine and a random sample of 100 employees participated. The central research tool utilised was a questionnaire using a Likert-type 5 rating scale. The findings were that mining companies will have to work hard on the perception that women are not wanted in the industry, but that a lot has happened since 1996. As expected the study found that there are significant resistance towards women working in the core mining industry. Mines are making changes to accommodate women. Women are receiving a lot of support from management to become part of the mining environment. Different programs are being implemented to develop skills of women and ensure their progression within the mining companies. The study concluded with recommendations as to what can be done to improve the perception of the working environment of women. / Thesis (MBA)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013