Magister Artium - MA / The transition from high school to university for many students all over the world has never been very easy and this is also true in the South African context. At the University of the Western Cape the majority of students, particularly part-time students, come from previously disadvantaged institutions of learning. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that most tertiary institutions in South Africa, including The University of the Western Cape, use English as the official language of instruction even though more than three quarters of students entering into institutions of higher learning in South Africa are second or even third language English speakers who do not have the language competence level required in the medium of instruction to successfully negotiate academic curricula.

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.

There is a high need for competent professional counselors because of the increasing number of children and adults presenting mental health concerns each year in the United States (National Institute of Mental Health, 2012). Counselor educators are tasked with the duty of preparing counselors-in-training (CITs) to be competent clinicians. In order for counseling professionals to be considered competent clinicians, they must demonstrate competence in three domains: (a) knowledge, (b) skills, and (c) behavior (ACA, 2014; CACREP, 2009). The goal of this study was to contribute to further understanding the most effective instructional approach to facilitating role play while instructing pre-practicum counseling students. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of virtual simulation training on the development of basic counseling skills, the immersion experience, levels of anxiety, and levels of counselor self-efficacy (CSE) among CITs using student-to-avatar and student-to-student role play. A quasi-experimental research design was used to investigate the effect of the treatment on the constructs. The results of this study found that there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups across all four constructs. A spilt-plot analysis of variance, trend analysis, and repeated measures between factor multivariate analysis of variance were used to analyze the data. The results of this study indicated that exposure to virtual simulation training did not affect the development of basic counseling skills, immersion experience, counselor self-efficacy, and anxiety. The results also showed that virtual simulation did not hinder the development of basic counseling skills, or negatively influence immersion experience, counselor self-efficacy or anxiety.

Thesis (MBA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of training and development on employee performance at Mamelodi Clinics, Gauteng Province. This study was guided by the following objectives. To determine the perceived effect of training and development courses on skills development of professional nurses in the Mamelodi clinics, Gauteng Province. To explore the perceived effect of training and development courses on the performance of professional nurses in the Mamelodi clinics, Gauteng Province. To examine which of the attended short courses are more effective in improving the skills of professional nurses. To find out which short courses, according to the professional nurses in the study, were found to be ineffective and unnecessary. The study was of importance to future researchers and academicians as it added new insight into the existing information with regards to employee training and development. It also provided the department of health, both nationally and provincially with an understanding of successes and challenges inherent to training and development and their corresponding effect on employee performance. As a result, this had a contribution towards how training and development are carried out within the organisation. A qualitative research design was deployed in this study to allow investigation of the possible relationship between training and development as well as to establish a comparison between the two. The study population was 45 staff of Mamelodi Clinics which were approved for this study. The data was collected through a questionnaire. Percentages, means, cross-tabulation were used as means of data analysis. The findings were presented using tables and figures. In terms of training and development, the study was able to show that all Mamelodi Clinics under department of health Gauteng Province, has a range of training programmes for different staff of their clinics, and are of high quality standard and very effective. As a result, employee skills, overall performance of staff, and general competence of the employee has sharply increased due to training and development v methods and strategies put in place by department of health, both provincially and nationally. The study showed that in terms of employee performance and motivation, training and development programmes help in increasing employee motivation and thus performance. Employees are thus able to successfully be aligned with the goals, aims and missions of the clinics and the department of health, as well as the Batho Pele principles. The study concludes that training and development have positive effects on employees. The study was able to find that within the clinics, employees are given adequate chance to engage in training and development courses. The study concludes further that more training and development programmes should be undertaken. The study recommends that there should be regularly assessments on employees and their subsequent need for further training and development courses in order to increase employee satisfaction and performance.

The rapid change within the South African workplace and competitiveness of organisations required employed and unemployed individuals to be trained and retrained as a large number of the South African population is unskilled. In the chemical industry employability of individuals is of extra ordinarily importance to both employer and individual. One of the main focuses of the Chemical Industries Education and Training Authority (CHIETA) is to enable learners through the promotion of employability to enter into learnerships to develop the necessary skills to develop sustainable livelihoods (CHIETA, 2011). There are high expectations of the learnerships system which was implemented during 2001 in South Africa. This system is set as a key strategic component of the National Skills Development Strategy, 2011-2016. Learnership programmes are implemented in South African organisations which is a great platform for employee development. Employees are afforded the opportunity to broaden their knowledge in the studied field and gain the needed skills within the organisation (Department of Labour, 1997). Learnerships are seen as a demand driven formal labour market tool, to address the existing need for critical, scarce - high and intermediate - skills levels. Simultaneously, it is seen as an employment-creation mechanism at the low and intermediate skills levels. This statement is a fundamental principle of a survey done on learnerships (Smith, Jennings, & Solanki, 2005). Researchers concluded that learnership programmes are the ideal for employees to acquire the needed skills to become competent and to provide jobs for the unemployed and in this manner enhance employability (Smith et al., 2005). The main aim of article one was to determine the differences in the levels of the psychological contracts, violation of the psychological contract, learners‟ expectations, employability, life satisfaction and work engagement between individual variables (type of learnership contracts, gender, race, age, date of commencement of learnership, date of completion of learnership). A cross-sectional survey design was used. A total of 237 learners completed the questionnaire. The psychological contract scale, violation of the psychological contract scale, learners‟ expectations scale, employability scale, life satisfaction scale, work engagement scale and biographical scale were administered. The results indicated that a statistically significant difference was obtained for age, date of commencement of learnership and date of completion of learnership, but no relationship exists with type of learnership contract, gender and race. The aim of the second article was to determine the relationship between learners within learnership psychological contract, state of the psychological contract, expectations and violations of psychological contract, employability, work engagement and life satisfaction. Furthermore, the study strives to determine whether violation of the psychological contract, learners‟ expectations and employability could predict life satisfaction of learners. A practically significant relationship with a medium effect exists between violation of the psychological contract, state of psychological contract (negative), and employability (positive). A positive practically significant relationship exists between state of psychological contract and work engagement. No relationship was found between employability, life satisfaction and work engagement. A positive practically significant relationship with a medium effect exists between life satisfaction and work engagement. Employer obligations and employability predict life satisfaction. The state of the psychological contract (trust) and life satisfaction predict work engagement of learners. / MA (Labour Relations Management), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014

In recent years, the UK government skills policy has emphasised the role of workforce skills development as a key driver of economic success and improving productivity across all sectors of the economy. The importance of skills (as a vehicle for enhancing productivity performance) is highlighted within numerous government reports, such as Skills White Papers (2003 and 2005), in addition to the Leitch Review of Skills (2006) which coincided with the outset of this research. Thus, the aim of this research was to examine the relationship between skills development and productivity in the construction industry in order to assess the assumptions of government skills policy in the context of the sector. A multi-method approach was adopted in this research. This involved the analysis of: official construction statistics, levy/grant and financial accounts data of construction companies, in addition to a telephone survey. The main findings of the research are published in five peer reviewed academic papers, demonstrating the tenuous nature of the relationship between skills development and productivity performance, particularly when considering the heterogeneous nature of the construction industry. Government claims about the mono-causal relationship between skills and productivity should be treated with caution. A simple boost in qualification levels or participation rates of training is unlikely to lead to productivity improvements in the construction sector. However, skills development and training activities needs to be targeted and focused if the desired outcome of enhancing productivity performance is to be achieved. Construction companies needs to be proactive in addressing the skills and training needs of their business through drawing on the various support available through CITBConstructionSkills training grants or participating in appropriate skills/training initiatives, such as apprenticeship schemes. The provision of 'productivity-based' training grants should be considered by CITB-CS in order to prompt construction companies to consider training as a plausible means for enhancing their productivity performance. Finally, the recommendations presented in this thesis and areas for further research sets out the potential way forward in terms of advancing knowledge in this area.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T14:30:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Nilton Luiz Souto.pdf: 999617 bytes, checksum: b376f529f0d69ca94ad98338c83a53ce (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-05-11 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The main objective of this dissertation is to reflect about the pedagogical practice of teachers at a Public University in the southern state of Minas Gerais front requirements of in educational model focused on buildinq and skills development. In is context, characterized by national and international guidelines that use the notion of competence as the centerpiece, pedagogical pratice exercised by the university teacher acquires a relevant role in achieving these requirements. The present reference theoretical this work were searched in Abramowicz, Araújo, Bordenave e Pereira, Boruchovitch e Costa, Brito, Cebrian, Cunha, Chaui, Felicio e Possani, Freire, Gil, Gonçalves, Lara, Masetto, Perrenoud, Sacristán, Tardif, Werner and Zabalza, and discuss the features of pedagogical practices that emphasize education and pedagogical practices that emphasize building and skills development. For this, his work is used qualitative research, to understand it as the most suitable to this process, stressing the presents particularities in pedagogical practices considered. We chose by research bibliographic, documentary analysis and field research, focusing on semi-structured, held with teachers working at the State University considered. All interviews were face, scheduled in advance, digitally recorded and r transcribed later. By pointing present the advances and limitations in pedagogical practices of university teachers, seeks to highlight the importance of a teacher raining able to meet and think about the requirements on the construction official and skills development / O objetivo principal desta dissertação é refletir sobre a prática pedagógica de Professores de uma Universidade Pública no sul do Estado de Minas Gerais frente às exigências de um modelo educacional centrado na construção e no desenvolvimento de competências. Nesse contexto, caracterizado por orientações opcionais e internacionais que utilizam a noção de competências como eixo central, a prática pedagógica exercida pelo professor universitário adquire um papel relevante na concretização de tais prescrições. Os referenciais teóricos presentes neste trabalho foram buscados em Abramowicz, Araújo, Bordenave e Pereira, Boruchovitch e Costa, Brito, Cebrian, Cunha, Chaui, Felicio e Possani, Freire, Gil, Gonçalves, Lara, Masetto, Perrenoud, Sacristán, Tardif, Werner, Zabalza, entre outros, os quais abordam as características de práticas pedagógicas que enfatizam o ensino e as práticas pedagógicas que priorizam a construção e o desenvolvimento de competências. Para tanto, este trabalho utiliza-se da pesquisa qualitativa, por entendê-la como a mais adequada para esse Processo. sublinhando as particularidades presentes nas práticas pedagógicas analisadas. Optamos pela pesquisa bibliográfica, pela análise documental e pela pesquisa de campo, privilegiando a entrevista semiestruturáda, realizada com 10 professores que atuam na Universidade Pública analisada. Todas as entrevistas foram presenciais, agendadas antecipadamente, gravadas digitalmente e depois transcritas. Ao apontar os avanços e as limitações presentes nas práticas pedagógicas dos professares universitários, procura-se evidenciar a importância de uma formação docente capaz de atender e refletir acerca das prescrições oficiais sobre a construção e o desenvolvimento de competências

Thesis (M.Com. (Business Management)) -- University of Limpopo, 2012

This thesis investigates the reclamation of mires (fens and bogs) in Sweden with a focus on the early modern period. Today, the mires are valued natural habitats and their cultivation is controversial. International research describes wetland reclamation and the related knowledge transfer between European countries already from the 12th century. In Sweden, despite some early records of reclamation of mires in the 17th century, has earlier research focused on reclamation during the 19th and 20th centuries. The aim of the thesis is to study the landscape, actors and driving forces behind the early reclamation (before 1800). Understanding the early reclamation can provide a new perspective on current views on wetlands. It is also an interesting example of how the landscape is changed constantly by people with different goals through history. The subject is studied through a multimethod approach using sources such as historical maps, diaries, 17th- and 18th-century literature and place names. The main conclusions of the study are that reclamation of mires is seen already in 17th-century maps, with local wider distribution during the 18th century. The crown and scientists expressed a growing interest in reclamation of the mires from the early 18th century. Links to Europe, in particular Holland, can be seen within this discourse. In both literature and the experimentation that took place, the Swedish migrant group, the Dalecarlians, played a key role. They shared with the early Dutch groups the practical knowledge needed in major reclamation projects. Furthermore, this study shows that a number of actors assumed at various times the role of mobile innovation spreaders. Dutch farmers and experts, labour migrants, landlords and scientists all acted to spread knowledge of mire reclamation. Ample resources, networking and geographical mobility appear to have been prerequisites for all actors, from peasants to landlords, but they had different underlying motives for the practice.

<p>The research findings are grouped according to the three themes identified which includes the relevance of the module, the effectiveness of the teaching and learning approaches and methods, and the integration of generic and discipline specific academic literacy. The researcher hopes this study will help illuminate perceptions of part-time students&rsquo / about the Academic Literacy for Commerce course and also how it can be improved to better serve the needs of part-time students.</p>