| Summary: | Further Education and Training (FET) colleges have the task of
educating and training young people for entry into the workplace,
for self-employment, for higher education studies and for up
skilling and re-skilling competence levels (Nzimande 2009). This
means that the FET curricula and their close link to the
professional world make it a sector that contributes to most of
the training of a sufficiently skilled workforce that would meet
the labour market demands. Technical and vocational education and
training is essential in this regard because no country can meet
its economic and social demands without a skilled work/labour
force.
The purpose of this study, therefore, is to evaluate the National
Education (NATED) Engineering curriculum at the Ezibeleni
Engineering Campus to determine whether the curriculum is
appropriate in preparing the students sufficiently for a career in
engineering opportunities. Certain shortcomings in the NATED
curricula are identified in this study and innovations are
recommended with the aim of contributing to the establishment of a
consistent engineering curriculum which will be able to meet the
technological developments and inculcate the skills required in
the world of work. With the inception of the new National
Certificate (Vocational) (NC (V)) curriculum in 2007 and the
phasing out of the NATED curriculum by the end of 2009, more areas
for research are created in the FET college sector. Only the
future will tell whether the new NC (V) curricula will be an
improvement on the NATED curriculum.
In an attempt to evaluate the Engineering curriculum and to
determine the appropriateness thereof, the researcher employed
qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. Valuable
insights were derived from the literature study which served as a
basis for the questions that were asked during the interviews and
for the questions that were included in the questionnaire survey that were distributed among the academic staff. By mixing
qualitative and quantitative methods the researcher aimed to
triangulate the findings from the interviews and the questionnaire
survey to enhance the validity and reliability of the study (Maree
2007:80).
The findings of the interviews and survey were finally interpreted
in terms of responses pertaining to the problem that was
investigated. Despite the fact that the NATED curriculum is
currently being phased out, critical shortcomings have been
identified such as, interalia, the non-alignment of the
engineering curriculum with the professional world, theory and
practice that are not linked, inability to accommodate
apprentices, and non-compliance with the SAQA (South African
Qualifications Authority) requirements.
The study concluded by recommending that FET College engineering
programmes should be taken to a new level to make them acceptable
to universities, universities of technology and to the industry in
South Africa. FET colleges should begin to take the responsibility
for arranging work placement for their students. The Department of
education, FET colleges and industry should form collaborative
partnerships to develop colleges as specialist or niche centres
for vocational and technical excellence.
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