Impact Assessment of National Skills Development Strategy II: assessing the impact of learnerships and apprenticeships under NSDSII: three case study reports

The case studies analyse the extent to which learnerships and apprenticeships facilitate the development of the skills and capabilities required in the workplace in diverse sectoral contexts. Equipping young people for the workplace, or employability, is both relative and absolute (Brown et al, 2003). An individual may be employable because of their absolute skills, abilities and qualities whether imparted through a university degree, a further education and training qualification, a learnership or apprenticeship qualification - but they may not succeed in obtaining employment because of relative conditions in the economy and labour market at a specific point in time (Simmons, 2009). A successful transition to the workplace is strongly dependent on the structure of the economy and the ways in which the labour market is organised. The context of high unemployment and critical skills shortages in South Africa is a significant determinant of successful outcomes of the learnership and apprenticeship pathway systems, and there are distinct outcomes and levels of success associated with different sectors, particularly in the context of a global recession.