The role of industries in providing basic life-skills education to unskilled black employees in the Empangeni/Richards Bay industrial areas

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Historically, the majority of South Africans were denied access to free, compulsory andgeneral education (National Multi-Plan, 1997:1). This means that many citizens did nothave access to that educational foundation necessary for further learning, qualityemployment opportunities or even full and active social and political participation. Variousarguments throughout this study imply that the South African education system presentedunequal educational opportunities for most of its people. In this case, Black Educationfailed to produce people with the necessary skills for our economy. To compensate thesepeople, the opportunities for education should be created everywhere in schools, sportsclubs, NGOs and more importantly, in workplaces because education is the key forsurvival. Due to the need for economic growth and the need for skilled workers, largenumbers of adults should be provided with extensive adult education. In other words,industries should become educational centres where employees could be equipped withnumeracy and literacy programmes which would improve production and basic life-skillsnecessary to meet the demands of the economy at large.The study sought to find out what role the two industries play in providing basic life-skillseducation to unskilled Black employees in the Empangeni/Richards Bay industrial areas.This was an empirical survey involving the target population of unskilled Black employeesand facilitators of the adult education programmes of the lllovo Sugar Milling andSpoornet industries. In this study two different types of questionnaires were designed andused to ascertain the respondents' disposition towards adult education programmes. Ineach industry one questionnaire was administered to the unskilled Black employees andanother to the facilitators of adult education progarmnes.The research sample comprised of seven unskilled Black employees from lllovo, twentyfiveunskilled Black employees from Spoomet, two facilitators from Illovo and another twofacilitators from Spoornet industries. The data collected from the sample attempted toanswer the following research questions:./ What basic day-to- day life-skills are needed by unskilled Black employees in theindustries?./ How effective are these programmes to unskilled Black employees in the industries?./ How accessible are these programmes to unskilled Black employees?These questions necessitated a literature study and an empirical survey as research tools. Ithas emerged from the study that adult education is seen as an agent for social change andinstrument for social development. The study seeks to assess the extent to which these programmes:.:. Fulfil the day-to-day basic needs of unskilled Black employees, in for example, financialmanagement or identifying and using sources of informatiom like directories andmaps .•:. Fulfil the literacy and numeracy needs of unskilled Black employees, in for example,appending signatures, reading newspapers and bank forms .•:. Cultivate good habits in the workplace such as punctuality, time management, safetyprecautions and proper procedures.The findings reveal that adult education programmes in industries were valuable anduseful to employees as they were able to transfer the skills acquired from the programme tothe real world situation. These life-skills included counting money, writing names andletters, appending signatures, reading newspapers and safety precautions signs,understanding road signs and making telephone calls.The researcher concludes with a number of recommendations including the following:~ Each industry should establish a building named a 'college' or 'centre' within itspremises where adult education programmes will be presented.~ Each industry should have its own policy documents regarding the provision of workerlife-skills education.~ All workers have a right to paid education and training leave. This means that skilled,semi-skilled and unskilled workers should be entitled to four or six weeks of paid leaveper year for further education throughout their working life.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University