Investigating the responsiveness of the KwaZulu-Natal community education and training college curriculum to the economic development of Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma Local Municipality.

Abstract

The KwaZulu-Natal Community Education and Training College (CETC), is one of the nine CETCs that were opened countrywide by the Department of Higher Education and Training. The CETCs were conceptualised to form part of the Post Education and Training System as a third tier of the higher education and training sector. The CETCs are to cater for the out of school youth and adults who have little or no formal schooling and who have, for certain reasons, dropped out of school. The CETCs offer a programme qualification mix inclusive of a formal curriculum and skills programmes. This study aims to investigate the responsiveness of the KwaZulu-Natal CETC curriculum to the economic development needs of the rural areas of Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma Local Municipality. It set out to determine if there is an alignment in the programmes offered by the college and its community learning centres with the economic needs of the communities of these rural areas and determines the impact of this community college to this local municipality. The study utilised an explorative qualitative design. Data was collected from ten respondents using interviews which were analysed thematically. The findings reveal that the CETC curriculum is not responsive to the community needs of the Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma rural communities. A gap was identified of a need for advocacy and community consultations by the college. The study thus provides recommendations that the CETC needs to introduce strategies of advocacy for collaborative stakeholder engagements with the local communities to ascertain the needs of the communities. The college must form partnerships with municipal and business sectors in order to ensure that they are skilled as per industry requirements. Furthermore, the community college must implement a PQM that is inclusive of experimental and experiential learning as well as a reflective review in order respond to the community’s economic needs.