Housing education and training in the general education and training band of the national qualifications framework

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:The provision of housing in South Africa is a national priority. As many of the aspiranthomeowners are first-time homeowners, they are not necessarily informed about thepitfalls of home ownership. From April 1994 till March 2000 the Department of Housingapproved more than 1,1 million housing subsidies. The recipients of these subsidies werefirst-time homeowners that did not possess the necessary knowledge and skills to makeinformed and responsible housing-related decisions, thus making them vulnerable toexploitation and creating complex problems that hamper the housing delivery process.The release of the National Housing Code during March 2000 announced that the SouthAfrican Government had harnessed seven strategies that were aimed at providing housingto a growing low-income market that already exceeded two-and-a-half millionhouseholds. Although the Government has attempted short-term solutions aimed atequipping these housing consumers with the necessary knowledge and skills to makeinformed and responsible housing-related decisions, initial research pointed to the needfor a sustainable long-term solution in the form of education and training of the housingconsumer.The aim of this research was three-fold: Firstly, to determine the knowledge and skillsrequired by the housing consumer to be able to make informed and responsible housingrelateddecisions. Secondly, to determine the status of housing education and training inthe present primary and secondary school curriculums. Thirdly, to develop an outcomesbasedmodel that would facilitate the inclusion of the identified and refined housingeducation and training content into the General Education and Training (GET) Band ofthe National Qualifications Framework (NQF).A culturally diverse group of educators and practitioners participated in four nationalstructured group meetings that were facilitated using the Nominal Group Technique(NGT). The aim of these meetings was to identify the knowledge and skills required byconsumers to be able to make informed and responsible housing-related decisions.Sixteen housing education and training core concepts could be isolated using the responses generated during the meetings, namely: Basic Housing Technology (BHT),Community (COMM), Cultural Aspects of Housing (CAH), Environment (ENV),Financial Aspects of Housing (FAR), Housing Consumerism (HC), Housing Designand Decoration (HDD), Housing Market (HM), Housing Needs (HN), HousingPolicy (HP), Legal Aspects of Housing (LAH), Resource Management (RM), Role-Players in Housing (RP), Sources of Housing Information (SRI), Tenure Options(TO) and Types of Housing (TH).The document analysis performed in the second phase of the research, revealed thepaucity of housing education and training core concepts in the current curriculum of theGET and Further Education and Training (FET) Bands of the NQF. Housing educationand training core concepts occurred in only 50% of the 318 core subject curriculums. Ofthe housing education and training core concepts that were present in these documents,less than 40% were rated as relevant and could therefore be used for housing educationand training of the learners.An outcomes-based model was developed that can be used to facilitate the inclusion ofthe housing education and training content into the Foundation, Intermediate and SeniorPhases of the GET Band using the Critical Cross-Field Outcomes, Learning Areas,Specific Outcomes, Assessment Criteria, Performance Indicators, Phase and ProgrammeOrganisers, currently included in the new curriculum. Outcomes were then developedthat reflected the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values embedded in the sixteen housingeducation and training core concepts. The mastering of these 57 outcomes will reducethe ignorance of first time homeowners during the housing process and provide asustainable, long-term solution to these problems .

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University