This year we piloted the Advanced Certificate on Occupational Learning: Learning and Development Advisor, on NQF Level 7. Learners had to submit more than 50 practical assignments to be declared ready for the EISA. This gave me the idea to share their products with other learning providers and learners in occupational and vocational learning. So, I asked the learners who achieved a distinction for assignments for permission to publish their submissions as articles on our Intgrty website.
Problem statement: What advice would you, as a Learning and Development Advisor, give a learning and development organisation concerning the promotion of skills development?
1. Barriers to the implementation of talent management plans.
Learning and Development organisations often play a pivotal role in facilitating the development of talent management initiatives and addressing these barriers is essential for their clients’ success.
LACK OF STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT WITH CLIENTS
Barrier
Talent management initiatives may not succeed if the learning and development organisation’s offerings are not aligned with the strategic goals of their clients. If learning and development solutions are not tied directly to business outcomes, clients may not see their value.
Advice
Understanding client objectives: Before designing or implementing any talent management plans, take the time to thoroughly understand the client’s business goals, industry dynamics and specific talent needs. Tailor learning and development solutions to directly support these objectives.
Consultative approaches: Act as a strategic partner rather than just a service provider. This involves helping clients recognise the link between talent management and their broader organisational strategy.
Customisable solutions: Offer flexible, customisable learning paths that can adapt to each client’s specific goals and challenges.
INADEQUATE STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
Barrier
Key stakeholders within client organisations, such as senior leadership or department heads, may not be fully engaged in talent management efforts, reducing the plan’s effectiveness and implementation.
Advice
Stakeholder mapping and engagement: Help your clients identify and engage critical stakeholders early in the process. Regularly communicate the benefits of talent management plans and how they contribute to business results.
Leadership development: Incorporate leadership development programmes that train client leaders to become champions of talent management within their own organisations.
Frequent feedback and collaboration: Ensure there are continuous feedback loops with stakeholders to maintain alignment with the evolving needs of the organisation.
RESISTANCE TO CHANGE WITHIN CLIENT ORGANISATIONS
Barrier
Cultural resistance within client organisations can hinder the adoption of new talent management initiatives. If the organisation’s culture does not support learning and development, the plan will struggle to take root.
Advice
Change management training: Provide clients with tools and training to manage organisational change. This might involve workshops or coaching on how to foster a culture of continuous improvement and learning.
Highlight short-term wins: Encourage the demonstration of short-term wins through pilot programmes to help the organisation see the immediate impact of talent management.
Role modelling: Equip client leadership with the knowledge to model desired behaviours, gesturing to the organisation that the talent management initiatives are supported and encouraged.
MISALIGNED OR UNDEFINED METRICS FOR SUCCESS
Barrier
Clients may not have clear metrics for evaluating the success of talent management initiatives, leading to challenges in demonstrating the impact and value of learning and development efforts.
Advice
KPIs and Benchmarks: Work with clients to establish clear Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) tied to talent management objectives (e.g. employee engagement, retention, skill development).
Data-driven insights: Leverage data analytics to track progress and make informed decisions on learning and development initiatives. Use the data to show clear return on investment (ROI) and business impact, helping to ensure continued investment in talent management.
On-going evaluations: Set up regular review points to assess the effectiveness of talent management plans, allowing for adjustments as necessary based on performance data.
BUDGETARY CONSTRAINTS AND ROI CONCERNS
Barrier
Clients may face budget constraints or may be hesitant to invest in talent management without a clear understanding of the ROI.
Advice
Build a business case: Help clients see the long-term value of talent management by presenting data, case studies and research that demonstrate ROI, such as improved retention rates, employee performance and leadership pipeline development.
Offer accessible solutions: Provide flexible learning and development offerings that can be scaled according to budget, allowing clients to implement smaller initiatives that can grow as more resources become available.
Align costs with benefits: Clearly communicate how the investment in talent management will address specific pain points in the organisation, such as high turnover or skill gaps and how these challenges translate into financial costs.
2. The development of advocacy campaigns.
Advocacy campaigns can be a powerful tool for promoting the value of learning and development both within organisations and in the broader industry.
DEFINE CLEAR OBJECTIVES AND PURPOSE
Advice
Before launching an advocacy campaign, it is essential to have a clear understanding of what you are advocating for and why. Identify the specific goals you want to achieve, such as raising awareness about the importance of continuous learning, promoting a specific learning and development solution or influencing policy changes in the education and training sector.
Identify Key Issues: Focus on addressing specific challenges in learning and development, such as closing skill gaps, promoting employee engagement in learning or advocating for digital transformation in training.
Set SMART Goals: Develop Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound objectives for the advocacy campaign to track success.
KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
Advice
Tailor your advocacy message to different audience segments. This could include organisational leaders, professionals, employees, industry bodies or policymakers. Understanding your audience’s needs, pain points and motivations will allow you to craft messages that resonate and drive action.
Segment Audiences: Divide your audience into groups such as decision-makers (CEOs, HR leaders), influencers (industry experts) and beneficiaries (employees or learners). Tailor messages to each segment accordingly.
Addressing Concerns: For example, organisational leaders may need to understand the business case and ROI for learning and development, while employees may care more about career growth and skill development.
CRAFT COMPELLING MESSAGES
Advice
Strong messaging is the backbone of any advocacy campaign. Your messaging should clearly articulate the value and importance of learning and development, whether you are advocating for greater investment in employee development, policy changes or industry-wide initiatives.
Highlight Benefits: Use clear, impactful messaging that outlines the benefits of learning and development—such as improved performance, employee retention, innovation and adaptability in a changing marketplace.
Data-driven Stories: Use compelling data, statistics and case studies to support your message. For example, highlight research showing the positive correlation between employee development and business performance.
Storytelling: Incorporate real-life stories or testimonials from organisations and individuals who have benefited from learning and development initiatives to humanise your campaign and create emotional engagement.
LEVERAGE MULTIPLE CHANNELS
Advice
To reach a broad and diverse audience, use a variety of communication channels to amplify your message. The more touchpoints you have, the greater your potential reaches and impact.
Social Media: Use platforms like Twitter and YouTube to share content that promotes learning and development’s role in employee and organisational growth. Create info-graphics (visual representation of information/data), videos and articles to engage your audience.
Webinars and Events: Host webinars, workshops or live events where thought leaders can share insights on the importance of learning and development. These events can be used to engage both internal and external audiences.
Email Campaigns: Develop targeted email campaigns with tailored messages for different stakeholders, such as HR professionals, business leaders or industry associations.
Industry Publications and Blogs: Write articles or guest posts in industry-specific publications or blogs that highlight the importance of learning and development, current trends and the future of work.
ENGAGE KEY STAKEHOLDERS AS ADVOCATES
Advice
Successful advocacy campaigns often rely on a network of advocates who can amplify the message. Identify and engage key stakeholders, such as industry leaders, influencers and experts, who are passionate about learning and development.
Internal Champions: Encourage internal leaders or influential figures within organisations to serve as champions for your cause. These individuals can share their experiences and success stories with learning and development.
Partner with Influencers: Collaborate with industry influencers or thought leaders to co-create content, such as blogs, podcasts or videos. Their endorsements can help build credibility and increase the reach of your campaign.
Employee Ambassadors: Engage employees who have benefited from learning and development programmes to share their personal development journeys and advocate for the importance of continuous learning.
3. The way advice, guidance and support should be given.
The way advice is delivered can influence how clients, learners and employees perceive the organisation, trust its expertise, and implement its recommendations. Here is advice on how a learning and development organisation should provide guidance and support to ensure impactful results:
BE CLIENT-CENTRED AND NEEDS-BASED
Advice
Tailor your advice and guidance to the specific needs, goals and challenges of each client or learner. Avoid a one-size-fits-all approach and focus on understanding their unique context.
Conduct Needs Assessments: Start by thoroughly understanding the specific needs of the organisation or individuals you are supporting. Use assessments, surveys and consultations to identify gaps and objectives.
Active Listening: Engage in active listening to fully grasp what your client or learners are experiencing. Avoid assumptions and ensure that the advice provided directly addresses their concerns.
Customisation: Provide personalised advice based on the results of the assessment, focusing on solutions that align with the clients or learner’s culture, industry and strategic goals.
ADOPT A CONSULTATIVE APPROACH
Advice
Position yourself as a partner or consultant, rather than just a provider of off-the-shelf solutions. Offer guidance in a collaborative way that empowers clients to take ownership of their development.
Collaboration over Directives: Instead of simply telling clients or learners what to do, work with them to co-create solutions. Involve them in decision-making, so they feel ownership over the advice given.
Build Trust: Develop a relationship based on mutual trust. By showing genuine interest in their success, providing transparency and consistently delivering valuable insights, clients will view you as a trusted advisor rather than a vendor.
Ask Open-ended Questions: Use open-ended questions to encourage deeper discussion and reflection. This not only helps clarify needs but also enables clients and learners to think critically about their own challenges.
PROVIDE ACTIONABLE, CLEAR AND PRACTICAL ADVICE
Advice
Ensure that your advice is not just theoretical or high-level, but practical and implementable. Clients and learners should be able to act on your guidance with clear next steps.
Actionable Steps: Break down advice into specific, manageable actions. Offer step-by-step guidance to help the client or learner understand exactly how to proceed with implementing the solution.
Clarity: Avoid jargon or overly technical language that may confuse your audience. Ensure your guidance is clear, concise and easy to follow, particularly for non-expert clients or learners.
Templates and Tools: Provide practical tools, templates and resources that learners or clients can use to implement the advice, making it easier for them to take immediate action.
FOCUS ON EMPOWERING AND BUILDING CAPABILITY
Advice
The goal of any advice or guidance in L&D should be to empower clients and learners to become self-sufficient over time. Focus on building their capability to solve problems independently.
Skills Transfer: When offering guidance, emphasise skill-building. Ensure that your advice helps clients and learners develop the skills they need to solve future challenges on their own, rather than creating dependency.
Enablement over Dependency: Rather than just solving problems for clients, show them how to solve those problems themselves. Offer advice that encourages critical thinking, problem-solving and long-term capability development.
Coaching Style: Adopt a coaching style when providing support. Use questions to guide clients and learners toward discovering their own solutions, fostering growth and independence.
BE RESPONSIVE AND AVAILABLE
Advice
Offer on-going support and be available to answer questions or provide additional guidance when needed. Timely, accessible support builds trust and helps clients feel confident in their ability to implement advice.
Timely Responses: Respond to questions, concerns or issues promptly. Quick turnaround times on requests for support demonstrate reliability and professionalism.
Follow-ups: After delivering advice or training, follow up to check on progress, answer questions and offer further clarification. This shows commitment to the client’s or learner’s success beyond the initial engagement.
Multiple Support Channels: Provide support through multiple channels, such as email, phone, chat or in-person consultations, making it easy for clients and learners to access help when they need it.
4. Monitoring and evaluating trends in skills development activities.
Monitoring and evaluating trends in skills developmentactivities is essential to ensure that organisations remain agile and responsive to the evolving needs of their workforce and industry. By systematically observing how skills are developing, organisations can refine their learning programmes and ensure employees are equipped for future challenges.
DEFINE CLEAR OBJECTIVES AND METRICS
Before monitoring or evaluating any trend, it is crucial to have clear goals. Understanding what you want to achieve with skills development activities will allow you to focus on the most relevant data and trends.
Set Clear KPIs: Define specific key performance indicators related to skills development, such as skill acquisition rates, time to competence and the impact of new skills on productivity.
Link to Business Outcomes: Align skills development objectives with broader business outcomes, such as innovation, customer satisfaction or market expansion. This will ensure that you are monitoring focuses on activities that drive strategic value.
UTILISE DATA ANALYTICS AND LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (LMS)
Leverage data analytics tools and LMS to gather real-time insights on how employees are engaging with and benefiting from learning programmes.
Track Learning Engagement: Use LMS data to monitor participation, completion rates and engagement with training modules. This can reveal which programmes are most effective and popular.
Assessing Skills Progression: Track individual and collective skill progression through assessments, quizzes or hands-on performance reviews. Monitor trends in how quickly employees are mastering new skills.
Real-time Data Dashboards: Implement data dashboards to visualise trends in skills acquisition and training outcomes over time. Dashboards can help spot immediate trends and provide insights into long-term development.
CONDUCT SKILLS GAP ANALYSES
Regularly perform skills gap analyses to identify which skills are lacking within the workforce and align future training programmes accordingly.
Current vs Future Skills: Compare the current skills within your organisation to the skills forecasted to be in demand based on industry trends. This will help prioritise skills development efforts.
Employee Input: Involve employees and managers in identifying skills gaps. Their insights can provide a deeper understanding of which skills are most urgently needed on the ground.
Competency Frameworks: Use competency frameworks to map required skills to specific roles. This allows for a structured evaluation of which areas need more focus and training investment.
BENCHMARK AGAINST INDUSTRY STANDARDS
Monitoring skills development should include external benchmarking to see how your organisation compares to others within your industry or sector.
Industry Surveys and Reports: Regularly review industry reports and labour market data to understand which skills are trending in your field. This could be based on new technologies, market shifts or regulatory changes.
Peer Comparison: Benchmark your organisation’s skills development performance against competitors or leading companies in your sector. This can provide a sense of where you stand and what gaps need addressing.
REGULARLY EVALUATE TRAINING PROGRAMME EFFECTIVENESS
Assess the impact of training programmes to determine if they are fostering the desired skills development.
Post-training Assessments: Evaluate learner performance through post-training assessments to measure skill retention and application. Track scores and progress to identify any patterns in learning effectiveness.
Manager Feedback: Obtain feedback from managers on how effectively employees are applying newly learned skills in their roles. This provides a practical evaluation of the training’s impact on day-to-day performance.
Performance Metrics: Link skills training to improvements in performance metrics such as increased productivity, faster project completion or reduced error rates. This data can show which programs have the most significant impact on outcomes.
5. Ways to remove the emotional, educational, cultural and economic factors that constitute barriers to best practice in learning and development.
Removing emotional, educational, cultural and economic barriers to best practices in learning and development is essential for creating an inclusive and supportive learning environment.
ADDRESSING EMOTIONAL BARRIERS
Emotional factors can significantly hinder learning and development, such as fear of failure, lack of confidence, stress or past negative experiences with learning.
Strategies
Foster a supportive learning environment: Create a psychologically safe learning space where employees feel comfortable expressing their doubts, asking questions and making mistakes. Encourage a growth mind set by framing mistakes as learning opportunities.
Provide emotional support: Offer mentoring and coaching to help learners overcome self-doubt or anxiety related to learning. Mentors can provide personalised guidance, motivation and support.
Incorporate well-being initiatives: Integrate well-being programmes into your learning and development efforts, such as mindfulness or stress management workshops, to help learners manage anxiety and maintain emotional balance while learning.
Build confidence with incremental wins: Start with smaller, easier tasks or learning modules to build learners’ confidence gradually. Once they see initial success, they may feel more motivated to take on more challenging topics.
OVERCOMING EDUCATIONAL BARRIERS
Educational barriers may include gaps in prior knowledge, learning disabilities or unfamiliarity with new learning methods or technologies.
Strategies
Offer foundational learning: Provide foundational courses or bridging programmes to bring all learners to a common level of understanding before introducing more advanced concepts.
Implement adaptive learning technologies: Use adaptive learning platforms that tailor content to each learner’s skill level and pace, ensuring that learners are neither overwhelmed nor under-challenged.
Promote inclusive learning methods: Use diverse teaching methods, including video tutorials, interactive exercises and practical applications, to cater to different learning styles (e.g. visual, auditory and kinaesthetic).
Provide learning support for disabilities: Ensure that learning and development content is accessible for individuals with disabilities by incorporating assistive technologies (e.g. screen readers, subtitles, alternative formats) and offering support like tutoring or additional resources.
ADDRESSING CULTURAL BARRIERS
Cultural differences, language barriers and societal norms may inhibit participation in learning programmes. It is vital to create an inclusive learning and development environment that respects and accommodates diversity.
Strategies
Promote cultural awareness and sensitivity: Ensure that learning and development content is culturally inclusive and does not unintentionally alienate learners from different backgrounds. Use culturally neutral examples and diverse case studies to engage all learners.
Incorporate multilingual options: Offer learning materials in multiple languages or provide translations to accommodate non-native speakers. This makes learning more accessible for individuals who are more comfortable in their native language.
Celebrate diversity in learning: Acknowledge and celebrate different perspectives, traditions and values in learning programmes. Encourage cross-cultural collaboration and inclusion in group exercises or discussions.
Leverage local context: Tailor learning and development initiatives to the local cultural context of learners where applicable. This helps to make the content more relatable and engaging for learners in different regions or cultures.
REMOVING ECONOMIC BARRIERS
Economic factors such as the cost of learning resources, technology access and the availability of time can prevent some employees from fully engaging in learning and development programmes.
Strategies
Offer flexible learning options: Implement flexible, self-paced learning programmes that allow learners to study at their own pace and at convenient times. This reduces the burden on learners who may not be able to commit to rigid schedules due to work or personal responsibilities.
Provide scholarships or learning stipends: Offer scholarships or financial support for employees who may not afford costly certifications or learning programmes. Partner with external providers to subsidise the costs of professional development.
Use cost-effective learning resources: Leverage open-source or low-cost educational resources like Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), webinars and free e-learning platforms that provide high-quality education without high costs.
Ensure equal access to technology: Address the digital divide by providing access to the necessary technology (e.g. laptops, tablets, internet access) for learners who may not have them at home. Consider setting up learning stations within the workplace for access during work hours.
Time-Saving Micro-learning Modules: Implement short, focused learning modules (micro-learning) that require minimal time investment. This helps employees with tight schedules balance learning with work or personal commitments.
CREATING A HOLISTIC APPROACH
To effectively remove these barriers, it is important to integrate holistic solutions that address the complex interplay between emotional, educational, cultural and economic factors.
Strategies
Personalised learning paths: Develop personalised learning paths that accommodate individual needs. This approach allows each learner to advance based on their unique pace, learning style and prior experience, reducing the frustration of a one-size-fits-all model.
Blended learning models: Offer a mix of online and in-person learning opportunities to cater to different learning preferences, time constraints, and technological access levels. Blended learning can make education more flexible and accessible for diverse learners.
Inclusive policy design: Implement organisational policies that support diverse learning needs, such as offering paid learning time, providing flexibility for caregivers and ensuring that training is accessible for all levels of employees.
Focus on lifelong learning: Encourage a culture of lifelong learning by continuously offering opportunities for up-skilling, reskilling and professional growth, regardless of an individual’s current position or background. Lifelong learning fosters inclusivity and addresses both current and future skills needs.
Many learning providers offering occupational learning and development are up in arms because the QCTO had the legacy qualifications, and their accompanying unit standards scrapped and removed from the NQF register. They feel that curriculums for occupational qualifications that can replace the legacy qualifications have not yet been developed. And they are right. However, in all fairness towards the QCTO – the CEO of the QCTO warned us more than four years ago already that the legacy qualifications and their unit standards would be terminated.
When we think about this objectively, we should admit that it is about time that the legacy qualifications and unit standards are properly reviewed and adapted to changes in the external learning and development environment or be replaced by something new. Here are some benefits that we can gain from the replacement of the old occupational curriculums with the new occupational ones.
The flaws in the already registered Occupational Qualifications can be eliminated or at least reduced.
The relevant and valuable learning content of Historically Registered Qualifications are kept while redundant learning content are done away with.
Duplication between qualifications is eliminated unless repetition is necessary for the sake of efficient learning.
Recent developments in learning and development can be included in the new qualifications and Skills Programmes.
A balance in level and content of different knowledge and practical modules in each qualification can be achieved, which is currently not the case.
Each Practical Skill Module can be aligned with a Knowledge Module. This is critically important because practical work should always be supported by relevant theory. By doing this, the learning content can be structured in such a way that the learning process is conducted systematically. All knowledge should be applied knowledge.
Knowledge topics should be relevant to the knowledge modules with which they are linked. This is currently not the case.
Associated Internal Assessment Criteria must test knowledge topics. This is currently not the case.
The Occupational Qualifications and Skills Programmes can be designed to cater for both contact learning and online learning.
All the elements of the curriculum, for example Knowledge topics, Associated Internal Assessment, etc., can be correctly formulated, and a balance can be found in the number of elements for different Modules.
The learning experience can be substantially enriched.
Introduction. On 25 October 2023 I presented suggested curriculums on NQF levels 4, 5, 6 and 7, which I developed upon advisement by Mr Thomas Lata, to stakeholders in our fields of learning. I developed the curriculums in the hope that we could capitalise on the opportunity to review and remove as many flaws and gaps in the legacy qualifications as we possibly could. The curriculums were intended to replace the four qualifications in OD ETD.
Even though 105 Stakeholders attended the TEAM meeting, few participated in the discussions that followed on my presentation. A prominent QCTO manager suggested that I provide them with copies of the gap analysis that I did prior to developing the curriculums. I, unfortunately, did not prepare a written report because I did the gap analysis for my own purposes – to develop the suggested curriculums. Besides, I would have charged a consultancy fee for the report because just analysing the existing curriculums and writing a gap analysis report would have been a massive task. It took me almost two years just to develop the suggested curriculums.
The skills programmes. At the end of June 2024, after the qualifications on NQF Levels 5, 6 and 7 were registered, stakeholders in occupational learning at last woke up to the reality that, with the legacy qualifications and their unit standards being scrapped, many were left with nothing to offer the community and their clients. In all fairness I need to admit that the QCTO warned us that this would happen four years ago already.
At least we are allowed to develop and registered skills programmes to replace the unit standards for which there is still a need. It is while developing the curriculums, alignment matrixes, and learning materials that I realised that a gap analysis is, once again, called for. This time I made notes and wrote the report. Here it is.
Generally applicable gaps
The qualifications on levels 4, 5, 6 and 7 do not form a logical system. Lower-level qualifications do not serve as a foundation for learning on higher levels.
Despite assurances to the contrary the Knowledge Modules, Practical Skill Modules and Work Experience Modules do not always support one another.
The curriculums that are registered are not the same as the comprehensive curriculums that were developed with the assistance of CEPs during scoping sessions. One gets the idea that the modules and assessment criteria were changed after the curriculums were approved by the CEPs.
Some fields of learning, which received good attention in the legacy qualifications, received only limited attention or nothing at all in the new occupational qualifications. They should have been included as separate skills programmes with Knowledge Modules, Practical Skill Modules, and Workplace Experience Modules. The following are examples of this:
Leadership in the quality assurance of learning and development.
Conducting qualitative research and preparing research reports.
Entrepreneurship.
Oral and written communication skills.
Managing assessment of learner performance.
Assisting learners to manage their learning experiences.
Differentiating between “theoretical” knowledge, captured in Knowledge Modules, and “Applied Knowledge”, Captured in Practical Skill Modules is a fallacy. There is no such thing as knowledge that cannot be applied.
The format of Associated Assessment Criteria is not consistently the same. Here is an example:
Level 5: Learning priorities are established by means of a structured and valid process within the contextual requirements. (Statement of fact. This is the format that was used in the CEP approved curriculums.)
Level 6: Apply principles of team leadership and management in learning and development context. (Starts with a verb.)
Level 7: Analyse and interpret various legislative, policy and regulatory frameworks governing skills development are in terms of their application for compliance purposes. (A mixture of the formats used on levels 5 and 6. Perhaps the same as on level 5, depending how one interprets the meaning of the sentence.)
This qualification should be replaced in its entirety. It is an eclectic mixture of thumb-suck topics that do not focus on the achievement of any particular purpose.
101321 Occupational Certificate: Training and Development Practitioner, NQF Level 5
Workplace learning and work-based learning could have been treated as one field of learning. This would have eliminated the confusion between the Knowledge Modules, Practical Skill Modules and Work Experience Modules.
It is important to remember that Knowledge Modules serve as the foundation for progression from practical competence to foundational competence while Practical Skills Modules serve as the foundation for progression from foundational competence to Work Experience Modules (reflexive competence). Therefore, and to avoid confusion, Knowledge Modules should be paired up with Practical Skill Modules. Work Experience Modules are used to gain a measure of reflexive competence, and they can sometimes be integrated. Therefore, there should be the same number of Practical Skill Modules as Knowledge Modules, but there need not be the same number of Work Experience Modules. Let’s look at the situation with the current curriculum as opposed to what would have been a better arrangement:
The arrangement in the current curriculum (wrong).
Knowledge Modules
Practical Skill Modules
Work Experience Modules
01 The statutory learning and development environment.
01 Manage and coordinate logistics, facilities and financial resources.
01 Conduct learning and development management practices.
02 Learning and development management functions.
02 Plan, conduct and report on a learning and development needs analysis.
02 Conduct skills development facilitation processes as required for mandatory grant payments.
03 Organisational Learning and development needs analysis.
03 Plan the delivery of an occupational learning intervention.
03 Conduct learning and development planning and implementation processes.
04 Facilitation of learning in an occupational context.
04 Facilitate different methodologies, training styles and techniques within an occupational learning context.
04 Facilitate an occupational learning session.
05 Assessment principles and practices.
05 Facilitate experiential work-based learning.
05 Facilitate a work-based learning and development process.
06 Workplace learning and development planning, evaluation and reporting.
06 Plan and conduct the assessment of learner competencies.
06 Conduct assessments of learner competence.
07 Work-based learning.
07 Evaluate the impact of learning within an occupational context.
07 Conduct an evaluation of the impact of learning within an occupational context.
The following arrangement would have been less confusing, even though the anomalies in the definition of the modules become clear.
Knowledge Modules
Practical Skill Modules
Work Experience Modules
01 The statutory learning and development environment.
“Statutory” refers to legislation and the impact of legislation. It is not clear where this fits in with any of the Practical skill Modules or Work Experience Modules.
02 Learning and development management functions.
01 Manage and coordinate logistics, facilities and financial resources.
01 Conduct learning and development management practices.
03 Organisational Learning and development needs analysis.
02 Plan, conduct and report on a learning and development needs analysis.
02 Conduct skills development facilitation processes as required for mandatory grant payments.
04 Facilitation of learning in an occupational context.
04 Facilitate different methodologies, training styles and techniques within an occupational learning context.
04 Facilitate an occupational learning session.
07 Work-based learning.
05 Facilitate experiential work-based learning.
05 Facilitate a work-based learning and development process.
05 Assessment principles and practices.
06 Plan and conduct the assessment of learner competencies.
06 Conduct assessments of learner competence.
06 Workplace learning and development planning, evaluation and reporting.
03 Plan the delivery of an occupational learning intervention.
03 Conduct learning and development planning and implementation processes.
A Knowledge Module dealing with quality assurance would have been relevant here.
07 Evaluate the impact of learning within an occupational context.
07 Conduct an evaluation of the impact of learning within an occupational context.
121276 Advanced Occupational Certificate: Learning and Development Professional, NQF Level 6
Eight Knowledge Modules are probably too many for one certificate. Ons gets the impression that the developers added everything that they could not fit in on levels 4, 5 and 7 here.
The differences between the comprehensive curriculum developed and approved by the CEPs and the curriculum that was registered are vast, especially in terms of content.
I could not link Practical Skill Module 02 (Implement strategy for the management of a Work-based learning programme/bursary) with any of the Knowledge Modules or Work Experience Modules.
Work Experience Module 02 (Workplace-based learning programme implementation processes) does not fit with any of the Knowledge Modules. This Work Experience Module would have fitted in much better with the modules in the level 5 qualification.
As in the case of the level 5 qualification, Knowledge Modules and Practical Skill Modules are not arranged in an orderly sequenced manner.
118774 Advanced Occupational Diploma: Learning and Development Advisor, NQF Level 7
242401-002-00-KM-01, Learning and Development in a Knowledge Economy. This title sounds creative and current. However, it provides no indication of what the learning content of the module should be. One can, of course, obtain more detail information on the learning content by looking at the exit level outcomes. However, titles are always used in marketing materials, whereas using exit level outcomes in such materials would probably be inefficient.
Knowledge Module 01 The first knowledge module covers way too much content for one manual compared to the other knowledge modules. I, therefore, divided it into three manuals, one for each knowledge topic.
Practical Skill Modules 1 to 3 do not logically belong with any of the listed Knowledge Modules.
Knowledge Module 05 (Career Succession Planning, Recognition of Prior Learning and Talent Management) are not addressed in any of the Work Experience Modules. Work Experience Module 05 links to the recognition of prior learning. One can integrate knowledge and practical learning in Work Experience Modules, but regarding the recognition of prior learning as including career succession planning and talent management is somewhat far-fetched.
A second implication of the Practical Skill Modules not being aligned with the Knowledge modules is that it was almost impossible to structure the learning content in such a way that the learning process can be planned and executed systematically. Participants in the scoping processes sometimes suggested Associated Internal Assessment Criteria that do not belong with the Practical Modules where they were suggested; some such criteria imply as many as five or six separate and unrelated practical skills while others belong with additional skills that are not listed. Experts would, for example, suggest one step in a process consisting of six steps but not the other five steps. The facilitator will need to explain all six steps and the learners will need to do the steps that were not listed first before doing the one that was listed. Unfortunately, this cannot be supported by examples in the registered curriculum, seeing that it refers to the curriculum that was approved by the CEPs.
Close. In closing, the registered curriculums are better than the elaborate ones generated and approved by the CEPs. Unfortunately, some valuable knowledge and skills are now not addressed. Apart from rendering the learning being provided less effective, it also makes it difficult to align and registered Skills Programmes. One would, for example, have preferred to register three Skills Programmes dealing with assessment, namely Conducting assessment (the old US115753), Design and develop assessment (the old US115755) and Administration of Assessment (which was included in the old US123393 even though it justified and still justifies being a separate Skills Programme).
The most important flaw in the current curriculums is that the qualifications on levels 4, 5, 6 and 7 do not represent a smooth and progressive growth path. During the TEAM meeting on 25 October last year, the ETDP SETA, as the QDP, (Mr Maswazi Tshabalala) promised that the NQF Level 5 qualification would be reviewed this year and that the ETDP SETA would negotiate with the developer of the level 4 qualification to have it transferred to the ETDP SETA, where it belongs. It is already August, and nothing has been done about this problem yet. Furthermore, it would serve no purpose reviewing one or two curriculums only.
All four curriculums should be reviewed as one progressive learning process. I developed four such curriculums in 2022 and 2023 as suggested by Mr Thomas Lata. After the TEAM meeting of 25 October two consultants who attended the meeting asked me by email if they could have copies of the four curriculums. Do they sell the curriculums to the ETDP SETA or QCTO?
African American woman student with afro hairstyle wear yellow cardigan, sitting on windowsill, working doing remote job on laptop, learning using online course. Self-education, preparing for an exam.
Search the Mentornet online website by typing https://www.mentornetonline.co.za in the text box that your search engine uses (for example Google) and ENTER. That is the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) for the Mentornet online platform.
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Click on “Proficiency Course in Entrepreneurship in the Post-COVID 19 Era”.
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Boston, T. 2007. Capacity Building in the New Economy: A Mandate for Minority-owned Businesses. Georgia Minority Supplier Development Council, Atlanta USA.
Businesstech. How effective risk management can help businesses grow.
MacCleod, G. 1988. Starting your own Business in South Africa. Oxford University Press. Cape Town. Fifth Edition.
Madri, S., van den Heever, A., Francis, D., Valodia, I., Veller, M. and Sachs, M. South Africa needs to end the Lockdown. This is a Blueprint for its Replacement.
Ontology, epistemology, ethnomethodology, phenomenology and all the other “gy’s” mean pretty much the same when considered in terms of grammar. Interpretivists would tell you that every culture and historical situation is different and unique. That is why research conducted in an African context will be different from research in a European, Asian or any other context. And even “European” and “Asian” are overgeneralized contexts.
Even so, research methodology remains the same all over the world because the same principles and processes can be applied to different contexts.
Hello, my name is Hannes Nel and I have developed 109 video lessons on research methodology. Initially I worked from my office and house in Pretoria. Halfway through the process my wife and I moved to Hartenbos in the Southern Cape. That is when the environment became more interesting.
One night I was visited by a small snake with a huge self-image. Although only about 15 centimeters long, the little guy would lift his head and pump up his neck pretending to be a Cape Cobra. It was a Wolf snake, and they are harmless. I grabbed the little guy by the neck and gently dropped him over the fence into the safety of the open field.
Not long after that a centipede, about 5 cm long and fifteen millimeters wide crawled through under the same door as the snake. This rascal was incredibly fast and made a dash for the safety of a couch. I looked under all three our couches but could not find him. I sometimes wake up between two and three o’clock in the morning. Once I start thinking about work, I know that I will not sleep again, so I would get up, make myself a cup of coffee and work on the script for my next video. About two weeks after the centipede invaded my house, I accidently stepped on him in the dark passage leading to my room. He left his hide during the night, probably looking for food. Fortunately, I had my sandals on because a centipede can deliver nasty bite.
My wife had a rather extensive succulent collection in Pretoria and she brought some of them with to Hartenbos. She also bought some new ones in the Northern Cape, which is almost a desert, so that one can find ones that make the most beautiful flowers there.
Sadly, the suburb where we live is developing at an incredible pace. The natural vegetation is rapidly being lost to new houses. That is why the guineafowl are peeping over our neighbour’s fence to see if there is not, perhaps, some open space and something to eat for them on the other side. And the family of partridges that used to scratch around in our garden also left when the building contractors appeared on the scene. A family of rabbits lived and bred in the open field next to our house. You can still see them from time to time, but they are also moving out.
A thick knee bird laid two eggs right next to my study. They don’t build a nest like most other birds do. Their eggs are well camouflaged, so they just lay them on the unprepared ground. We have a collection of different protea species in our garden and the thick knee bird laid her eggs under one of the smaller protea bushes.
The male and female take turns sitting on the eggs and the one sitting on the eggs will not easily leave the nest even when threatened. The other one would stay in the vicinity to protect the nest and sitting partner. If you approach them, he or she would spread their wings and their eyes, which are usually a soft yellow will turn to a fierce-looking bright orange colour to scare you away.
One night a wild cat or some other predator attacked the male sitting on the nest. The next morning, he was gone. I found only the scull on my driveway. What I found strange was that the were no feathers or bones, only the clean-stripped skull. The hen still tried to hatch the eggs, but I am not sure if they hatched because I had to return to Pretoria to finalise our move.
Nature must be angry at us. In the early hours of 29 September 2019 a huge thunder storm broke out over the suburb where we live. In less than twenty minutes the water broke a 6 meter gap in the wall between our house and the one above us, raged through our yard and crashed into the wall on the other side of our house, breaking a six meter gap in this wall.
I wish we could just live with nature without having to disturb the habitat of the wild animals. We really need to find a way in which to live with nature rather than to destroy and disrupt without thinking about the damage that we are causing. Fortunately, there is a game reserve less than a hundred meters from the suburb where we live so that most of the animals can move there.
In closing, allow me to share some brief notes on the videos on research methodology that I produced:
The videos are aimed at students who wish to embark on P. Hd. or master’s degree studies.
I am posting one video per week on YOUTUBE where anybody can have access to them for free.
In addition, I am posting the scripts that I used to produce the videos as articles on one of our web sites (www.intgrty.co.za). You can, therefore, also read the articles for free.
The full video menu is also posted as an article on the “intgrty” web site.
You can also gain access to the videos on our online learning platform at less than one USA Dollar per video. Once you have gained access to a video, you can revisit it as many times as you wish at no additional cost.
Prospective or studying post-graduate students need not watch all the videos. You should be able to write your thesis or dissertation if you watch only the videos that are relevant to your research level and topic. Five or six videos will probably be enough.
Lecturers can also use the videos as training aids, thereby saving their students the cost of having to pay for the videos.
Lecturers can also use the questions that I ask in my tests in theirs and they need not acknowledge the source. The electronic address of the platform is:
I also posted 3 videos with open access as a sample on our online learning platform.
I also developed a ten-question online test per video. Those who watched the videos on the online platform can do the tests online at no additional cost. They can repeat the tests as many times as they wish and, once they have successfully completed all 109 tests, will automatically be issued with a Mentornet Proficiency Certificate in Research Methodology.
Research Methods for Ph. D. and Master’s Degree Studies: Data Analysis. Methods for Organizing and Analysing Data Part 2 of 2.
Research Methods for Ph. D. and Master’s Degree Studies: The Layout of the Thesis or Dissertation Part 1 of 10.
10.
Deconstruction.
Empirical generalization.
Research Methods for Ph. D. and Master’s Degree Studies: The Layout of the Thesis or Dissertation Part 3 of 10. Ethics in research part 1 of 3.
Research Methods for Ph. D. and Master’s Degree Studies: The Layout of the Thesis or Dissertation Part 4 of 10. Ethics in research part 2 of 3.
Research Methods for Ph. D. and Master’s Degree Studies: The Layout of the Thesis or Dissertation Part 5 of 10. Ethics in research part 3 of 3.
Research Methods for Ph. D. and Master’s Degree Studies: The Layout of the Thesis or Dissertation Part 6 of 10. Typing format.
Research Methods for Ph. D. and Master’s Degree Studies: The Layout of the Thesis or Dissertation Part 7 of 10. Quotations.
Research Methods for Ph. D. and Master’s Degree Studies: The Layout of the Thesis or Dissertation Part 8 of 10. Referencing sources.
Research Methods for Ph. D. and Master’s Degree Studies: The Layout of the Thesis or Dissertation Part 9 of 10. Essential information in references. Part 1 of 2.
Research Methods for Ph. D. and Master’s Degree Studies: The Layout of the Thesis or Dissertation Part 10 of 10. Essential information in references. Part 2 of 2.
Research Methods for Ph. D. and Master’s Degree Studies: Reviewing the Thesis or Dissertation Part 1 of 3.
The purpose of the review.
The relevance of sources.
Research Methods for Ph. D. and Master’s Degree Studies: Reviewing the Thesis or Dissertation Part 2 of 3.
