What We Assess Is What We Produce: Moving Towards the Development of Skills in South African FET Colleges

Abstract

ABSTRACT The focus of this study was to investigate the coherence between the needs of industry and the curriculum offered at Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges. The context of this study was TVET colleges, which is a relatively recent sector in the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), in South Africa. There is an unacceptably high rate of unemployment in South Africa and in particular, there is a shortage of technical skills, which the TVET sector is expected to address. Concerns have been expressed about the effectiveness of these colleges in producing graduates with employability skills. This study investigated whether the assessment strategies employed in the Electrical Engineering curriculum are appropriate in preparing the students for practice. A qualitative research design was used where a sample consisting of seven Further Education and Training (FET) College graduates and three instructors (lecturers) were selected using a snowball sampling technique. Findings of this research are that the current assessment strategy used in FET colleges (written testing) does not lead to the development of employability skills in FET graduates. The proposed TVET programs are those that promote a dual assessment throughout the course that yields the technical knowledge and employability outcomes that will meet the needs of industries.