SITUACION DE LA RADIO EN AMERICA LATINA Edgar Jaramillo

Within South Africa and the government domain, lifelong learning has become a priority. This can be seen through the adoption of a framework for lifelong learning by the government in 1994 that mirrors international trends (Walters, 2000). In addition, the National Directorate was renamed the Adult Education and Training Directorate from the ABET (Adult Basic Education and Training) Directorate, which indicates the focus of extending adult education beyond that of the basic literacy and numeracy level (Walters, 2000). The government’s focus on lifelong learning appears to be to allow individuals disadvantaged by apartheid the opportunity to learn and to skill the workforce to compete globally (Walters, 2000).

Legislation adopted in South Africa highlights the importance of lifelong learning (which is also a component of the disciplines of personal mastery). With the advent of the Skills Development Act, the Skills Development Levies Act, the NQF (National Qualifications Framework) Act and the SAQA (South African Qualifications Authority) Act, companies are steered to encourage access to learning and lifelong learning (SAQA, 2006).

The issue of access to learning can be seen particularly clearly in the Skills Development Act. Two of its purposes are:

To encourage employers--

i. to use the workplace as an active learning environment;

ii. to provide employees with the opportunities to acquire new skills (Skills Development Act No.97 of 1998, paragraph 2c)

The Skills Development Levy Act of 1999 states that every employer must pay a Skills Development levy at the rate of 1% of the leviable amount, which is the total amount of remuneration (that is, payroll). The only companies/employers exempt from the Act are those whose remuneration during the following twelve month period will not exceed R250 000 (approximately €25 000). The aim of this Act is to encourage workplaces to be sites of learning and to train employees, as companies can claim back a portion of the costs of training from the SETA (Sector Education Training Authority) that the organisation falls under. This Act encourages

workplaces to train employees, and if training can be associated with learning opportunities, then workplaces are encouraging learning.

“Within policy documents, lifelong learning hinges mainly on the construction of a National Qualifications Framework”, the NQF (Walters, 2000, p202).

The NQF is the set of principles and guidelines by which records of learner achievement are registered to enable national recognition of acquired skills and knowledge, thereby ensuring an integrated system that encourages lifelong learning. (SAQA, 2006, para 2).

“The objectives of the NQF … to contribute to the full personal development of each learner and the social and economic development of the nation at large” (SAQA, 2006, para 15) by enabling learners to access the education and training system and to move across institutions and learning pathways more easily (Walters, 2000). The NQF also mirrors developments in other countries and so facilitates the transferability of qualifications across our borders (Walters, 2000).³

The SAQA Act of 1995 was drafted to provide for the development and implementation of a National Qualifications Framework (NQF) through the formation of a regulating body known as SAQA (South African Qualifications Authority) (SAQA, 2006). The implication of this Act and the NQF is that organisations have a role to play in developing learners so that the nation can be developed. If legislation is encouraging companies to develop their employees, then companies within South Africa, which comply with or embrace the legislation, should be learning organisations. However, making training and development initiatives accessible to all staff does not necessarily mean that the disciplines of a learning organisation, according to Senge, are being practised. Although employees may be exposed to an environment that provides training, the environment may not be one of a learning organisation that practises the disciplines of personal mastery, mental models, building shared vision, team learning and systems thinking (Senge, 1990).

Even though legislation may encourage organisations to be learning ones, the leadership and culture of the organisation play an important role in determining if the environment of the organisation is that of a learning organisation.

3 National Qualification Frameworks (NQFs) are now being developed in several SADC (South African Development Community) countries, and the NQF has functioned for more than a decade in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand (SAQA, 2006).

Within a South African context, the understanding that companies hold of what a learning organisation is, are quite varied. Larger, global organisations based in South Africa, such as BMW (BMW South Africa, n.d.), PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC, 2010-2011) and VW (Volkswagen South Africa, 2011) include “learning organisation” and a description of their interpretation of this term on their website, and their understandings of the term are quite diverse. A repetitive element that does appear is that of “training”. BMW places the theme of “learning organisation” under the banner of “Competitive edge” and lists their focus points as the integration of training and development with organisational objectives, equipping managers with tools and incentives to develop staff and all staff having access to development (BMW South Africa, n.d.).

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) views its transformation into a learning organisation through their corporate university, which serves to fill the void between solely practical and theory based learning (PwC, 2010-2011). VW has established a learning academy in “its aim to become a knowledge driven organisation that offers skills development and training of scarce skills for the company and for the country” (Volkswagen South Africa, 2011, para 3).

Smaller companies also hold a range of ideas concerning the learning organisation. C4L, the Desmond Tutu Centre for Leadership, a non-governmental organisation, views itself as a (non-profit) learning organisation as it offers training to develop the community, with courses offered to individuals, organisations and society (Desmond Tutu Centre for Leadership, n.d.). QS Systems, a small IT company based in Cape Town sees itself as a learning organisation as it constantly increases its knowledge base and refines its approach, products and services, focusing on empowering members and the continuous improvement, training and development of skills and technology enablement to achieve its vision (QS Systems, n.d.). Samfort Systems, another small IT company based in Pretoria, applies the concept of a learning organisation to itself as it believes the

“company is a learning institute” in which everyone learns and grows, therefore maximising each individual’s potential (Samfort Systems, 2002-2005).

These understandings of a learning organisation are quite different to Senge’s concept: Senge views a learning organisation as more than opportunities to learn - in the South African context, a learning organisation seems to be interpreted as one where learning is encouraged and individuals have the opportunity to pursue skills and qualifications, where the process of learning is encouraged. Senge, on the other hand, views learning in a learning organisation as a collective effort, and something that is to be practised.

Although legislation in South Africa is supposed to encourage companies to embrace lifelong learning, I have witnessed the abuse of a vehicle that is meant to facilitate learning, namely learnerships. A learnership agreement involves a learner, an employer or a group of employers and an accredited provider, and the purpose of a learnership is to lead to a qualification registered on the NQF while the learner gains work experience (SAQA, 2006). Companies offer learnerships in areas where a skills shortage has been identified and learners are employed by such companies for the duration of the learnerships, usually one year. Thereafter the companies decide if the learners should be appointed permanently. However, many of the companies for whom I have facilitated the fundamental components of qualifications (literacy and numeracy) do not place learners in the appropriate departments for learnerships. For example, learners who were employed by a company for a food and beverage packaging learnership were not being exposed to food and beverage packaging as they were based in an office, performing office administration tasks. The learners felt frustrated at this situation. This is not an isolated case – there are many more examples of this abuse of practice (Grawitszky, 2007). Learnerships are a tool that is intended to encourage lifelong learning, but if learners have a negative experience of learnerships, it is questionable if they will want to engage in further learning through such vehicles in the future.

This example points to whether policy plays a regulatory or facilitative role when legislation is implemented. The role of policy (regulatory environment) will be discussed in Chapter Four together with other factors that contribute to business sustainability.