Comprehensive Report on Education and Training in South Africa

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Education and Training (ETD) in South Africa. It explores the current state of ETD, including its importance and challenges faced by practitioners, such as language barriers and generational differences. The report delves into the impact of unit standards on learning intervention design and development, and evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of ETD practices. It also examines the alignment of ETD practices, various learning theories (behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism), and the application of Kirkpatrick's Four-Level Training Evaluation Model. Furthermore, the report discusses assessment practices, learner support requirements, psycho-social and institutional factors, and the strengths and weaknesses of the SDF/SDL system. It concludes with an explanation of the standards writing and qualification design process, and a definition of management systems within the context of performance and organizational goals.

Running head: EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN SOUTH AFRICA
Education and Training in South Africa
Name of the Student
Nam of the University
Author note

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Questions- Exit level outcomes/ unit standards
Communicate in a variety of ETD settings
 How would you describe ETDP in SA?
Education, Training and Development program has grown to be an essential program
in the recent years due to the increase in requirement for skilled people.ETD program is
essential in South Africa since many of the country’s human resources and the potentiality of
the people is still unrecognized and not developed. The motive of the program is to enhance
the skill development process and boost the African economy.
 What challenges do ETD Practitioners experience when communicating with learners and
colleagues?
There lie a number of factors that the ETD practitioners are faced with while
communicating with learners and colleagues in the world of advancements. Some of the
major challenges are:
Language problem: Language is one the major components of the communication
system. ETDP often tend to fail when the practitioner is not well versed with the trainees’
language. Besides language being one of the major ingredients of the culture, the
practitioners face gap in communication when there are trainees from different cultural
backgrounds.
Different generation: Old employees often tend to shy away or refuse to respond and
communicate in the training process due to presence of junior employees. Hence it gets tough
for the practitioner to continue the training process smoothly.

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Design and develop learning programs and processes.
 How do unit standards impact on your design and development of learning interventions?
Learning interventions are the set of standards for teaching an individual. Design and
development of learning interventions are done keeping a standard so that the learner can be
evaluated on the basis of the interventions. A standard based evaluation to determine the
capability of an individual is often associated by the unit standards.
Unit standards are the title offered to trainees or learners after their accomplishment of all
the relevant outcome statements. Hence unit standards set up a benchmark or lists down the
knowledge, attributes and skills required to be demonstrated. This helps in designing and
developing some standard learning interventions for learners.
 What would you say are the greatest strengths and weaknesses of OD ETD practice in SA
at present?
Education, Training and Development (ETD) program has been important for all the
companies of South Africa these days. Employees are instructed to attend the programme on
a compulsory basis and the organizations in South Africa are investing on these training
programme by providing internal assistance or outsourcing helps.
Strength:
 Identification of the area for improvement in an organization
 Areas to modify or improve in case of employees or teams
 Evaluation to understand the position of improvement done from previous cases
 Improvement of designs in learning programme
 Well updated and tech savvy employees to compete in the tough market competition

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 Identification of unnecessary programme that do not contributes to the organizations
target.
Weakness:
 Employees search for better opportunities in better organization after successful ETD
training.
 Old employees may find it difficult to cope up with the modern technology
 Training schedule hampers company productivity
 Reluctant attitudes of managers and HR team often slows down the ETD process
 How would you ensure alignment of OD ETD practice in your day to day practices?
a. Communication in ETD settings
b. Skills development
c. Organization of principles
d. Conditions
e. Assessment
f. Design and Development learning material
g. Implementation
h. Evaluation-criteria, mode, indicators
Facilitate and evaluate learning
 List some of the different theories about how people learn.

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Theories about how people learn are the learning theories which are set of organized
principles that explain how an individual gather and acquire knowledge. The three noted learning
theories are:
Behaviorism, Cognitive Information Processing (Cognitivism) and Constructivism.
 Explain how these theories relate to how you would facilitate learning.
Behaviorism-The behavior theorists objectify the process of learning as the difference in
behavioral pattern. The theory will impact on my facilitation with the acquisition of new
knowledge and new pattern in behavior of learning. Besides, learning can be gained by rote
work, repetitive practices and more.
Cognitivism-it is dependable on the process of thinking. The theories of cognitive learning
assume that learning occurs through internal information process. This theory will facilitate me
to focus on mental process and changing behavioral patterns, changing the old ones by reading
world examples, linking concepts and discussion.
Constructivism-The theory of constructivism is based on the thought that each and every
individual construct new concepts of learning based on their previous experiences. This theory
will facilitate me to concentrate on solving problem. Growing the skill of constructing my own
knowledge base with the help of case studies, research projects and simulations is one of the
major impact of this theory on my facilitation.
 Explain the different levels of evaluation of training, and how they impact on your
evaluation planning. Refer to a recognized evaluation model in your answer.

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Kirkpatrick's Four-Level Training Evaluation Model is a recognized evaluation model that
helps in analyzing the impact and effectiveness of training which results in future improvement.
The four levels of the model are:
o Reaction-It measures the reaction of the trainees which helps the evaluator to understand
the level of training and how it was being accepted by the trainees. It helps in improving
the future training layouts notifying the missing links. The impact of reaction on the
evaluation planning includes identifying if the training was worth the time of the trainees,
if the training was successful or not, the strength and weakness and if the audience liked
the style of presentation.
o Learning- This level measures the skills and what the learners have learned. The level
focuses on identifying the amount of knowledge gained by the individual and the end of
the training session and whether the learning objectives have been achieved by the
learners or not. The level helps in measuring areas related to skills, attitudes of the
trainees before and after training.
o Behavior- This level measures how far the trainees have changed their nature or behavior
based on their received training to determine their techniques of applying the knowledge
in real life. The impact of behavior on the evaluation planning includes indentifying if the
trainees utilized any of their learning, whether the trainees were able to learn new skills
and knowledge, whether effective learning took place in the training session or not.
o Results- Analysis of the final results of training is done in this level. This method
analyses the outcome of the organization, whether the training process has been effective
for all or not. Among all the noted levels, measurement of the final results of the training
is the most time consuming and most expensive. The outcome of the levels includes the
biggest challenge which identifies the benefits, outcomes and the final results of the

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training. Besides the outcome includes increase in employee retention, increase in
production, high rate of morale and increase in sales.
Evaluation Planning
Level 4: Results To Evaluate
 Observations and
Interviews to be used
 Understanding the
skills and
knowledges gained
 Online and quick
examinations for
evaluation should be
done
 360-degree feedback
tool to be used
To Achieve
 Increase in employee
retention
 Higher level of morale
 Increases sales figure
 Higher level of customer
satisfaction
 Low complains of
employees and staffs
 Increased and accelerated
productivity
 Discuss assessment practice
Assessment or careful planning in an organization is a systematic procedure to gain valid
data regarding the organization’s performance record and the identify the possible factors
that has been affecting the organization’s performance.
The practice of assessment or the evaluation procedure differs from other categories of
evaluation since it highlights the organization as the main unit of analysis.

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 What kinds of support do learners generally require?
Learner support is a basic segment of a successful learning condition. It focuses on what
the teacher or instructor can or should do to help learners beyond the formal delivery of
content, or skills development. Learner support covers a wide range of functions.
From the personal experiences I have encountered, I believe students’ needs support
when they struggle with new ideas. In this situation learners can be supported by the
scaffolding process. It helps students to acquire deeper understanding of knowledge and to
evaluate a wide range of different ideas and practices.
Besides this, learner also need feedbacks for improving their performance. I have come
across students who fails to understand the improvement and the quality of work required to
External Environment
Social and cultural
Technology
Administrative
Stakeholder
Organizational
Motivation
Mission
Goal/Targets
Workplace Culture
Recognotion
Rewards
Organizational
Performance
Efficiency
Effectiveness
Financial Viability
Organizational Capacity
Strategic leadership
management
Human Resources
Financial management
Process and program
management
Infrastructure

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reach their targets smoothly. Activities like assignments, project works, and student activities
needs effective feedbacks for improvement.
From my personal experience I believe that every learner needs guidance on administrative
issues other than the support for academic purposes. These include personal issues, delay due to
sickness or postpone of a date. Counseling is important as it helps the student to succeed.
In my opinion, the most essential tool required for supporting a learner in his learning process is
a one to one solo discussion. I have noticed that many students feel shy to open up and express
their thoughts and requirements. Many feel marginalized at some point in the group discussion
and thus communicating with them in a solo environment is a necessary requirement for
smoothing their path of success.
 What psycho-social and institutional factors generally cause these needs?
The effective way of organizing a classroom is denoted by identification of the
characteristics of each and every learner.
I believe that students who require rigorous instruction and more attentions can be allocated to sit
on the front rows of the classroom so that the teacher can look after their needs closely. I have
noticed that students suffering from vision problem face issues to follow the class board and the
teacher’s instruction. Hence, they should be given more attention.
I have noticed that Certain psycho-social factors like disabilities, racism, castism and other
barriers among the learners make some of them feel that they are marginalized.
Summarizing all, from my personal experiences I believe the requirements of all the learners
should be identified and resolved with the highest priority.

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What do you believe to be the strengths and weaknesses of the SDF/SDL system?
The main strengths are:
a. Establishing and promoting learnership skills
b. Providing basic free training to the unemployed
c. Finance skill development programme
d. Ensure education quality and training quality for the workforce
e. Inspire workers to take participation in leadership and training programs
f. Promotion of Self employment
g. Increase in productivity level and position in the competitive market
Some of the challenges/weakness of the SDF method is:
a. Often employees are forced for training programs
b. The deadlines, work-pressure remains the same during the training schedule
c. Employees who are permanent often become unsettled when learnership workers
outperform them at work
d. Lack of extra administrative resources for capturing data
e. Organizations often refuse pay incentives to employees after training since they
believe that they have already invested on its employees.
 Explain the process of standards writing and qualification design
The process of writing standards follows the method described by SAQA. The process
includes the following steps:
 Analysis of the systems
 Analysis of the outcomes
 Narrow consultation

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 Standards generation or writing the unit standards
 Wider consultation of unit standards for public comment
 Revision to incorporate feedbacks
 Submission that consist of a report, a system analysis and the actual unit
standards.
 Explain what a management “system” is (such as a performance appraisal system). Your
response should explain management systems in general, not performance appraisal.
A management system is the structure of arrangements, procedures and strategies utilized
by an association to guarantee that it can satisfy all assignments required to accomplish its
goals. These targets include a blend covering numerous parts of the operation of the
organization. These are like counting money related achievement, item quality, relation with
the customer, authoritative and administrative conformance, specialist administration and so
on. A successful management system include responsibility and involvement in leadership
skills, compliance with the industry standards and legislation, Recruiting employee, notifying
and assessing potential failures, inspection of facilities, critical system management,
intervention and review of management system and audit.
 What if anything makes the management of ETD different to the management of
anything else?
ETD includes educational based approach which differs widely from any other management
procedure because of it’s emphasize on the overall development of an individual. In the Context

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of south Africa, management of ETD plays a very important role in exploration of new talent and
skills for the advancement and development of the country.
 Discuss two aspects of general management that you believe are critical for the
performance of your role as an ETD practitioner
The two most important aspects of general management that the author believes to be
important for an ETD practitioner role are:
Able to set and comply with quality standards – Practitioners set a goal of performing high
level of qualitative production and keep their standards high through out in their employment
area. Just like any basic management norms, it is important for them to meet the quality and the
standards.
Cooperative and collaborative- ETD practitioners should be co-operative with their coworker
in their job. Collaborative and group activities in providing ETD program in any organization
always results in massive success, thus confirming another of the basic norms.
Description of ETDP within a company in South Africa:
There has been a significant increase in the education, training and development practices in
the organizations of South Africa. Like many other companies in South Africa, our company has
also been facilitating its employees with the opportunity to learn and develop their skills. The
company believes to train its employees so that they can compete in both national and

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international platform and cope up with the newer development in the field of technology and e-
media.
Investment in training employees of the organization is one of the main moto of our
organization now. These training curriculums includes technical trainings, sales and marketing
tactics, safety training and management development trainings. The company believes that each
and every employee of the organization will benefit from the trainings provided to them and this
in turn will increase their level of efficiency at work. Some of the approaches and methods used
in our organization are:
 Classroom training schedules.
 E-learning
 On Job training programme
 Traditional training programme.
 Technology based training programme.
Besides these approaches, web-based learning programme has been currently introduced in the
company which enables employees to learn online via intranet/internet protocols. Some of the
methods of delivery of ETDP training in our company includes:
 Training classroom guided by instructor
 Classroom-based learning
 Case studies and role playing programme
Training schedules in the company are mostly done internally by the training team or the Human
Resource tam. But in certain cases, outsourcing of ETDP is also used. Company welcomes
consultancies and outside training provider to train the employees.

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