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The professional status of FET college lecturing staff has always been clouded by controversy (Papier, 2011: 104).They are often seen as not befitting the title lecturer due to the fact that the most, particularly in the engineering studies, are not professionally qualified as educators, because they have been sourced directly from commerce and industry (see par. 1.2). Those who were professionally qualified as educators were not technically qualified as artisans or technicians but sourced from schools, hence their lack in vocational and practical expertise. The questionable qualification status of FET college educators is better explained as follows:

FET college teachers need to be specialists in a number of senses. First they must be specialist in areas of knowledge related to specific occupational fields such as construction, financial services, tourism, electronics, etc. Secondly they will need familiarity, not just with different branches of technical knowledge but with the broader disciplinary underpinning of such knowledge. It is therefore likely that they themselves

will have completed a programme of technical or professional education. It is also important to recognize that both their technical/professional knowledge and their pedagogic knowledge of the FET curriculum will need updating at different points in their career through programmes of professional development. To implement this new National Certificate Vocational, the teaching staff at FET colleges should not only be familiar with the new curriculum and its pedagogic demands, but must also have clarity on the new meaning of the vocational role of colleges. Thus if the new curriculum is to become a reality, systematic attention needs to be given to the professional development of FET college teaching staff (Young, 2006: 157)

Young (2006:155) further contends that when NCV was implemented with its knowledge based vocational programmes, it was never taken into account that the majority of FET college educators who would be delivering these programmes lack adequate specialized vocational expertise. Fisher et al (1998: vii) also contend that technical colleges require educators with a mix of professional teaching qualifications and practical experience of commerce and industry.

According to Akojee (2005: 38), the FET sector does not consider the formal teaching qualifications as either necessary or effective in providing quality instruction; technical practical experience is considered more important. The aforementioned argument is evidenced by the number of educators in the sector who are without a professional educator‟s qualification particularly in the engineering division of the sector.

According to the Green Paper for Post School Education and Training (Department of Higher Education and Training, 2012a:24), the FET sector employs technicians and artisans as educators and overlooks their lack of pedagogic knowledge. They are good in interpreting and understanding subject guidelines and assessment guidelines of vocational subjects owing to their industrial practical experience. Unfortunately their lack of formal training as educators compromises their effort to impart vocational skills to students.

Thus, Gauteng‟s public FET colleges like their counterparts nationally, are faced with the challenge of lecturing staff whose qualifications are questionable in terms of the relevancy to the programmes they facilitate. FET college educators should be both vocationally qualified and professionally qualified to be suitable to facilitate NCV programmes. They are supposed to have in-depth practical and vocational knowledge that will enable them to interpret the vocational subject guidelines and assessment guidelines. They are also expected to be pedagogically knowledgeable in order to interpret schemes of work and be able to compile POE‟s (Portfolio of Evidence) and POA‟s (Portfolio of Assessment) files (Young, 2006: 157).

Papier (2011: 108) explains the dual identity of FET college lecturers as follows:

Vocational teachers are expected by policy initiatives to hold dual identities, those associated with their previous industry fields of practice, experience and expertise in trades, and that of a teacher. Thus a triple competence, subject specific knowledge, pedagogic knowledge and practical/ workplace knowledge

experience, is beginning to define what vocational teacher education ought to embody and is what sets vocational teachers apart from general academic school teachers.

Unfortunately, educators are either vocationally qualified or professionally qualified but not both. Gauteng‟s public FET colleges are equally affected like other colleges. Owing to the above arguments it can thus be accepted that a large percentage of lecturers in Gauteng‟s public FET colleges hold qualifications which are inappropriate (Papier, 2011: 108).

The educator‟s qualification crisis indicates that the initial training and professional education and development of FET college educators have been neglected. The fact that the FET college sector preferred artisans and technicians during its recruitment sessions discouraged educator training institutions to focus on the training of FET college educators (Papier, 2011: 104). The reason for the neglect of educator training in the FET college sector is outlined below:

The approach to the recruitment of FET college staff some from schools but most directly from industry meant that industrial experience has had much more emphasis than specialist pedagogic knowledge as the primary qualification for an FET college lecturer, especially for those in technical fields where the pedagogic demands have rarely been recognized (Young,2006:156).

The aforementioned argument highlights a serious challenge whereby the professional development of FET college educators is not catered

for in teacher training faculties of most teacher training institutions (universities and universities of technology), hence the decision by colleges to recruit educators directly from industries and schools. Gauteng has more institutions of higher learning than other provinces, yet the training of FET college educators in this province is a challenge.

Against the background of a lack of professional development for FET educators, it is no surprise that the results of the NCV programme since its inception in 2007 are poor. The poor state of the 2012 NCV examination result is outlined below as follows:

The government has pumped billions of Rand into the FET colleges but tens of thousands of student at South Africa‟s 50 FET colleges failed the 2012 end of year examinations so dismally that they will not progress to the next level or obtain an exit leaving qualification because they have failed to pass all seven subjects (The Sunday Times2013, 13 January: 6).

The poor results of the public FET college sector are evidence of the lack of a national professional development programme for FET college lecturers. The professional development of lecturers belonging to the FET college sector is still neglected despite the fact that the sector dates back to the discovery of gold and diamonds in this country (see par. 2.3).With no national professional development programmes for technical or vocational lecturers, the colleges are therefore left with no option but to source lecturers directly from industry or schools. The reason for the lack of national professional development programmes for FET college lecturers is explained as follows:

 The generally low status of FET colleges. This may account for the reason why in South Africa universities have been reluctant to offer FET related programmes.

 The absence of links between FET colleges and universities and between FET teacher education and school teacher education. This absence of FET college/university links underpins the lack of knowledge and experience of FET colleges among university based teacher educators and educational researchers.

 The approach to the recruitment of FET college staff some from schools but most directly from industry and the continued influence of the inflexible block release programmes linked to engineering apprenticeships. The block release legacy has meant that industrial experience has had much more emphasis than specialist pedagogic knowledge as the primary qualification for an FET college lecturer, especially for those in technical fields, where the pedagogic demands have rarely been recognized (Young,2006:156)

Papier (2011: 104) concurs with Young as follows:

 In the absence of a registered suite of national qualifications there is no mechanism that

allows programmes designed for college lecturers to attract public funding.

 In traditional faculties of education academic capacity is focused on school teacher training and there is little capacity for or experience in vocational teacher education.

 Faculties of education realize the low viability of designing and offering new vocational teacher qualifications because the sector is small in comparison with school teaching (around 8000 college lecturers compared to 500 000 school teachers).

 Faculties of education in South Africa have not engaged sufficiently with what vocational teacher education might be or what it means to be a vocational teacher.

The argument advanced by Papier and Young above suggests that the deficit of appropriately qualified public FET college lecturers is beyond the sector‟s capability. The problem is evidenced by the sector‟s failure to appoint appropriately qualified lecturers despite the promulgation of the FET colleges Act of 2006 (no 16 of 2006) which empowers college councils to appoint lecturers of their choice based on qualifications and the recapitalization grant intended to fund the professional development of lecturers.

Colleges have failed to source appropriately qualified lecturers because there are no national programmes for professional development of vocational lecturers to date. With regard to the province of Gauteng, it is easy to fill vacant posts with vocationally qualified candidates from industries because there is a pool of such

candidates who are either unemployed or retrenched. Unfortunately the retention rate of such candidates is low due to the disparity in remuneration between the colleges and the industries. Candidates who are vocationally qualified have the tendency to return to the industrial sector (Department of Higher Education and Training, 2012a:26).

Thus, public FET colleges across the country including those in Gauteng are marginalized by the deficit of appropriately qualified lecturers to the extent that skills development is compromised and responsiveness of the province‟s public FET college sector to labour markets is also affected. Public FET colleges cannot be responsive to labour markets while contending with the challenge of lecturer‟s qualifications (Department of Higher Education and Training, 2012a:24).

3.3.2 The articulation of curricula and course contents to the