A new education framework and the impact on vocational qualification offered by South African comprehensive Universities and Universities of Technology

Abstract

Over the past 35 years Engineering Education in South Africa has changed substantially in an endeavour to supply the country with skilled technical manpower. These changes dealt mainly with Institutions offering Vocational type qualifications such as Colleges for Advanced Technical Education (CATE) pre-1970’s later replaced by Technikons in the mid-1970’s, rather than the Traditional Universities. Technikons were again renamed as Universities of Technology during 2005 causing much confusion in the engineering fraternity, as no sooner had industry understood the new system then, changes would again be brought about. Qualification names had also changed with each Institutional name change and this is about to happen again with the new Qualifications Framework proposed in 2004 and promulgated in October 2007. In this promulgated document one framework is proposed for all Higher Education Institutions (HEI’s)offering tertiary education. It spells out all qualifications that may be offered by HEI’s as well as the minimum and maximum credits required at the entry and exit levels. However, a substantial challenge exists for Universities of Technology and Comprehensive Universities in unpacking curriculum for Vocational Qualifications resulting from an ‘interim measure’ that has been put in place by the Department of Education. This interim measure states that: ‘a maximum of 50% credits of a completed qualification may be transferred to another qualification, provided that no more than 50% of the credits required for the other qualification are credits that have been used for a completed qualification’. Another requirement is that HEI’s will now be responsible for placing students in industry for completing their work-based learning, if they wish to include such a component in their curriculum. Previously, HEI’s were not responsible for the work-based learning component which is an essential part of the curriculum, as the qualification may not be awarded without the successful completion thereof. This paper deals with these two aspects as mentioned above and proposes strategies on how to overcome these challenges when the new dispensation comes into effect on 1 January 2009.