Further Education Workshop August 1997

Report of the NADEOSA Further Education and Training Workshop
This web page contains a full transcript of the Workshop on Distance Education in Further Education and Training held by NADEOSA at the South African College for Teacher Education (SACTE) on 29th August, 1997. The report consists of the following sections: 1. Overseas Trends in Further Education and Training - Mavis Bird 2. Further Education and Training Needs and Demands from the Perspective of South African Industry and Business - Getti Mercorio 3. Further Education and Training Needs and Demands from the Perspective of South African Communities - Mark Jacobs 4. Interaction with Speakers by Panellists and Delegates 5. Reports from Work Group Sessions 6. General Discussion

OVERSEAS TRENDS IN FURTHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING Mavis Bird
[This is a slightly edited transcript of the video interview of Mavis Bird conducted by Jack Foks
(F)		Mavis, thank you for coming along to share with us your experiences both internationally and in Australia regarding further education and the use of distance education methods. Maybe we should come to some agreement about what we mean by further education. What does it mean to you?
(B)		Because I was educated through, and worked with further education in Australia, my views are based on what we have in Australia. It is in my view a fairly large part of the education sector and accommodates the post-secondary level, traineeships, apprenticeships, certificate level, diploma level and more lately degree-type programmes. It also covers the full range of accredited programmes and also covers non-accredited aspects like leisure and life-long learning. Any of those aspects I would put into the further learning sector.
(F)		A lot of countries have what they call basic adult education. Does that have any connection with further education?
(B)		Yes, if you look at what fits into the other education sectors, it does fit into the further education sector. It may not be post-secondary because some of the people entering basic adult education are indeed straight out of primary school and they are looking for somewhere to go to further their education. So the further education sector needs to accommodate them.
(F)		Thanks for that. Let’s now look at the forces that are making us consider using distance education materials in further education. What are the trends that you have seen in the countries that you have been dealing with that increase the demand for using distance education technology and open learning methods in further education?
(B)		Well, I think the underlying impact is in competition in the global market and this impacts very strongly right through the further education sector because with global competition you need a very highly skilled workforce which is what the further education sector has to provide. The skilled workforce is requiring recognition and accreditation to a level which wasn’t visible ten or fifteen years ago. Workplace training is a part of the global economy push and this is forcing partnerships with industry and all these changes are occurring within the further education sector. University graduates are now entering the sector to pick up practical employable skills, universities are now getting alliances with the further education sector, and the number of private providers entering or being driven by this global economy are all putting an increasing demand on what is expected of further education. Traditional methods are no longer going to be able to cope with this demand. They are going to have to go with distance education, flexible delivery combinations or on-campus, work-based, and distance education because there will certainly not be the funds available to train these people in the traditional way.
(F)		In addition to the industry demands as well as the demands of the economy, what are the pressures coming from the community? Is that in any way affecting the decisions to use distance education technology and methods in further education?
(B)		If you are talking of a developing country, community demands are coming from a village level, from a small level, where there are lots of NGOs working and church groups working. You have a lot of people who are coming together in groups who now have a voice and are pushing for education whether it be health education, or aids education. There is a crying demand which is calling for flexible delivery and distance education and the use of technology to reach all the people who require this type of education.
(F)		Why would they be asking for distance education or flexible methods?
(B)		Because women traditionally are not as free as men to attend campus-based education and training. They need access to that knowledge where they can get it easily in their community, be it in a study centre or an NGO-based organisation. They need to be able to access that information when it suits them with their demands of walking for miles for water, looking after their children, finding the firewood -- all those sorts of things -- they have to fit it in.
(F)		Are there differences between the countries you have spoken about as to how these needs manifest themselves?
(B)		The basic problems are always the same in terms of establishing education programmes in countries. One of the problems is for them to be able to identify and articulate their training problems so that they can be assisted. It is not always possible to identify people’s problems when you speak to them and they need to articulate their training problems so that they can be assisted. It is not always evident when you talk to people that they have got their act into gear and they know how to articulate their particular needs. This is true in industry, too, and not only at the community level. Industry is also not always able to articulate its needs to further education providers.
(F)		Let us move on and look at what has been happening. To your mind, are there any examples of a good use of distance education, of technology-enhanced learning, of flexible approaches in further education?
(B)		One example I heard of recently was a combination of flexible delivery, distance education and workplace partnerships which is the Mitsubishi car manufacture in South Australia, and the Adelaide Institute of Technology. Mitsubishi was about to put up a multi-million dollar training complex, but intervention by the TAFE Institute convinced them that they didn’t really need it and that they should stick to what they do best (which is making cars) and the Adelaide Institute would assist them with their training problems. That has become a very successful partnership which utilises the strength of the TAFE sector as far as their educational capacity is concerned and allows Mitsubishi to continue with building their cars -- with much less cost than there would have been if they had tried to develop their own TAFE system.
(F)		I suppose from that example and some of the other things you have mentioned that partnerships are not just partnerships for their own sake, but are about sharing resources, making things more effective, more efficient and so on.
(B)		That is something we are going to have to get into very seriously because with the reduction of funds which are being allocated to education and training generally and the amount of money which will be flowing into private providers (particularly in the developed countries), there is a need for very close but very real partnerships between the provider sector or the traditional public provider section, and the enterprise-based or industry based training, because there is only so much money in the pot and with money going to private providers it is going to mean a shake-up in the traditional further education sector to make themselves more effective and more efficient.
(F)		Yes, that hasn’t happened so much yet in South Africa, but I am pretty sure it will. In the next few years, I am sure the public institutions will find similar pressures being imposed upon them as well. Without risking litigation, could you mention some of the poor examples or the bad use of distance learning or technologically-enhanced education?
(B)		They are linked to the opposite of the good practice, and you usually find that poor examples of distance education suffer from a lack of something and some of those things that they might suffer from would be a lack of understanding of the functions to be performed when you set up a distance education system. From this lack of understanding of the functions, a lack of understanding of the competencies involved and the roles involved by those setting up the system, and following on from that, too, a lack of training for tutors and co-ordinators, which is quite a different role from the traditional roles of tutors and teachers. Also, a lack of distance education management skills which is again different from the traditional roles of management in an on-campus programme, a lack of appropriate infrastructures, both administrative and technical, and the lack of appropriate student support. This is the really big one where most of them fail, or where the drop-out rate becomes astounding because of the lack of appropriate student support, the lack of a fully-costed plan which identifies not only the set-up costs, but also the ongoing maintenance costs. Everyone knows that there is a very high cost in setting up a distance education plan, but it becomes more cost effective because of the economies of scale and the students you can enrol. But many people don’t take into account that there is a very real cost in maintaining a distance education system, particularly in the student support area. And lack of commitment is one that fails when everyone is very enthusiastic in the beginning of a programme and that enthusiasm doesn’t carry through. That commitment needs to come from government level, from the institution level, from the actual tutors and co-ordinator level. It needs to be a concerted effort. Maintaining that commitment from the government perspective is very important. You have to have them on your side if you want a government distance education system rather than pockets of experiments going on all over the country and of course inappropriate or inadequate supporting materials. Some people put that as the highest priority but even poor supporting materials will work if all the other things are in place because there is the push and the commitment and the training to make it work.
(F)		You spoke about economies of scale and then you spoke about the learning materials and I imagine you are linking the two? That with good learning materials they can be distributed to a wide range of people -- the more people you distribute them to the more you amortise your cost of development? Is that possible -- as you increase the number of people you offer the courses to so you increase the diversity of the people and therefore what might have been suitable learning materials for one group turn out to be not so suitable for another group. Have you seen anything where courseware may be suitable to use for a wide range of different people?
(B)		Yes, the Commonwealth of Learning. Because of the way we operate across the Commonwealth and across regions, if we are involved with developing or moderating the programme for one cultural context, we anticipate that it will be transported to another one. There are two aspects -- content and the actual delivery methods that are built into it. When you pick up materials from one area and transport them to another, you do have to modify them. You have to modify them for the cultural impact -- this is easily done but it is costly and takes time. You need to make sure that the case studies are not pertinent to the Caribbean when you are trying to run the programme in the Pacific so they need to be rewritten, the terminology needs to be changed -- words which have one meaning in one place need to be changed so that they can be understood in another place and that can be done very successfully, but it does cost money. Then there is the delivery, because the delivery for which you have mechanisms available where the programme was originally intended to operate may be quite different from where you intend to implement the programme. That aspect also has to be taken into account. So what the Commonwealth of Learning is trying to do is to develop good paper-based materials that form a fairly generic basis that make them more easily readable and readily available to be modified for different contexts.
(F)		Mavis, what I’d like to finish up with is asking you questions about a number of role players that you have mentioned, and find out what you’d like to see them doing or performing in the area of using distance education in further education. Let us start with our friend, the government. How do you see government playing a useful role in further education?
(B)		I think it has a critical role, as I mentioned earlier. Unless you have the government on your side, you will never have a system. What you will have is pockets of innovation taking place and pockets of innovation mean that you have a waste of effort and a waste of resources. To my mind the government should stand up and make a public commitment to distance education if that is the way they believe the country should go. It should be a very strong public commitment, and the art of that commitment should not only be the resources that they put into that commitment, but should also be the encouragement of professional groups within that distance education sector. So, you are going to be linking together, through some sort of professional organisation, distance education providers -- whether they be at the primary, open schooling, secondary, tertiary and further education level. They should all have the opportunity of getting together so that, particularly for the sake of the technologies and the technology infrastructure that you need, it is all going to be co-ordinated into a system and not divided into disparate groups. I think that is where the government can make the most impact.
(F)		And community organisations, and industry and business as the large corporate groupings?
(B)		I think that their main role is to be able to articulate and identify clearly what their training needs are. Industry for years has been at loggerheads with the further education sector, complaining that they don’t provide the product that they are looking for. The further education sector on the other hand has always been saying that industry won’t come to the table and talk to us about their needs. And with the lack of resources that are available for training generally, it is critical that industry, the community and individual enterprises are able to get together with the further education sector and articulate their needs very clearly. But of course when you look at the problem, why don’t they? Why haven’t they? It is the attitude of the providers that it has been a supply-driven market rather than a demand-driven market and the TAFE Institutes or the further education consortiums have virtually been saying until fairly recently this is our product, this is what we do, take it or leave it. I know there are a lot of places that have been doing magic things and have been wonderfully co-operative with industry, but I think it behoves the further education sector to take the biggest step towards their clients and let them know that they are prepared to bend over backwards to help their clients with their training needs.
(F)		Something which you said to me earlier made me realise that you also consider community groups, business groups and industry groups as part of the solution and not just as the people who identified the problem, but in fact that they actually participate in partnership with the delivery of the programmes.
(B)		That is true and is becoming a stronger and stronger aspect of the delivery of further education -- that the training does not only take place in the traditional on-campus institutes but will take place in little study centres in the community and certainly in the workplace. That has been a growing trend for a number of years with those people actually doing the training, with the further education sector helping them with the training, but being prepared to let go, being prepared to work with them and to acknowledge -- yes-- that their role is helping them train their own trainers and getting their programmes together so that they can be accredited against national qualifications frameworks or whatever other standards or competency ladders are in place.
(F)		You were saying that everybody involved in this should get their act together.
(B)		Yes they need to, don’t they? If we are talking global economies and global markets, it is critical for everyone who is involved in a particular sector to be working together rather than against one another. That is really important.
(F)		Thank you very much indeed. You have given us a lot to think about.

FURTHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING NEEDS AND DEMANDS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF SOUTH AFRICAN INDUSTRY AND BUSINESS Getti Mercorio (Manager: Metal Engineering Industries Education and Training Board) Introduction The various Education and Training Boards have a wide variety of approaches, but there are similar threads that affect all of them. The MEIETB used to focus on one product, the apprentice who would become an artisan, but now it concerns itself with not only with apprentices, but all in the industry. Background The context of the MEIETB’s work poses the challenge to build a vibrant economy on the basis of a competent workforce with appropriate skills, improved productivity, and recognition of the human potential of the workforce. The NQF (National Qualifications Framework) aims to transform the quality and relevance of education and training. The MEIETB facilitated this process involving both employers and trade unions. The role of the MEIETB The MEIETB is accredited by the Department of Labour, and is managed jointly by employers and trade unions. Its key role is to: set standards for education and training in the metal and engineering industry enhance quality and promote improvement drive change and development among stakeholders. Its role as determined by its stakeholders is to: facilitate and ensure standard setting be responsible for assuring quality, relevance and credibility assess and moderate standards and provide accreditation facilitate the development of new curricula propose new qualifications other than those for apprentices pay attention to recognition of prior learning (RPL) set up an administration system disseminate information, and set up lobby structures for change. Need for change The need for change is highlighted and given emphasis by the necessity for: access to education and training for all South Africans the inclusion of both formal and informal education and training the recognition of prior learning greater flexibility in the workplace economic growth, and international competition. Current issues The current issues facing industry and business in further education and training are: international competition illiteracy in South Africa technological development changing skills needs low productivity, and low expenditure on training (0-5%) In most cases, training is limited to the larger firms, and there is little or no training in medium and small firms. Challenges The challenges are: the need to become nationally and internationally competitive the need to increase productivity the demand of international competitors for guaranteed quality the effects of new technology and the need for increases skills to make the best use of the new technology the requirement for greater flexibility in the workplace, and the downturn in the world economy: Changing skills profile The changing skills profile in the industry may be seen in the falling levels of employment in the industry and in the gradual disappearance of unskilled jobs. In 1981 there were 450 000 people in unskilled jobs, but in 1996 there were only 280 000. The numbers of the lower skilled (mainly manual) workers are declining, while the numbers of the higher skilled (such as operators and semi-skilled workers) are increasing. This can also be seen in the changing numbers of apprentices: in 1982 there were 13 000, whereas today there are only 5 300. Problems of the apprentice system The problems with the apprenticeship programme are that: it is bureaucratic it is costly there are diminishing incentives it is based on a four-year contract there are shrinking numbers. Strengths of the apprentice system The strengths of the system are, however, that: it is competency-based modular-based training (CBMT) it is structured and formal there are portable qualifications there is national assessment its aim is to integrate education and training it allows for RPL, and quality is maintained. Way forward for the system The system should discard: rigidity bureaucracy protection of the apprenticeship species the four-year contract a white male focus, and the high cost of an inflexible type of training rigidity. It should, however, retain: the national qualification some form of national assessment RPL status and quality integration of a dual system of education and training an outcomes-based approach, and the CMBT. It must, in short, recognise that each individual is different, and allow for flexibility of learning. NUMSA’s demands and successes In 1993, during wage negotiations, the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa demanded a five-grade system, the rationalisation of 2300 job descriptions, and the development of pathways for worker advancement. The employers then sent a group to Australia to study its system, found a working five-grade system with an operational NQF, and agreed to NUMSA’s demands. The historic 1993 agreement had ten cardinal points: recognition of existing skills access by workers to education and training portable education and training qualifications relevant to industry needs modular and competency-based training regular updating of education and training reduction of job grades from 13 to 5 involvement of both trade unions and employers inclusion of Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) a new focus on all workers in the industry (and not just artisan training) a new name – MEIETB (Metal and Engineering Industries Education and Training Education Board) National Training Strategy Initiative (NTSI) The 1994 NTSI recommended the implementation of the NQF system through the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA), the key principles of the system it had developed, and stakeholder involvement. Engineering and Manufacturing Processes (EMP) pilot project The EMP pilot project was initiated under the auspices of the National training Board, with the following key objectives: to create capacity to develop a model to develop the methodology, and to produce sample unit standards. It achieved: eighty well-trained people a comprehensive standard-setting methodology a template for unit standards, and draft unit standards. The project process was planned, managed, and resourced by the stakeholder structure. The participants were drawn from trade unions, employers, and the MEIETB. It was a project-based approach, and a co-operative process. Presentations were made to stakeholders and the national bargaining council. The work groups involved were Fabrication, Machinery, and Iron and Steel Production. RPL Critical issues were Recognition of Prior Learning, and assessment of current knowledge and skills against new standards. It required a critical starting point for implementation, enables access to the system of education and training, and was a useful focus in the pilot project. Assessment Assessment was also critical. It was developmental (formative) assessment that involved learning pathways for assessors and moderators. It had also to be linked to learning by the candidates, and had to provide support to both learners and assessors. It required the participation of all stakeholders. Quality assessment requires careful preparation and implementation, support systems for the learner (through counselling, feedback, and guidance), monitoring, and moderation. Distance education in industry It would seem, based largely on anecdotal evidence, that distance education is often used only as a last resort, in that: learners view distance education as difficult there is a high attrition rate there is little or no learner support it is print-based and often outdated learning materials are inaccessible it focuses on retention, rather than thinking it has a "sink or swim" approach, and there is a great need for (often absent) lifeguards How can distance education be improved? What is needed is a new approach to learners’ needs. A number of approaches should be used, including print, audio, video, technology harnessed, face-to-face, and telephone and electronic communication. The courseware should be prepared in response to industry’s standards, and there should be a clearer relationship between industry and providers, as well as a focus on quality and continuous improvement, with education and training involving both the head and the hands.
New opportunities
1.	Skills development strategy Emphasis should be given to information gathering. At the moment, provision is supply-based, rather than demand-based. Attention should also be given to learnerships and to qualification-assurance mechanisms
2.	NQF There should be accredited standards-based training for all workers, with improved portability and skills recognition. Technological changes need to be accommodated, and outcomes should be clear to all providers.
3.	Different approaches to education and training These need to be learner centred, to be flexible, to have smaller "chunks" of learning, to reflect a closer relationship between theory and practice, and to provide opportunities for new types of learners.
Aims The MEIETB is attempting to ensure that a person can completely perform a range of specialised activities; discuss and solve issues and problems with peers and leaders; and coach learners. The MEIETB is intensely interested in the needs of its customers, and the requirements of where they are employed, legislation (Occupational Health and Safety Act), best practice and acceptable methods, quality, and team building. Conclusion The changing context provides new opportunities. There should be closer links between industry and providers. New learners come with new needs. There must accordingly be a focus on the learner as an adult consumer. Flexible approaches are required, with truly open learning principles applied. There is consequently a great opportunity to build new faith in distance education methodologies.

FURTHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING NEEDS AND DEMANDS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNITIES Mark Jacobs (Director for Student Affairs at the National Access Consortium, Western Cape) Mark started by discussing the context of further education with its attention on: rote learning inefficiencies lack of relevance high failure attrition rates excessive unit costs the limited portability of qualifications. He then focused on the technical college provision of Further Education and mentioned, among other problems: the under-utilisation of resources outdated equipment outdated curricula outdated course materials. He emphasised that the challenge for the Further Education and Training Sector is to achieve: social and economic development literacy democracy technology-enhanced learning the massification of college capacity a new interactional purpose and ethos balancing the needs of the community and industry a contribution to both personal development and social development an integration of economic, social, political, and psychological needs empowerment of learners. The principles of the National Qualifications Framework already provides guidance concerning: an integrated approach to education and training lifelong learning quality equity and redress accountability and transparency diversity of approaches and programmes, including new and entrepreneurial approaches, partnerships, cost-effectiveness and efficiency, and affordability and sustainability. There is a need to institutionalise in order to meet the needs of the NQF and Further Education and Training. Mark mentioned the formation of the Community Colleges Association and the Co-ordinating Committee for Continuing Education. There is clearly a need for new institutional structures. He saw some of the issues as: open access massification mergers and clusters localised delivery subsystems partnerships synergy resource sharing efficiency, and governance. The Community College features that meet these requirements are: an open-door policy community-based governance a single-college multi-campus system with delivery sub-components student support, made up of learning resource centres, career guidance and counselling, bursaries and loans, and child-care centres. He ended his presentation by summarising learner-support systems as providing information, financial assistance, and career- and life-skills.
INTERACTION WITH SPEAKERS BY PANELLISTS AND DELEGATES TONY MAYS raised the question of how the providers could assist in improving thinking skills rather than manual skills or context-based theoretical rote learning. GETTI MERCORIO mentioned that most learners were given keyboard and computer skills, and were trained in management and working as a team. There were, however, controversies among the various parties – employers and employees, industry and providers of education and training – and he encouraged providing institutions to approach the industrial training sector concerning learning methods, and ways in which to improve the thinking skills of workers. At this stage, the main issue remained that of skills-based pay schemes. RONEL MAREE referred to the need for partnerships and for a clearer appreciation of the role of the provider now that industrial training sector was opening its doors to more participation by providers. GETTI MERCORIO responded by admitting that industry had to accept responsibility for grumbling about the provision of education and training and for the difficulties in the relationship between providers and some trainers in the industrial sector. He felt there was a need for more engagement by industry with providers, but felt that there was limited capacity for providers. It was the role of the trade unions and the employers to set the standards in any particular industrial segment. It was not the role of providers to do this. After standards had been set by the industry, there should be interaction with the state and with those providers who were critically important in the competence chain – but whose role was not to set standards. MAVIS BIRD agreed that it was the role of industry to determine what should be learnt, and it was the role of providers to determine how it should be done. DERMOT MOORE referred to the underlying assumption of how distance education could be changed to meet the needs of industry in the further education sector. He felt that the traditional methods no longer met the demands made of it, and asked how on-campus delivery was going to change in order to meet the needs articulated by industry. MAVIS BIRD responded by referring to the importance of using methods other than the merely theoretical (generally knowledge-based) approaches. She referred to the need for more learning to take place at home (and through distance education) to provide vocational education and training. But paper-based distance education should be supplemented by practical problem solving on campus. Theory-based learning could be done at home, and the more critical learning could take place through the teacher-learner relationship on campus or in the work situation. Teachers needed to be led away from a control function to an acceptance of the role of facilitator. ANDRE DU TOIT asked how manual skills could incorporate thing skills. Getti Mercorio responded by saying that at he moment there were few approaches other than the N-courses at technical colleges. There were only twelve-hour assessments of manual skills that were task-oriented – and these assessments took place without any instructions being given. There was no interaction to establish the theoretical knowledge of learners in the assessments. Learners became extremely proficient in task-oriented skills, but they remained unable to find faults or diagnose what was wrong and correct the fault. There was therefore something critically wrong with the present system. André answered by saying that, in the future, greater numbers of learners would leave school at Grade 9, and there would be increasing demands for improvement in the Further Education and Training sector. DERMOT MOORE expressed the need to focus on new modes of learning, and suggested that there were two main problems: the attitude of the teacher, and the fact that at least two generations of learners had been reared on rote learning. He asked how it would be possible to communicate to students that they would be expected to accept responsibility for their own learning. MARK JACOBS responded by reiterating that a completely new way of think about approaches to education and training was required. DOWLAT BAGWANDEEN said that there was much to be learnt from the experiences of community colleges in the United States, and that we should improve on the US model in the provision of Further Education and Training in South Africa. MARK JACOBS warned against the danger of slipping back into a comfort zone, and urged delegates to see the main requirements as addressing past wrongs and transforming education and training provision. South African communities and stakeholders should be consulted, and the concentration of effort should not be on only mainstream provision, but also on finding an alternative to industry-based work, since many people would not always be able to find work in industry. People will need to be encouraged to be more entrepreneurial in their attitudes. This might be an uncomfortable zone for Further Education and Training, but it is one that is necessary to contemplate entering. VIS NAIDOO took up the idea of how to get educators to change their attitude. He recommended that educators should be exposed to good practice in teaching, and to other forms of educational delivery. With regard to the United States community college model, he argued that context is critical, as are the issues of equity and redress. He stated that the South African context of the community college movement is of primary importance. GETTI MERCORIO believed that both the overseas experiences and the South African context must be considered. There was a great opportunity in Further Education to heal the wounds of society, especially if the overseas and South African contexts were not seen as being in opposition, but as complementary to each other. THERE WAS AN APPEAL FROM THE FLOOR for a new set of instruments in moving ahead. It was felt that there should be no waiting for the various departments of education to provide the impetus, and that the college sector should move ahead with the distance education sector to develop a new strategy which the formal sector would then follow. JOHN NOWLAN stressed the importance of RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning), and Getti Mercorio hoped a policy would be agreed on how the assessment of RPL should occur. Industry was not in a position to force people to undergo RPL testing, and people also needed to be assured that RPL assessment would not affect their present job grades if the assessment indicated that they were not competent. Both employers and trade unions should be involved in drawing up the assessment model, there should be adequate monitoring of the process, and due regard should be given to language problems. A policy and model for both assessors and moderators was thus needed. RAHMAT OMAR spoke about the need for NADEOSA to take up the RPL issue, and to change the university senate’s discretionary exemption on the grounds of mature age for entrance to university studies into a formal RPL policy based inter alia on portfolios that could be assessed to permit entry to any level of further and higher education and training. DOWLAT BAGWANDEEN referred to the salaries of teachers, and said that the best way to improve teaching in South Africa would be to increase teachers’ salaries. THE CONCERN WAS RAISED FROM THE FLOOR about the concentration of attention, and the focus of the debate on urban areas, rather than on rural areas – where the greatest need for redress and improvement existed. It was argued that attention must be given to ways of coping with unsophisticated learners who have been (and are still) deprived of exposure to educational technology and remain cut off from educational developments. MARK JACOBS said that the community college movement and its stakeholders were addressing this problem, and were engaged in providing support for learners in rural areas through the single campus/multi-site approach. GETTI MERCORIO admitted that industry had concentrated on urban areas, and that the only way rural areas were involved was through the migrant labour system – which had many negative consequences of which South Africa cannot be proud. JACK FOKS, in the Chair, at this stage called on the speakers to conclude the discussion. He stated that all had shown that they were convinced of the value of the discussions. He thanked NADEOSA for the opportunities given to them to present their views, and wished NADEOSA well in its endeavours and deliberations.
REPORTS FROM WORK GROUP SESSIONS
GROUP 1 QUESTION: The NCFE Report on Further Education and Training (FET) in South Africa strongly promotes a new flexible, learner-centred approach. What advice should the Government receive on the major contributions that should be made to this new approach by distance education and technology-enhanced learning?
1.	Distance education can teach independent learning fundamental to success in outcomes-based education and it is the basis for lifelong learning. The distance education experience and expertise in helping people to learn independently can be useful to people in conventional education and in further education, which is, in a sense, where the lifelong path is meant to start, although some people would argue it is much earlier than that.
2.	There is a need to see education as a whole rather than seeing distance education as separate from face-to-face education.
3.	The government needs, however, to have a clear policy about what is meant by distance education. There are different interpretations about distance education: some people see it from the point of view of certain kinds of value judgements; other people think of it only in terms of a certain method of delivery.
4.	Some people in the group had doubts about whether distance education methods can be used for particular types of training, but perhaps we need to shift to a notion of flexible learning employing a range of different modes of educational provision that would be broadly applicable to further education. The student should have a continuing choice from work-based learning, distance learning, and face-to-face learning, through the use of technology. With technology-enhanced learning, one can do amazing practical training through virtual reality in practical training situations.
5.	A major point is that because of the massification of education and training a paradigm shift is necessary towards flexible approaches to quality education and training for increased numbers of learners without requiring additional teaching staff. Distance education providers can lead the way in that paradigm shift.
6.	In addition, for several years to come while Curriculum 2005 is being introduced in phases, many learners for a number of years to come will enter Further Education and Training without the background in independent learning they should have received from outcomes-based education at school level. Distance education methods can help these learners in FET with that process towards independent learning.
7.	Distance education requires greater planning than face-to-face education, and the lessons learnt from distance education about planning (not only from experience but also from the kinds of research on quality standards and TELI with its decision-making framework specifically with relation to distance education) can contribute to the more efficient and less ad-hoc organisation of conventional face-to-face education and lead to a more forward-looking approach with quality assurance in place.
8.	It is very important, however, that distance education should be seen as having different imperatives from face-to-face education. Whereas it is right to see education as a whole, distance education learners face different problems, for instance different time constraints, and an entirely different system must be set up to support them. The government should put money into research the different needs of diverse learners in the distance education and face-to-face continuum.
9.	There is also a great need for FET not to be too instrumentally geared. Whereas job skills are important, there should be the development of human potential through generic skills development and not merely the preparation of FET learners for the workplace.
GROUP 2 QUESTION The NCFE Report recommends that the decision making framework, developed as part of the National Department of Education’s Technology Enhanced Learning Investigation (TELI), should be used to ensure quality in the provision of FET. The work on TELI has now gone into a strategic planning stage that places considerable emphasis on lead projects that are to be used to: implement and test the decision making framework; develop exemplars for future initiatives; contribute to sustainable infrastructure. There is also a proposal that one of the lead projects be in FET. What advice should be given to the Government on the features of technology enhanced learning projects in FET that would best meet the objectives listed above? This group believed that a project should be a partnership between community, employers, and government. To achieve this the country should be divided into small areas with a co-ordinating national body. Small, local areas would find it easier to form the desired partnerships. The mode of delivery should take heed of the facilities available in a particular area, but the danger of not providing equal facilities should be noted. The programmes should be relevant to encourage learners and providers of funds. The above is a summary drawn up from the following points: Infrastructure is important Partnerships need to be established Small areas with a co-ordinating national body Programmes should be relevant to providers and learners Community colleges should be used General Education and Training (GET) needs must be taken into account A culture of wanting to learn should be created The technology should be relevant to the region Technology must be combined with the other modes of deliver Since technology facilitates skills training, practical training should be integrated with theoretical training Pilot projects should take into account whether they can be replicated with success in other areas. If they do not achieve desired results in these areas, future progress will be hampered. The group discussed the problem of the use of high technology or modes technology in rural areas in which television is not available because electricity is not available. The only technology available in rural areas is radio. At this stage although our country may be able to afford more than radio technology, the programmes devised should not be unfair to rural areas by giving urban areas greater advantages of technology enhanced learning than may be implemented in rural areas.

GROUP 3 QUESTION: The NCFE Report indicates that new demands being made on human resources in further education will require an appropriate industrial relations environment. What advice should be given to Government on the impact of FET industrial relations of an increased use of flexible and open learning, distance education, and technology enhanced learning?
1.			The first issue dealt with the nature of the person who will have to be trained to make available an open learning system. These people will have to be multi-skilled in course development, face-to-face training, counselling and support, and answering learners’ questions at all hours of the day and night. These new demands on human resources will require different labour contracts. Some staff will be full-time employees and others independent contractors. On the one hand, full-time staff will be required to establish the ethos of the institution and a continuing programme of learning activities, and on the other hand it may be necessary to use other types of staff for only six hours a week and to pay them part-time fees. This raises questions of pension and other benefits for part-time staff and of how the core of full-time staff and a body of part-time workers who work on specific tasks and support services can be included in a single labour contract with leave and other benefits. How can we ensure that the people who will stay within the Labour Relations Act in terms of benefits will not have advantages or disadvantages in comparison with the part-time staff?
2.			With these multi-skilled people that will be needed, there will have to be different types of training in future. Existing staff will have to be retrained for a more flexible learning model. Money will have to be made available for this.
3.			FET will be a multi-variable field using a variety of technologies and methodologies. Yet those used to conventional forms of learning, usually the full-time staff members, tend to think distance education as a cheap option, whereas it is not. Government will need to look at the costs and funding of different modes of learning in different ways and to work out what is meant by full-time equivalents, notional working hours, and support costs for the products that are offered. Perhaps funding will have to be linked to the product and to the throughput of students at the end of the programme rather than to maintaining an institution.
4.			The positive effects of the new demands no human resources need to be recognised and multiplied. Services will need to be brought in from other institutions, and partnerships will have to be formed for special areas of expertise and specialisation. One institution may specialise in producing materials, another in support services, and another in face-to-face tuition. There should be a database of skills and services available.
5.			There should be some way of setting standards and monitoring whether a provider or an institution is providing quality learning. Registration of providers and institutions should be linked to norms and standards. Funding should be limited to demonstrated ability to perform, not to how many students start a course, but to how many students complete the course successfully. In this way the data base can be completed, institutions will know which providers specialise in particular areas, and quality standards and appropriate student support will be ensured.
6.			Other issues raised were: the need for learner-friendly, relevant, quality materials, the need for better training involving knowledge, skills and attitudes to be given to new teachers as well as the current teacher core, the need for a structured working relationship between industry and providers, the need for incentives to employers to release staff for training, the issue of better pay for higher qualifications, and the need for support programmes for low-skilled members of the workforce.

GROUP 4 QUESTION: The NCFE Report recommends that funding for distance education and face-to-face learning in FET should be based on the same formula. What advice should be given to Government on this?
1.			Allocation of funding. There seems to be agreement and already policy that there is a function for a National Council; also Provincial Councils will have a strong role, much more so than at the higher level, and also that even at local level there will be some decisions made about funding. There is an overlap here, but it is not really unmanageable in that many colleges function at both Further and Higher levels and they will get funding from the National Council for Higher and Provincial and other Councils for Further Education.
2.			Incentives: Do you have incentives or disincentives for throughput? This is a difficult area. The most agreement that was reached was that there should be some kind of incentive or disincentive. We cannot allow institutions to hang on forever and therefore there must be some kind of cut-off point. That cut-off point must have something to do with social responsibility. The FET sector has responsibility to get learners through the system fairly quickly, but they should not be prevented from continuing in the system if they do not get through quickly enough.
3.			Formulae. There seems to be agreement at policy level and in the group that there should be a range of funding for a subject or a programme. For instance, for medicine, we could say that the range is R3 000-R4 000 per student per unit. There should be a minimum number of students for a course. Funding should not be given unless this number is reached. Certain sanctions should be in place as well.
4.			Institutional factors. Besides the number of students, certain institutional factors will have to be taken into account before funding is allocated. An example is set-up costs: in distance education, set-up costs are important, but the institution would have to argue its case in support of funding. Information would have to be given about the type of learners, whether they are educationally, socially, mentally, or physically disadvantaged. Further information would have to be given about the target group, which might be different types of learners in different places where there is a need for people to be trained and where there is a need for this type of training even if it is expensive. Finally it can be argued that a particular delivery mode requires certain essentials, (such as a laboratory), but the funding agency must be able to stipulate a deliver mode different from the one proposed.
5.			Distance education. There was no agreement in the group about whether distance education is cheaper or not than other modes of delivery. What could be said was that when an institution goes through the various institutional factors, it (or the funding agency) should ask whether distance education would be a better mode of delivery for that subject or programme.
6.			Core and earmarked funding. There seems to be in Higher and Further Education debates about core and earmarked funding. Earmarked funding is the type of funding that is designed to push the institution in the right direction of choice of subject or programme where there is a need and little or no current provision. The core funding should continue, but there is a place for earmarked funding because at present the system is not delivering what is needed in political, social, and economic terms. The group considered that earmarked funding was too low because there were quite a few needs for different kinds of programmes. Part of the thinking was that core funding should decrease and earmarked funding should increase and that core and earmarked funding should allow more space for new programmes.

GROUP 5 QUESTION: The NCFE Report recommends the use of support agencies to provide specialist support services to FET providers. What advice should be given to Government on the nature of the agencies that would provide the specialist support services associated with distance education and technology enhanced learning?
1.			The group first tried to be clear about what support agencies are. There was debate about who decides on the expertise of support agencies. It was considered that many small agencies might spring up and try to get onto the bandwagon. Collaboration was seen as the best answer. Entrenched institutions that have been in existence for a long time could be the support agencies for FET, but the warning was given that perhaps these established institutions would be more concerned about entrenching their powerful positions than providing valuable support.
2.			There is a need for support agencies that are closely linked to people’s needs as determined by the community. Support agencies must not prescribe the type of support it will give. They must not off-load old technology onto communities.
3.			the educationists must have a role to play in the choice of the agency and the type of support. They must not abrogate their position and must be fully informed about the support and technology that will be used.
4.			The government should provide a framework about which support agencies could be used. This would ensure quality and professionalism among the agencies.
5.			There should be evaluation procedures in place so that support agencies are evaluated by the educationists. This would help in providing a database of support agencies and their particular type of support programmes, quality, expertise, etc.
6.			The danger was highlighted that institutions might invest in technology that had not been properly assessed for the particular community'’ needs. The example of obsolete computers was given.
7.			The future scenario would be a multi-skilled, technology enhanced, mobile learning society. Consideration must, however, be given to the needs of rural communities. Support systems must be flexible to the variety of needs of the community.
8.			Government and support agencies should interact in a very transparent and professional manner so the quality of the agencies may be ensured.

GROUP 6 QUESTION: The NCFE Report recommends an increased use of distance education strategies by all FET providers. What advice can be given to Government on the role of the present public and private distance education providers?
1.			Both public and private providers must be on an equal footing. This is possible with the built-in mechanism of the ETQA quality assurance system. At the moment, the only certification of programmes is carried out among technikons.
2.			A combination of distance education and face-to-face methods with technology enhanced learning provides opportunities for flexibility to meet different requirements.
3.			There should be co-ordination of course development teams so that FET can draw on expertise from a broad base. Distance education will have much to contribute because of its expertise in course development. There should be continual development of courses with partners to contribute to the development of the partner institutions.
4.			Another way distance education expertise can assist FTE is with the professional development of staff in the different institutions.
5.			Co-operation between the distance education and face-to-face modes will help to improve learner-support mechanisms and networking.
6.			A platform should be provided for interaction with commerce, industry, government, and employers to ensure the relevance of materials and methods in FTE.
GENERAL DISCUSSION There were questions about the effects of co-ordination, collaboration, and co-operation. Would they lead to uniformity, monopoly, government control, and mediocrity? Or would they lead to intelligent use of resources, sharing of expertise, quality provision, and increased benefits to learners? There would have to be a balance between encouraging institutions to collaborate and requiring them to do so. This was seen as a useful topic for a future workshop. A final word on the information society reminded us that in the future courseware would be in digital form accessible to everybody on the Internet and that course developers would license their courseware before anyone would be able to pull the information out of cyberspace.
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Report of the NADEOSA Further Education and Training Workshop