SATN Conference 2010 - Prof Mary Metcalfe

UNIVERSITIES OF TECHNOLOGY DRIVING HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT THROUGH

PARTNERSHIPS

3RD ANNUAL SATN CONFERENCE 2010; 29 SEPTEMBER – 1 OCTOBER 2010,

VAAL UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Government’s Policy Agenda providing an enabling environment

Mary Metcalfe, DG Higher Education and Training


CENTRAL GOAL

A skilled and capable workforce to support an inclusive growth path


MINISTER NZIMANDE HAS CHALLENGED US …


GOALS• Accelerate

– The number of new training graduates in priority economic sectors identified in ASGISA and the NIPF and IPAP

– Training output in the priority areas of design, engineering and artisans that are critical to the manufacturing, construction and cultural industries

• Increase – Access to high level occupationally–directed programmes within

the fields of Engineering Sciences, Animal and Human Health, Natural and Physical Sciences and initial Teacher Education

– Graduate output of Honours, research masters, doctoral and post doctorate students.


GOALS

• Build– Research, development and innovation – A culture of research at Universities of Technology – The economy and improving societal conditions

through innovation. • Stimulate – entrepreneurship,– innovation – growth


PRINCIPLES

• Education and training is a common public good which must not be sold and traded as a commodity, where only those with money and other resources will be able to afford it.

• Only by providing equal opportunities for all, irrespective of social background, can we contribute towards building a nation in which everyone has a stake and a common loyalty.

• Connecting the human resource development with developmental strategies across all spheres of government and the social and economic development strategies

• A strong, sound and visionary institutional leadership to overcome challenges.

• Dialogue between stakeholders and with governmentDEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING

STRATEGIES• Increase access to post-school education training opportunities.• Reinforce and complement work through strategic partnerships.• FET and UoT relationships that facilitate articulation and

progression in certificate and diploma programmes.• Inter-institutional collaborations between traditional

universities and UoTs • Improve industry linkages

– maximize work integrated learning and work placements– supervised professional experience– improved levels of applied learning– increased levels of industry experience – knowledge of lecturers in scarce skill disciplines


SOME CHALLENGES TO UoT

• Train future technicians and technologist in career focused programmes especially in the areas of engineering and the built environment.

• Contribute towards increasing the supply of appropriately qualified people to meet the human resource demands in the areas of ICT, Automotive, Component manufacturing, Chemicals, Plastics, Fabrication, Pharmaceuticals, Forestry, Pulp, Paper and Furniture, Tourism, Bio-fuels, Diamond & Jewellery designs, Agro-processing and the Film & Television industry.

• Build academic staff capacity to produce quality graduates at undergraduate and gradually increase their research and innovation capacity.


KE NAKO?


DO WE HAVE THE NECESSARY POLICY INSTRUMENTS TO ACHIEVE THESE GOALS?


Challenges

• ACCESS• A nation plan to progressively expand access to an

integrated, quality post-school education and training with clear targets over time supported by the necessary investments in infrastructure and people

• Redress and equity in access

• ARTICULATION– A qualification framework that maximises articulation and

progression across the system?


Challenges

• Policy and Funding frameworks that:– support a differentiated post-school education

and training system– facilitates distinctive institutional identities and

pathways of optimal development and the pursuit of the multiple purposes of PSETS

– adequately funds each institution to optimally enhance its growth trajectory

– Mobilise social partners behind the education and training projet


Challenges

• Governance– System wide leadership in an integrated PSETS– Strong institutional governance

• Quality– Success and throughput

• Work Integrated Learning– Institutional arrangement – Properly resourced


Challenges

• Research and Innovation frameworks which:– provide adequate support to industry-university

partnership– Incentivise collaboration?– Provide adequate investment in research and

development, especially in SET– Develop and support young researchers?– Adequately fund post-graduate students?


A POLICY PROCESS TO RE-IMAGINE AND CONSOLIDATE THE NEW POST-SCHOOL EDUCATION AND TRAINING SYSTEM

PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING AND IMAGINATION OF THE SYSTEM THAT MUST BE CREATED


PURPOSE

• To review all components of the post-school education and training system in order to make proposals that will– reduce inefficiencies and – maximize complementarities

• so that the system is conceptually and operationally designed as a single nationally coordinated entity which – maximises equity of opportunity and outcome for youth and

adults – within a diverse and differentiated institutional base – appropriate to the needs of the country


Where from?… and Where to?

• Mobilising social partners behind the project and its stakeholders– Meaningful partnerships– Democratic governance– Effective use of resources

• A differentiated and articulated system– Access– Qualification frameworks and articulation– Quality and success– Integrating working and learning


• Funding– Maximizing complementarities across PSETA– Innovative funding mechanisms– Redress, equity and access

• Research, Development and Innovation– Building the next generation of academic leaders

and researchers


KEY DEBATES AHEAD…


Should a differentiated PSETS:

• Combine the imperatives of national integrity and coherence with flexibility at institutional levels to allow for individual growth paths?

• Demonstrate how it enhances the capacity of the system to increase student access & success?

• Be linked to long-term HRD macro-planning driven by Government with its 30-year time horizon?

• Enable different ‘institutional types’ to combine functions (teaching, research & engagement) in very specific and focused ways that are institutionally and context specific?

• Aim to achieve portability of knowledge, students & staff?DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Where is the Differentiation Debate in the FET sub-system?

• Each college to be distinguished by its individual Programmes and Qualifications Mix (PQM), which may differ from other colleges in terms of:– the range and level of programmes offered– the numbers enrolled,

• And driven by a long-term national development plan for the college system in response to various factors including:


• And driven by a long-term national development plan for the college system in response to various factors including: – the geographical location of the college;– the local labour market;– the communities served by the college;– linkages with higher education;– regional, provincial and national growth and development plans

and HRD strategies;– the capacity of the college to offer particular programmes, as

determined by the relevant Quality Council or other quality assurer; and

– historical inequalities.


A simplistic picture – Status Quo

TraditionalUniversities

UniversitiesOf Technology

FET Colleges

Drop Out

Drop Out

SCHOOL

A Simplistic Picture - Way Forward

SCHOOL

TraditionalUniversities

UniversitiesOf Technology

FET Colleges


A Different Take on Differentiation

OLD

Skills Development Further General

27

THE POST-SCHOOL EDUCATION AND TRAINING SYSTEM

NATIONAL SKILLS DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY STEERS SETA’S AND NSF WITHIN THE COMMITMENTS OF HRDSA

WORKPLACE LEARNING FACILITATED BY SETA’S

UNIVERSITIES, UNIVERSITIES OF TECHNOLOGY AND COMPREHENSIVES

COLLEGES

QUAL

ITY AS

SURA

NCE

AND

ADVISO

RY BODIES,

QUAL

IFICAT

IONS

FRAM

EWORK

S

SKILLS PLANNING

PUBLIC ADULT LEARNING AND SKILLS CENTRES


New: A continuum of individual institutional missions and trajectories articulating with each other?

Clusters?

National Goals

Appropriate

Qualification

Frameworks

Appropriate

Funding Framewor

ks

TOWARDS FET/UoT PARTNERSHIPS

• Quality– Exams and lecturer development

• FET colleges work with UoT to offer Higher Certificates ( and Advanced Certificates) Selection based on set of stringent criteria eg – Must offer corresponding NCT/ NC(V) programme– Limited number of Higher Certificates for each FET college– Must have existing staff exchange programme with HEI– Minimum % of academic staff of FET college must have M+4– QA?– Admission requirement: Grade 12 or NCV4 ‘equivalent’


KE NAKO!DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING