Lecturers’ perspectives on challenges facing final-year engineering students at a TVET college in Nongoma, Kwazulu-Natal

Abstract

Technical and Vocational Education and Training colleges are institutions of higher learning established to address the growing rate of unemployment globally, more so in developing countries such as South Africa. The Technical and Vocational Education and Training college selected in this study is located in an area where there are high levels of unemployment and poverty. The purpose of the study was to explore the challenges final-year engineering students at a Technical and Vocational Education and Training college at Nongoma, Kwa-Zulu Natal are facing from the perspective of lecturers. There is a dearth of practical and technical abilities among final-year engineering students at this college. The researcher conducted individual and focus-group interviews to acquire lecturers’ perspectives of practical and technical abilities lacking among final-year engineering students. The social constructivism theory is used as a lens to view the study. The researcher used a qualitative case study based in the interpretivism paradigm. The data were collected from eleven participants who were purposively selected because they were deemed information-rich with regard to the final-year engineering programme. Data were analysed manually using coding that led to the emergence of themes. The research findings revealed that final-year engineering students at the college are trained in a workshop with damaged tools and outdated machinery, that college lecturers are not participating in a Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) programme that would improve their ability to instruct these students, and that there is a lack of collaboration between the college administration and key stakeholders like the Department of Higher Education and Training. The conclusion and the recommendations from this study include ensuring effective and efficient maintenance culture for the work tool and machines in the workshops required to train the final-year engineering students and ensuring that Technical and Vocational Education and Training college lecturers are engaged for the WIL programme. The Department of Higher Education and Training should also ensure that Technical and Vocational Education and Training colleges form effective partnerships and relationship-building between stakeholders in the industries.