<p>Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) is the process of recognizing and crediting a person for his/her knowledge and experience however attained and promoting that person along a development pathway. In South Africa RPL has been promoted for social justice purposes related to access and redress. However these intentions have been lost within current educational discourses despite being rooted in several policies. Recently the role of vocational education has received increased prominence as a means to provide skills development. However there is often a disjuncture between policy formulation and implementation and this has given rise to this study of how RPL policy has been implemented within public Further Education and Training (FET) colleges. This paper investigates the RPL policies and practices in two public FET colleges and analyses how these employ social justice intentions of access and redress. The study reveals that there are similar conceptions of RPL amongst lecturers but varying RPL practices in these colleges.</p>

Den nya tullagen Union Customs Code (UCC) med målet elektroniskt tullhantering inom unionen kommer att börja tillämpas 1 maj 2016. Tullkodex för unionen innebär elektroniskt tullhantering såväl mellan näringslivet och Tullverket som mellan medlemsstaternas tulladministrationer. Syftet med lagen är att förenkla uppgiftslämning och tullhantering för företag vilket kräver omfattande uppgradering av IT-lösningar för både näringslivet och Tullverket. Kvalitet på de uppgifter som överförs till Tullverkets tull-system (TDS) antas ha större betydelse än tidigare då det genom UCC läggs en större vikt på spårbarhet.Organisationer bör därför optimera kvaliteten på de uppgifter som i samband med deklarationer lämnas till Tullverket. Detta för att undvika eventuella problem i framtiden. Optimal datakvalitet erhålls genom effektiva administrativa processer. Denna uppsats har därför genom en fallstudie studerat faktorer som förhindrar ett effektivt administrativt arbete. Resultatet visar att affärssystemets undermåliga funktionalitet, datakvalitetens opålitlighet, utebliven intern kommunikation samt avsaknad av standardiserade arbetsrutiner påverkar effektiviteten på de administrativa processerna negativt. / The new customs regulation, Union Customs Code (UCC), with the goal of electronic customs handling within the European Union will apply 1 May 2016. The Union Customs Code means electronic customs handling both between business and customs Administration and between member states' customs administrations. The law aims to simplify disclosure and customs management for businesses, which requires an extensive upgrade of IT solutions for both business and customs administrations. Quality of the data transferred to Customs' Tariff System (TDS) is assumed will havegreater importance than today as the UCC places a greater emphasis on traceability. Organisations should therefore optimize the quality of the data associated with declarations submitted to Customs. It is to avoid any future problems. Optimal data quality is achieved through efficient administrative processes. This paper has therefore through a case study, studied factors that prevent efficient administrative processes. The results show that the business system's substandard functionality, data quality's unreliability, loss of internal communication and a lack of standard in operating procedures are affecting the efficiency of the administrative processes negatively.

<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>

<p>Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) is the process of recognizing and crediting a person for his/her knowledge and experience however attained and promoting that person along a development pathway. In South Africa RPL has been promoted for social justice purposes related to access and redress. However these intentions have been lost within current educational discourses despite being rooted in several policies. Recently the role of vocational education has received increased prominence as a means to provide skills development. However there is often a disjuncture between policy formulation and implementation and this has given rise to this study of how RPL policy has been implemented within public Further Education and Training (FET) colleges. This paper investigates the RPL policies and practices in two public FET colleges and analyses how these employ social justice intentions of access and redress. The study reveals that there are similar conceptions of RPL amongst lecturers but varying RPL practices in these colleges.</p>

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.

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 purpose of the study was to investigate skills development within the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Sector. The study investigates the reasons associated with the shortage of skills and the factors influencing the rate of skills development within this sector. / Thesis (M.B.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.

Poverty is a big problem and has a huge impact on South Africa. The problem of poverty is multi-dimensional and has many facets and levels. One of the strategies used to alleviate poverty is through income-generating community projects. This study focuses on the Holding Hands income-generating community projects in the North-West Province. Sustainability indicators have previously been developed for these projects. The aim of this study was the evaluation of the sustainability indicators used in the projects. The evaluation focused on a quantitative analysis of the new and previously identified sustainability indicators. The entire population was included in the study. The research instrument consisted of a semi-structured quantitative questionnaire that had been specifically designed for this study. The frequency distribution provided the researcher with a profile of a typical member of the Holding Hands community projects, a definition of sustainability for these projects and a ranking of the importance of the different sustainability indicators in the Holding Hands projects. Tests for correlation were conducted among the variables age and level of education and the definitions of sustainability, as well as the sustainability indicators. T-Tests were conducted to evaluate if the different geographical areas answered the questions differently. The open-ended questions provided insight into the views of the participants on the sustainability of the projects. The results of the evaluation process indicated that the top five sustainability indicators in the project now focus on the evaluation and development of human capital in the projects. The results of the evaluation process differ substantially from the previously developed sustainability indicators and this suggests progress towards the sustainability of the projects. The results of the evaluation process would be used to plan and develop future interventions in the Holding Hands income-generating projects. The limitations of the study included the lack of research on the topic, as well as the language and literacy barriers in the data collection process. This study contributes to the relief of poverty in South Africa through research on the sustainability of income-generating community projects. / Thesis (MBA)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

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

Poverty is a big problem and has a huge impact on South Africa. The problem of poverty is multi-dimensional and has many facets and levels. One of the strategies used to alleviate poverty is through income-generating community projects. This study focuses on the Holding Hands income-generating community projects in the North-West Province. Sustainability indicators have previously been developed for these projects. The aim of this study was the evaluation of the sustainability indicators used in the projects. The evaluation focused on a quantitative analysis of the new and previously identified sustainability indicators. The entire population was included in the study. The research instrument consisted of a semi-structured quantitative questionnaire that had been specifically designed for this study. The frequency distribution provided the researcher with a profile of a typical member of the Holding Hands community projects, a definition of sustainability for these projects and a ranking of the importance of the different sustainability indicators in the Holding Hands projects. Tests for correlation were conducted among the variables age and level of education and the definitions of sustainability, as well as the sustainability indicators. T-Tests were conducted to evaluate if the different geographical areas answered the questions differently. The open-ended questions provided insight into the views of the participants on the sustainability of the projects. The results of the evaluation process indicated that the top five sustainability indicators in the project now focus on the evaluation and development of human capital in the projects. The results of the evaluation process differ substantially from the previously developed sustainability indicators and this suggests progress towards the sustainability of the projects. The results of the evaluation process would be used to plan and develop future interventions in the Holding Hands income-generating projects. The limitations of the study included the lack of research on the topic, as well as the language and literacy barriers in the data collection process. This study contributes to the relief of poverty in South Africa through research on the sustainability of income-generating community projects. / Thesis (MBA)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.