The Contribution of Technikons to Human Resource Development in South Africa

Acknowledgements This paper documents the phenomenal contribution that technikons have made to the development of human resources in South Africa, particularly high level human resources throughout the period of the 1990s. This is done by examining the enrolment and qualifications profile of technikons over a fifteen year period. The evidence is assembled in relation to fields for which there is a high labour demand and it further highlights the extent to which social concerns such as equity are being addressed within technikons in particular. Only through matching qualification outputs with trends in occupational demand on the labour market are institutions able to measure the relevance of specific curricular progrogrammes. On the whole, many programmes at technikons are tailored for specific niche segments within the labour market. This enables technikons to respond with greater flexibility to labour demand needs. A major challenge however is to shift the award of qualifications away from diplomas towards degrees and post-graduate qualifications. The DPRU wishes to thank the South African Netherlands Research Programme on Alternatives in Development (SANPAD) for supporting the research on which this paper is based. In addition, Gerard Evers at the Institute for Labour Studies (IVA) at the University of Tilburg provided useful feedback on the arguments that we raised. None of these institutions are however liable for the arguments and positions adopted by the author