The government’s Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (Asgisa) has identified skilled artisans and vocational skills as critical for sustained economic growth.
The new curriculum for further education and training (FET) colleges that will lead to National Certificate (Vocational) (NC(V)) qualifications is a comprehensive and coordinated response to this skills development agenda, according to a book soon to be published by the department of education, FET Colleges, Institutions of First Choice.
The (NC(V) is offered across the various FET colleges in 11 economic sectors. Government funding of these programmes aims to ensure that these 11 programmes provide the skills to reduce unemployment and grow the economy.
Modern, relevant and responsive, the NC(V) will replace all department of education programmes in the FET college sector incrementally from 2007 onwards.
The previous programmes have some value, but are generally outdated, including the National Technical Education, better known as Nated programmes (N1 to N6), some of which have not been revised since the 1980s.
Other programmes to be replaced are the National Certificate Orientation or N1, which was an orientation programme used to bridge the maths and science gap some students might suffer from; the National Intermediate Certificate, which is parallel to grade 11, and the National Senior Certificate, parallel to the Senior Certificate, commonly known as “matric”.
In replacing these programmes, the NC(V) is a response to scarce and high-demand skills, and also heeds calls from employers saying they want “thinking” employees.
In the 21st-century workplace, high levels of written and spoken communication skills, work ethics and personal management are highly valued. Mastery of these so-called “soft skills” is based on a thorough grounding in the fundamentals of reading, writing, calculating and basic IT abilities.
This is why the NC(V) comprises three compulsory subjects: language (first additional), mathematics or mathematical literacy and life skills (which includes IT) alongside the four vocational or specialisation subjects.
Both the compulsory and vocational subjects are spread across 11 programmes or vocational fields of study, including management, marketing, office administration, primary agriculature, tourism, civil engineering and building construction, electrical infrastructure construction, engineering and related design, finance, economics and accounting, hospitality and information technology and computer science.
The 11 programmes fall into the priority areas identified by Asgisa.
The NC(V) has been phased in at FET colleges from January 2007. The qualification, offered at NQF Levels 2, 3 and 4, allows for its staggered implementation. This means the NC(V) at NQF Level 2 is being introduced in 2007, followed by NQF Level 3 in 2008 and NQF Level 4 in 2009.
Unlike the trimester N courses, the NC(V) courses are year-long programmes.
This means a certificate will be awarded after successful completion of each NQF level, following a national external examination.
This structure allows students the flexibility to complete a certificate on one NQF level, work for a year and pick up their studies again.