The Vocational Training landscape in South Africa changed in 2000 when the 153
Technical Colleges merged to form 50 macro Further Education and Training (FET)
Colleges with new vocational programmes. In an endeavour to assist prospective students
in making an appropriate choice of programme, placement tests prior to registration were
implemented. The Competency and Placement (CAP) test was developed to identify gaps
in the students’ knowledge of the grade 9 curriculum in order to identify high risk students
prior to registration. This study aims to discover whether results of the CAP test of
students at Boland Further Education and Training (FET) College correlate with their final
year-end results in numeracy and literacy, and to what extent the test could be used to predict students’ future achievement.
Data from 710 students were used to determine the correlations between their CAP
scores and their year-end examination results. A Pearson product-moment coefficient (r)
was calculated to indicate the extent of correlation for different groups. The coefficients of
determination (r²), a coefficient used in the prediction of future outcomes, were also
calculated. It was found that there were correlations of different strengths for different
groups, but the coefficients of determination did not indicate that the CAP test could be
used to predict the outcomes of the final year-end examinations. Therefore it can be
concluded that the CAP test is not a valid instrument to predict academic success and
should be used only to identify grade 9 mathematics and English skills gaps, according to the purpose of its design. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ukzn/oai:http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za:10413/10236 |
| Date | 17 December 2013 |
| Creators | Taljaard, Anneline. |
| Contributors | Land, Sandra. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en_ZA |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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