The shift to tertiary technical and vocational education and training and the demise of South Africa’s former ‘technikon’ system

André Kraak

doi:10.14426/jovacet.v1i1.11

Abstract

Post-school systems of education and training have changed dramatically across the globe, including in South Africa, over the past two decades. It is ironic, however, that as many countries chose to renew and grow ‘polytechnic-type’ post-school education and training subsystems, South Africa (together with other countries from the Anglo-Saxon world) chose to reduce their role, largely through institutional mergers and processes of academic drift. Much of this difference in approach is path-dependent, shaped by the specific histories of capitalist evolution in each country. However, it also has to do with the faulty policy logic which has guided these changes over the past two decades. This article investigates the rise in significance of tertiary technical and vocational education and training (TVET) through brief case studies of two countries in Central and Northern Europe where the polytechnic sector has been expanded, not reduced. The discussion then shifts to South Africa, where graduation outcomes (in percentage terms) in the universities of technology have remained flat for more than two decades. The shift from secondary to tertiary TVET requires a significant expansion of enrolments and graduations in key applied technology fields, not the stasis we are seeing in South African universities of technology.

Highlights

South Africa, along with many other countries in the Anglo-Saxon world, chose to reduce the provision of ‘polytechnic-type’ post-school education over the past two decades, primarily through institutional mergers and incorporations
Transformation in the polytechnic sector has to do with a changed mode of interaction with other key stakeholders in society. This refers to a new applied research and development (R&D) focus allocated to polytechnics and to encouraging polytechnics’ active participation in local and regional economic development – an industrial policy approach that is lacking in South Africa
The polytechnic is a key institution in the wider cluster or city-region that plays a critical and distinctive role in processes of localised knowledge formation and sharing, working alongside firms and other co-located players such as intermediaries and private training academies to promote the locality or region’s economic wellbeing

Summary

Introduction

South Africa, along with many other countries in the Anglo-Saxon world, chose to reduce the provision of ‘polytechnic-type’ post-school education over the past two decades, primarily through institutional mergers and incorporations. Transformation in the polytechnic sector has to do with a changed mode of interaction with other key stakeholders in society This refers to a new applied R&D focus allocated to polytechnics and to encouraging polytechnics’ active participation in local and regional economic development – an industrial policy approach that is lacking in South Africa. Economic development occurs as a complex interlocking of a set of social, economic and political factors which are best dealt with by state policy at regional and local levels It is in this new economic context that polytechnic education institutions have a critical role to play. The polytechnic is a key institution in the wider cluster or city-region that plays a critical and distinctive role in processes of localised knowledge formation and sharing, working alongside firms and other co-located players such as intermediaries and private training academies to promote the locality or region’s economic wellbeing. It suggests a very weak engineering or applied/technical ‘character’ associated with these universities of technology

20: Social Sciences

Findings

Conclusion