Employability in the College Sector: Reflections on a South African-English FE-HE Collaboration Simon McGrath and Seamus Needham with Joy Papier, Volker Wedekind Salim Akoojee, Harvinder Attwal, Marius Calitz and Trish van der Merwe

The Rise of Employability Rising notion of the past 25 years (but cf. Beveridge 1909) Rise in OECD conventionally seen as a 3 part story: 1. Decline of manufacturing and rise of services 2. Rise of Neoliberalism and fall of the welfare state 3. Discourse of lifelong learning and the boundaryless career

Our Purpose To use comparative data and cross- disciplinary theories to argue that the dominant educational discourse and practice of employability is excessively narrow To outline provisional elements of an alternative tripartite account of employability

Our Methodology Joint team from 3 universities, 3 public further education (and training) colleges and 1 sector education and training authority - from England and South Africa Study of 3(+1) colleges - 2 South African / 1 English Institutional case studies- Documentary analysis Interviews, focus groups Campus tours Seminars

The Dominant Educational Account of Employability A personalised account of employability as the individual’s ability to gain and maintain a job and to obtain a new one as circumstances dictate Educational providers must reshape their curriculum and pedagogy in order to focus more sharply on the knowledge, skills and attitudes that will promote their learners’ employability

Bringing Contexts In Drawing in other perspectives highlights a second dimension - social, cultural, economic and political contexts Continental labour market sociology urban studies youth studies political economy international and comparative education

The Institutional Dimension Third, as educationalists, we stress the important role that educational institutions play in promoting and limiting the development of individuals’ employability

Aspects of Institutional Employability The employable college Going beyond Giving access to knowledges and networks Developing dispositions Colleges as spaces Reputation matters

Employability is three-dimensional Conclusion Employability Skills Institutional Dimension Economic, Political, Cultural Context

UWC FET Institute (FETI) FETI has its origins as an NGO creating access to HE and FET for disadvantaged students from the mid 1990s FETI has been located at UWC under the Faculty of Education since 2005 FETI’s primary focus is on the FET/TVET sector and its interface with the world of work and HE FETI’s three main areas of engagement are teaching, research and advocacy/capacity building

UWC FET Institute Projects Design of qualifications for FET College lecturers in collaboration with 7 SA universities Articulation project that locates professional HE qualifications in FET Colleges (DHET-INSETA) Evaluation of FET Colleges in formal qualification provision (Danida) and assessment of qualifications (SAQA) Member of the DHET FET Summit Task Team (2010)

UWC FET Institute Research Projects Post-schooling youth research (in collaboration with CHET, Ford Foundation) Research on the status of TVET in 13 SADC countries (SPAN & University of Nottingham (UoN), SADC-UNESCO) Research on students attitudes in vocational education and training (City & Guilds, British Council) Research on learning to support employability in UK and SA FE/FET Colleges (UoN & UKZN, British Council-merSETA) Research on qualifications and work experience of W. Cape FET College lecturers Research on vocational pedagogy & TVET/HE articulation research RPL research in FET Colleges (SAQA) Audit of SA FET Colleges (HSRC, DHET)