Challenges facing the National Certificate (Vocational) Tourism Programme in the Western Cape

Abstract

In South Africa, the Further Education and Training Act was passed in 1998 and Further Education and Training (FET) colleges became the target for intensive policy reform after the end of apartheid in 1994. In the years that followed the National Certificate Vocational (NCV) programmes were introduced in 2007 at public FET colleges (now Technical, Vocational Education and Training colleges, TVET) in South Africa. The rationale for introducing the proposed NCV programme was in direct response to the perceived shortage of occupational skills within the South African labour market, of which artisanship was central. The NCV tourism is a three-year programme offered at Levels 2, 3 and 4 of the South African National Qualifications Framework (NQF). This paper focuses on the NCV Tourism offered at Level 4, equivalent to Grade 12, South Africa's school leaving grade. This NCV tourism programme was designed to provide both theory and practical experience in various (tourism) vocational fields. The paper highlights challenges facing the programme, and discusses graduates' employability, and evaluates vocational education in South Africa by comparing it to selected international countries to ascertain how South African compares. The research was conducted in the Western Cape in the form of an empirical survey to gather information using research questionnaires. The paper followed a mixed methods approach, using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The paper suggests that NCV tourism graduates are employable in small to medium micro enterprises (SMMEs) and suggests further that graduates need more experience and practical knowledge to be employable in the wider tourism labour market in the Western Cape, South Africa. Finally, the study supports the notion that an updated NCV tourism curriculum is critically important to make the qualification more relevant to the South African tourism industry.