EDITOR – I see there’s a lot of bright ideas published in the media about schools but what about the FET colleges, where do they fit in? Skills shortages are killing the economy and colleges are supposed to fill that gap.
Soon, a student may leave school with a Grade 9 plus a school leaving certificate and study at an FET college to do L2 to L4 called the National Certificate Vocational (NCV) course for three years in trades such as, mechanical, civil and electrical engineering. Some may start looking for a job after, perhaps, the first year or two as they had received some sort of practical exposure in the college workshop.
What the learner is confronted with suddenly in the working world is a minimum N2 or N3 (Nated) or higher qualification requirement before he would be considered for on the job paid training such as an apprenticeship. A trade test demands a minimum of N2 qualification plus proof of three years practical with a registered company. After completing 14 years in industry as a bricklayer, I moved to the NPA as a maintenance officer in a hospital workshop. Near the end of 1982, I saw an advert for a bricklayer instructor at a college in Mobeni. My application was successful and simply needed a direct transfer to the college, thus retaining my benefits plus a small salary increase.
My job was to train Grade 8 and 10 learners from surrounding schools who attended the college once a week for 10 weeks doing civil then for another 10 weeks they would do mechanical, then electrical, and so on. This was to orientate them so they could have the option of choosing a career in industry when leaving school. In 1983, the college also started the N1 to N3 (Nated) courses. Many of the orientation students returned to the college to do their chosen courses. They attended the four required subjects, namely drawing, maths, science and the chosen trade theory. After lunch, they were taken to their respective workshops and would spend 2.5 hours doing the practical part of what they were taught in the morning.
Industry attended an open day arranged by management on the campus and there were offers of jobs, by the representing training officers. If learners were already employed they could the choose to attend classes at the college on a block-release trimester system, thus enabling them to complete at least N2, which was a minimum requirement to be trade tested after three years of practical experience on the job. When I was an apprentice, we were expected to attend classes once a week after work from 5pm to 8pm. It was difficult to focus, resulting in low attendance when all we really wanted was N2 theory to qualify to do our trade tests. Then it changed. The orientation courses with the schools were discontinued.
The Nated continued and was expanded to accommodate the tertiary N4 to N6 which led to a National Technical Diploma. Schools started offering technical courses as well for those learners who wanted to go for a trade. Part-time evening classes were created for anybody to obtain their diplomas. Many students became lecturers and were qualified to enter Technikon and Varsity, became managers and training officers. Then they brought in the NCV courses to replace the Nated. To this day, I still don’t understand why. The jobs stopped and the learners were disorientated and industry were not in favour, and classroom numbers increased drastically. Additional staff was needed.
Some may have completed an N6 (academic) but did not have the required practical nor industrial experience themselves. They were limited to teaching from prescribed textbooks. Students studied like parrots, rote learning with no imagination or vision. It eventually impacted on the quality of the question papers and marking memorandums set by examiners. There was the inability of appointed markers without industrial experience to interpret answers of students with work experience, specially, which may differ slightly in explaining answers from textbooks but contain the required facts, for correctness. I had remarked many papers resulting in failed mark adjustments that gave the candidate a deserved pass.
Colleges today are filled with Nated N1 to N6 due to the big demand for the ever popular Nated courses so desperately sought and recognised by industry. I think its time to go back to the ‘chalkboard’ and perhaps include two languages plus the four technical subjects N1 to N3 at FET institutions, giving the learners that matric as well as a N3 certificate. Let’s look at the lecturer.
What must he have to qualify to teach, let’s say, bricklaying and plastering? He needs to have passed a trade test in the above, have industrial experience of about five to 10 years, matric and a teachers diploma. Then he needs a Technical Diploma to teach tertiary N4 to N6, and most importantly he needs to have a passion for the job. They say teaching is a calling – absolutely true. Any comments? Or am I just being overly critical and old fashioned.
Chris de Jager ( Phuza Shugela)
Bellair
