Leadership and community engagement at technical and vocational education and training colleges

M.Phil. (Leadership)Abstract: The intention of this study was to develop theory in the field of Community Engagement (CE). CE creates dialogue between Higher Education Institutions and the surrounding communities in which these institutions operate. It also assists in forming partnerships between leadership of TVETs and communities. Furthermore, it creates opportunities for community leaders to influence the curricula and programmes to meet the needs of the community. Through this partnership HEIs will realise that they do not have all the answers for solving community problems. They need to engage them. They should not be alienated from their surrounding institutions but should be included in decision-making. The relationship between TVETs and HEIs is important, and TVETs must implement CE as a core function. Serious limitations will have adverse effects on the system as a whole. This will affect team work which is important for success, especially when facing challenges of globalisation. The purpose of the study was to establish whether leadership of TVETs were engaging their communities. A qualitative study was conducted at TVETs and with DHET officials and NGOs. The data were gathered for the study through in-depth interviews. The primary aim was to discover the challenges that TVET leadership were facing when engaging communities, and how they addressed these challenges. The second aim was to establish communication channels that existed between communities and TVETs leadership. Thirdly, were challenges that prevented TVET colleges from engaging their surrounding communities in dialogue. Consequently, were insights that might be derived for assisting leaders in dealing with CE challenges. The findings revealed that whilst TVET leadership understood CE, it was important that they did not engage community leaders in their decision-making. One of the reasons was their approach which was bottom-down rather than bottom-up. The challenge they faced was the lack of interaction with their communities. They waited for the community to come to the college whenever they had problems instead of going to the communities. There was distrust from the community through unethical behaviour of leaders who took their communities for a ride. Communication is a key to CE, and is regarded as an anchor and a pillar. Communication was lacking. Communication channels that did exist were not sufficient and needed to be improved..