Training the Skills Development Facilitator

The South African Department of Labour held a conference on 21st February 2000 to discuss the training of Skills Development Facilitators (SDFs) and a framework for the development of training materials for Skills Development Facilitators. The European Union funded the project under the Labour Market Skills Development Programme.

In the introduction to the conference proceedings the following question was posed: ‘What is a Skills Development Facilitator?’ The following answer was suggested: ‘Skills plans are a key mechanism for achieving the goals of the Skills Development Act. ‘Skills Development Facilitators’ are those who will facilitate the process of developing skills plans, whether at sectoral or enterprise level.’

In assisting the process of training SDFs, the Department of Labour undertook to commission a team of consultants to draw together a small sample of resource materials that can be adapted and drawn upon in training SDFs. The SAIDE Resource Centre was approached to support this activity. The bibliography is meant as a resource for Skills Development Facilitators and providers of training for SDFs. It gives reference to key policy documents relating to Skills Development, as well as the broad theory of change management and organizational transformation that underpins the legislation.

These are some of the resources referred to in the bibliography that are available in the SAIDE resource centre:

Open University (UK). Open Business School. The Capable Manager. Professional Certificate in Management. Milton Keynes: Open University, 1994. This course describes many management ideas and practices, and the student will learn to recognize when and how to apply them at work. Specifically, the course aims to: develop managerial skills; extend knowledge; deepen understanding; provide conceptual frameworks; introduce managerial techniques; challenge assumptions implicit in work methods; help the student to identify and develop strengths and remedy weaknesses as a manager; and encourage an attitude of continuing and career-long self development.

In: Brennan, J. B. Little and the Open University Quality Support Centre. Review of Work-Based Learning in Higher Education. Sheffield: DfEE, 1996. The authors observe that, over the last few years, there has been a growth in the number of arrangements people can use to obtain academic recognition for learning that has taken place outside educational institutions. These include some quite traditional forms of professional education and sandwich courses, but to these must be added a host of relationships between individual employers and higher education institutions that involve quite fundamental questioning of the roles and responsibilities of each in the continuing education and training of adults. These developments can be related to broader themes concerning the organization of knowledge in society, the changing nature of work and career, the learning society and the implications it holds for individual workers, their employers, and educational providers.

Other titles on the topic of learning organizations include:

• Schreiber, Deborah and Berge, Zane. Distance Training: How Innovative Organizations are Using Technology to Maximize Learning and Meet Business Objectives. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998, and
• Senge, Peter et al. Dance of Change: The Challenge of Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organizations. A Fifth Discipline Resource. London: Bantam, Doubleday, 1999.

In the category on lifelong learning the bibliography includes the following title from the Resource Centre:

Holford, J., Jarvis P. and Griffin, C. International Perspectives on Lifelong Learning. London: Kogan Page, 1998. In the abstract, the authors note that today everyone is talking about lifelong learning. Schooling is not enough: we must take responsibility for continuing to learn throughout our lives. This collection examines theory and practice in lifelong learning from a range of international standpoints. What policy rhetoric means, and how practice is really changing, are discussed in studies of lifelong learning in higher education, workplaces, school social movements, international organizations, and national governments. The seven parts of this book address key areas of debate and analysis, highlighted by many international case studies, including Australia, New Zealand, USA, South Africa, China, and Hong Kong. Issues and themes include the nature of the learning society, and what it means for teaching, learning, ethics, and gender.

This is merely a handful of our resources listed in the bibliography, which covers other topics such as human resources development, knowledge management, organizational development, competencies, quality assurance, skills development and work-based learning; and Southern African approaches to management and development. More information on the Resource Bibliography for Skills Development Facilitators or the SAIDE resources mentioned in this article are available from the SAIDE Resource Centre.