MINISTERIO DE SALUD Plan Operativo Anual

The entire research process has been guided by the research question and has sought to answer this question as comprehensively as possible. As introduced in Chapter 1, the primary question of the research is:

How are issues, management practices and competences derived, incorporated into and facilitated in an MPA management training course, and how are these evident in learning processes that articulate with the workplace of an MPA professional?

It is clear through the data presented in Chapter 4 and the discussion of that data using theory in Chapter 5 that the research question has been adequately addressed. Analytical statement 1 answers the question of how issues, management practices and competences have been derived and taken up by an MPA management training course. We saw that the MPA management training course that is examined in this research was born out of a study done on MPA management in South Africa and since then has adapted appropriately to changes in the MPA management environment. The structure and design of the course also ensures that it is relevant to the work being done by course participants within their MPAs.

The course designers have looked at management practices and problems within MPAs in South Africa and have derived a number of core competences (across a number of competence areas) that every MPA professional should possess in order to be effective in his or her job. The course aims to develop these competences, making use of a number of different tools and processes.

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Although the course was known to take its bearings from issues raised in the two ‘state of MPA management’ reports, interviews with MPA professionals conducted as part of the research further corroborated the view that the course was effective in addressing difficult issues facing MPA management in South Africa. This said, a number of issues pertaining to the day-to-day management of MPAs in South Africa are not addressed by the course. These tend to be of a practical sort, and include such things as the inability of an MPA professional to swim, the need for skipper’s training, basic boat maintenance skills, etc. However, these are skills that are developed over time and would be quite difficult to include in a formal learning setting such as that of the SAMPATC.

Once it was established how issues, management practices and competences were identified for inclusion in an MPA training course, the researcher needed to examine how learning and thus the development of these competences was facilitated by the course. This was addressed by analytical statements 2 and 3.

In the discussion around analytical statement 2, the SAMPATC was scrutinised using the model of learning proposed by Knud Illeris. The model suggests that there are three dimensions of learning necessary for learning to take place: incentive, interaction, and content. Through examination of the data using this model and the work done by Illeris it was concluded that all three dimensions of learning (as well as interplay among them) were evident in the course, and thus one could conclude that the course facilitated learning. Also from Illeris comes the notion that one of the outcomes of learning is competence development, so we could conclude that since the course facilitated learning it also facilitated the development of the competences that it had derived.

In the discussion around analytical statement 3, two key aspects of the course that facilitated learning were identified. First was the fact that the course requires participants to do activities and assignments relating directly to his or her own personal workplace. This not only strengthens the learning process but also enables the participant to develop the ability to use what they have learnt in the classroom setting and apply it to situations in their workplace. This is in line with new research being conducted into the concept of what is called work- integrated learning.

Secondly, the course created a space for participants to work together and share their knowledge. The social and contextual approach to learning was found to resemble the

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practice-based community approach to learning that was introduced as a concept in Chapter 2. The primary method of teaching used was interaction among participants on the course. These two key aspects of the course are very close to the concepts of situational and social learning. It was therefore concluded that the course as a whole was designed to facilitate learning using these concepts as its foundation.

In the discussion around this analytical statement evidence was broached that pointed to the success of the course in developing competences. A large number of participants have passed the course. Moreover, evaluations of the course done by participants show that even those who did not pass benefitted greatly from participating in the course. But it was also found that there is a high number of participants that do not successfully complete the course, which could be an area that course designers wish to address.

Lastly, the research looked at how the learning processes on the course articulated with the workplace setting of participants. It had already been established that the course addressed many of the contentious issues in management practice in MPAs in South Africa, and thus it could be concluded that it was relevant to the workplace setting of participants. Furthermore it emerged from course evaluations that the participants themselves found the course to be highly relevant to their day-to-day workplace experience. It was even found that coursework activities could be used by participants after the course to help put into practice in their respective MPAs what they had learnt on the course. It was also found that the course and the competences it tries to develop align very neatly with an international certification programme for MPA professionals (the WIO-COMPAS programme). All this permitted me to conclude that the course articulates very well with the workplace setting of the participants.

From the above it is clear that the primary research question has been answered in an adequate fashion through the presentation and discussion of the data. Based on the findings of the research, I believe there are some modest recommendations to be made in order further to improve future MPA management training courses.