M.Ed. / South Africa has in the last 16 years experienced rapid changes in various spheres including the political, social and economic spheres. Changes in education and training provisions were considered to be fundamental to the process of socio-economic transformation. As a result, in 1994 the newly elected democratic government was mandated to develop a comprehensive education and training system that is responsive to the needs of the country and its citizens. The National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS) was then introduced as a vital strategy for addressing the endemic poverty, dire national skills shortage, chronic unemployment rate, and shockingly poor education levels. Learnerships were conceptualized as the flagship of skills development initiatives and an important vehicle for addressing the above stated social ills. The literature review revealed the learnership as a uniquely South African corporate training programme grounded on internationally acclaimed principles of work-based learning. Learnerships were hyped as specialized skills development programmes aimed at assisting new entrants into employment, providing access to new forms of income generation, thus improving the quality of life of the poor. The aim of this study was to investigate learners’ views regarding the role and success of learnerships organized by the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality. It also seeks to determine whether the learners’ views and expectations are compatible with the concept of learnerships. An inductive-qualitative approach was followed. Purposive sampling method was used in order to select twelve learners whose information was rich in content. Data was collected using one-on-one semi-structured interviews with learners enrolled for different learnership programmes.Categorical analysis was employed; by organizing data into workable units, while looking for codes, categories and themes. The study revealed that learners were generally satisfied with the learnership programme, as they indicated that the training met and even exceeded their expectations. However, judging from the literature review and data analysis it was clear that during the conceptualization of learnerships, learners’ views were never sought. Learners seem to have accepted the pre-packed competency based training as a norm. They uncritically expect the employer-determined curriculum to somehow cater for their personal needs and aspirations
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:8662 |
| Date | 07 June 2012 |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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