The state of the South African further education and training college sector

Abstract

This chapter looks at the exploration of the relationships of those elements of skills development with policy and practice surrounding public Further Education and Training (FET) colleges led by the Department of Education (DoE). This analysis will show the emergence of these policies and practices and highlight key strengths and weaknesses of the current position. Most importantly it will point to the very serious weakness in policy coherence across FET-skills development. It will show that this is not just between the two policy processes of bodies set up jointly or separately by the two departments, including the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA), the Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) and Umalusi, the Council for General and Further Education and Training Quality Assurance.