Attracting and retaining highly skilled academic staff: a case of a technical, vocational education and training college in Johannesburg.

Abstract

Technical Vocational Education and Training colleges like any other institution of higher learning rely on the knowledge, abilities and skills of their academic staff to keep abreast with the changing nature of higher education in the country and globally. These institutions of higher learning must be competitive and strive to achieve their strategic goals for them to remain relevant in the sector. Studies have shown that highly skilled academics are leaving the higher education sector specifically the TVET colleges for the private sector for numerous reasons, including better salaries and personal growth. Therefore, attracting and retaining highly skilled academic staff is very crucial for the success of any institution of higher learning as this calibre of employees ensure that the institution provides quality education to students. Therefore, it is important for the Technical Vocational Education and Training college to develop attraction and retention strategies to keep highly skilled academic staff in the college. Given the importance of attraction and retention of skilled academics, I used a qualitative approach and case study design to explore how a selected Technical Vocational Education and Training college in Johannesburg attracted and retained skilled academic staff members. The study focussed on three research questions namely (i) What does the Technical Vocational Education and Training college management understand to be the factors causing the high rate of academic staff attrition? (ii) How does the Technical Vocational Education and Training college management attract and retain skilled academic staff? and (iii) Why does the Technical Vocational Education and Training attract and retain skilled academic staff the way they do? To understand attraction and retention of skilled academic staff, I drew from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and important theory developed by Abraham Maslow (1908-1970), and Human capital theory, propounded by Schultz in 1961 and later developed extensively by Becker (1964). These theories were very useful to the study as they helped me to understand how the Technical Vocational Education and Training college attract and retain skilled academic staff including the factors causing high rates of academic staff attrition and the challenges that the college faces. To collect the relevant data, I used the interview method. The participants were purposively and conveniently selected. They consisted of three campus managers and four divisional managers. In analysing data, I used thematic analysis. The findings suggest that there are various factors leading to high rate of attrition in the college. These factors include the lack of promotional opportunity and poor remuneration. Furthermore, the findings suggest that in addition to the above stated factors, there are challenges that the college faces such as the shortage of academic staff, and the lack of a seamless and effective recruitment process. In addition, the findings also suggest that other than the above factors and challenges, an unsupportive work environment, poor motivation and the provision of inadequate training and career growth also reduces the attraction and retention of skilled academic staff. Based on the findings, I concluded that it is very important for the Technical Vocational Education and Training college to understand the factors that compel academic staff to either stay or leave the college. This will enable the Technical Vocational Education and Training college to develop strategies to retain skilled academic staff and to ensure the provision of quality education to students. From the conclusions, I recommend that college management must revisit the recruitment process and review it to reduce the time that the college takes to approve the appointment of academic staff and that the contracts of academic staff who are employed temporarily must be converted to permanent ones to minimise attrition as they always leave for permanent positions elsewhere.