HRD and 'joined-up" policy

Abstract

This chapter develops a conceptual framework for human resources development (HRD) in South Africa and argues that social institutions play a critical role in the formation of human resources. This is because HRD is, fundamentally, a collective good which requires large-scale investments in education and training infrastructure that go way beyond the means of any single stakeholder or, indeed, the market mechanism. The participation of multiple stakeholders in HRD, including the state and employers, takes on specific institutional forms, three of which form critical components of the larger South African social system: the youth labor market, the world of work and its associated enterprise training system; and the national system of science and innovation. On the basis of the data contained in this review, the chapter argues that the complex HRD problems arising out of these three institutional subsystems are intrinsically cross-sectoral and can rarely be reduced to single government department portfolios. This is why their resolution requires "joined-up" policy and implementation across several government departments to generate the synergy necessary for the achievement of important social effects.