Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) industry stakeholders’ involvement in curriculum implementation In South Africa.

Abstract

Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector continues to produce graduates, however, there seems to be a deficit in the number of students who get registered and complete their qualifications. This is an indication that there is a challenge of quality that is experienced by the TVET sector within the curriculum implementation. The main objective of this study was to examine the involvement of stakeholders in the implementation of the TVET curriculum in South Africa. A document review and in-depth interviews were used to collect the data from the participants. This study was qualitative, it adopted the interpretivist paradigm, and drew from stakeholder theory for the theoretical framework. Snowball sampling was used to select the participants of the study and the thematic analysis approach was utilised to analyse data. The findings of this study indicate that the relationship existing between TVET colleges and industry stakeholders is not from the curriculum implementation perspective; instead, it is based on student work placement. The participants from the industry revealed that in terms of training need analysis they, too, struggle to plan the training schedule for TVET graduates, and they do not believe that they are in sync with what the students consume as a theory. Findings from this study point to minimal involvement of stakeholders particularly when it comes to curriculum implementation, whereas if there was a close collaboration, joint interest would have arisen towards shared vision on curriculum implementation which would be aimed at improving the employability of the graduates. Based on the findings, some recommendations were made including the revising of the policy concerning the involvement of industry stakeholders in the curriculum implementation.