On-the-Job Training on the Assembly Plant of a South African Motor Vehicle Producer: a Case Study

It is the purpose of this paper to report the findings of a study into on-the- job training on a South African motor vehicle assembly-line. The data reported in this paper were collected during the months July, August and September, 1972, when the writer spent some seven weeks on the premises of a major motor car producer of the Eastern Province. In order to preserve the anonymity of those who freely supplied information—managers, workers, and informed outsiders—the plant in question has been called Company X. More than 50 per cent of Company X’s employees are Non-White (both Coloured and Bantu). Among the Non-Whites of the whole region there prevails what one might refer to as a vicious circle of poverty, and before the specific theme of this paper is developed more fully, it appears appropriate to discuss briefly some features of the typical social environment from which Company X draws its Non-White employees