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Lesley Powell

Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, CriSHET, earch Chair: Youth Unemployment, Employability and Empowerment

Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Centre for Integrated Post-Secondary Education and Training, Research Chair: Education, Work and Society

Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, CIPSET, ETDP Research Chair: Youth Unemployment, Employability and Empowerment

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University of Delaware

University of California, Santa Barbara

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George K. # Zarifis

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Durham University

Leesa Wheelahan

University of Toronto

University of Cologne

Carla Filomena Silva

Western University Canada

Armando Marques-Guedes

UNL - New University of Lisbon

University of Stirling

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Papers by Lesley Powell

Vocational education and training for human development

Student achievements and institutional enablements

Skills for Human Development, 2019

Chapter 02. Research Design

This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of ... more This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of Haßler, et al., (2020). Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review of the Research Landscape - see https://opendeved.net/lib/ZEDIHF57. The document is available under Creative Commons Attribution, and both a PDF and a Word document are avaialable.

Chapter 01. Introduction

This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of ... more This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of Haßler, et al., (2020). Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review of the Research Landscape - see https://opendeved.net/lib/ZEDIHF57. The document is available under Creative Commons Attribution, and both a PDF and a Word document are avaialable.

The Long And Winding Road To The Labour Market: South African Public Tvet College Students' Experiences Of System Failure

Not only are millions of young people being excluded from formal education systems and labour mar... more Not only are millions of young people being excluded from formal education systems and labour markets globally, but they are increasingly being excluded even from the conceptualisations of "normal" trajectories. Current orthodox theorisations of "skills for employability" are inadequate for explaining much of young people's learning, lives and livelihoods. In this paper, drawing on data from interviews with South African public TVET college students, we find that their agentic choices to pursue valued lives and livelihoods through VET learning are undermined by a series of systemic failures that make it near to impossible for them to successfully exit the system in the expected time period. Inadequacies of student finance, assessment, certification and internship availability all get in the way of these learners. This is not simply a matter of system inefficiency but is a morally unacceptable failure to meet the needs of young South Africans.

Chapter 06. Themes, Perspectives and Current Debates in TVET Research

This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of ... more This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of Haßler, et al., (2020). Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review of the Research Landscape - see https://opendeved.net/lib/ZEDIHF57. The document is available under Creative Commons Attribution, and both a PDF and a Word document are avaialable.

Chapter 03. Overview of the Discovered Literature

This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of ... more This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of Haßler, et al., (2020). Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review of the Research Landscape - see https://opendeved.net/lib/ZEDIHF57. The document is available under Creative Commons Attribution, and both a PDF and a Word document are avaialable.

Chapter 10. State Authorities for TVET Management

This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of ... more This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of Haßler, et al., (2020). Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review of the Research Landscape - see https://opendeved.net/lib/ZEDIHF57. The document is available under Creative Commons Attribution, and both a PDF and a Word document are avaialable.

Chapter 14. Research Interests and Topics of the SCR Participants

This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of ... more This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of Haßler, et al., (2020). Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review of the Research Landscape - see https://opendeved.net/lib/ZEDIHF57. The document is available under Creative Commons Attribution, and both a PDF and a Word document are avaialable.

Chapter 09. Inclusion-related Challenges and Policies

This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of ... more This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of Haßler, et al., (2020). Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review of the Research Landscape - see https://opendeved.net/lib/ZEDIHF57. The document is available under Creative Commons Attribution, and both a PDF and a Word document are avaialable.

Chapter 00. Executive Summary

This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of ... more This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of Haßler, et al., (2020). Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review of the Research Landscape - see https://opendeved.net/lib/ZEDIHF57. The document is available under Creative Commons Attribution, and both a PDF and a Word document are avaialable.

Appendix 5. List of Additional Materials

This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of ... more This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of Haßler, et al., (2020). Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review of the Research Landscape - see https://opendeved.net/lib/ZEDIHF57. The document is available under Creative Commons Attribution, and both a PDF and a Word document are avaialable.

Appendix 2. Methodology for the Interviews and Structured Community Review

This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of ... more This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of Haßler, et al., (2020). Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review of the Research Landscape - see https://opendeved.net/lib/ZEDIHF57. The document is available under Creative Commons Attribution, and both a PDF and a Word document are avaialable.

Why students enrol at vocational education and training colleges

Skills for Human Development, 2019

Marketing higher education is a growing field of expertise in many developing countries. However,... more Marketing higher education is a growing field of expertise in many developing countries. However, little research has been done on marketing Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Colleges in South Africa. Evidence suggests that it may suffer from a lack of expertise to provide direction to the practical aspects of marketing TVET Colleges. Most of the marketing practices of Higher Education are underdeveloped and lack a strategic focus when it comes to Technical Vocational Education and Training. For TVET Colleges marketing communication plays an important role in students' recruitment. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the influence of marketing communication towards students' decision to enrol at Technical Vocational Education and Training Colleges. The study was conducted in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, where the targeted TVET colleges are based. This is a quantitative, descriptive, and cross-sectional study conducted among a sample of 400 TVET College students. The results of this study reveal the need for marketing communication in TVET Colleges to be addressed urgently in order to improve public perception and enrolment rates at TVET Colleges. Both the students and TVET Colleges will benefit from the study because marketing and communication as a source of information will assist when selecting a college of choice. In addition, this will assist TVET Colleges in the selection of appropriate marketing communication media to enable proper allocation of marketing budget and resources. The findings of this study will then act as guidelines to determine a more appropriate marketing communication strategy to improve the public perceptions of TVET Colleges to make TVET Colleges a students' first choice.

Operationalising the realist-capability model

Skills for sustainable development: Transforming vocational education and training beyond 2015

International Journal of Educational Development, 2016

The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of record. I... more The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher's version. Please see the repository url above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription.

Advancing Life Projects: South African Students Explain Why They Come to FET Colleges

Journal of International and Comparative Education, 2014

The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of record. I... more The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher's version. Please see the repository url above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription.

The multiple dimensions of poverty

Skills for Human Development, 2019

7 Exploring the Value of the Capability Approach for Vocational Education and Training Evaluation: Reflections from South Africa

Education, Learning, Training

In the late 1990s, South Africa faced the threefold challenge of reforming the apartheid-divided ... more In the late 1990s, South Africa faced the threefold challenge of reforming the apartheid-divided institutional landscape of vocational education and training (VET) institutions; ensuring equitable access to skills; and reorienting its skills development system in line with the nation's reinsertion into the global economy. A wave of institutional reforms was enacted which was followed by a large programme of evaluative research. While this body of work was both valuable and necessary, it nonetheless had several limitations. As part of efforts to overcome these, the authors suggest an alternative evaluation method that draws on insights from the 'capability approach'. By putting the needs of people first-rather than the needs of the economy-the capability approach emphasises social justice, human rights and poverty alleviation in VET evaluation. This approach is more focused on the values and goals of individuals and institutions, while retaining the economic rationale as a key analytical tool and emphasising the continued importance of evaluation for the improvement of delivery and outcomes.

Planning for freedom: From human capital to human capabilities

Journal of education, 2021

In this article, I build on critiques of the dominant skills orthodoxies that underpin National S... more In this article, I build on critiques of the dominant skills orthodoxies that underpin National Skills Planning Systems (NSPS). I respond to calls for a broader conceptualisation of skills planning by discussing the contribution that the capability approach brings to the reconceptualisation of the role, purpose, and orientation of NSPS. Applying the capability approach as a thinking tool for building a broader approach to skills planning led to the identification of seven dimensions that frame an emancipatory approach to skills planning. My core argument is that COVID-19 has laid bare the urgent need for new approaches to skills planning that are informed by a different set of assumptions, driven by a different set of indicators, inclusive of different voices, undertaken through different processes, and, importantly, driven by a different set of goals. Responding to the call for a broader approach to skills planning and taking seriously the seven dimensions of an emancipatory skills planning system will require an alternative vision not only of skills and of work, but of society as a whole.

Vocational education and training for human development

Student achievements and institutional enablements

Skills for Human Development, 2019

Chapter 02. Research Design

This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of ... more This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of Haßler, et al., (2020). Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review of the Research Landscape - see https://opendeved.net/lib/ZEDIHF57. The document is available under Creative Commons Attribution, and both a PDF and a Word document are avaialable.

Chapter 01. Introduction

This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of ... more This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of Haßler, et al., (2020). Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review of the Research Landscape - see https://opendeved.net/lib/ZEDIHF57. The document is available under Creative Commons Attribution, and both a PDF and a Word document are avaialable.

The Long And Winding Road To The Labour Market: South African Public Tvet College Students' Experiences Of System Failure

Not only are millions of young people being excluded from formal education systems and labour mar... more Not only are millions of young people being excluded from formal education systems and labour markets globally, but they are increasingly being excluded even from the conceptualisations of "normal" trajectories. Current orthodox theorisations of "skills for employability" are inadequate for explaining much of young people's learning, lives and livelihoods. In this paper, drawing on data from interviews with South African public TVET college students, we find that their agentic choices to pursue valued lives and livelihoods through VET learning are undermined by a series of systemic failures that make it near to impossible for them to successfully exit the system in the expected time period. Inadequacies of student finance, assessment, certification and internship availability all get in the way of these learners. This is not simply a matter of system inefficiency but is a morally unacceptable failure to meet the needs of young South Africans.

Chapter 06. Themes, Perspectives and Current Debates in TVET Research

This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of ... more This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of Haßler, et al., (2020). Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review of the Research Landscape - see https://opendeved.net/lib/ZEDIHF57. The document is available under Creative Commons Attribution, and both a PDF and a Word document are avaialable.

Chapter 03. Overview of the Discovered Literature

This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of ... more This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of Haßler, et al., (2020). Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review of the Research Landscape - see https://opendeved.net/lib/ZEDIHF57. The document is available under Creative Commons Attribution, and both a PDF and a Word document are avaialable.

Chapter 10. State Authorities for TVET Management

This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of ... more This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of Haßler, et al., (2020). Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review of the Research Landscape - see https://opendeved.net/lib/ZEDIHF57. The document is available under Creative Commons Attribution, and both a PDF and a Word document are avaialable.

Chapter 14. Research Interests and Topics of the SCR Participants

This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of ... more This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of Haßler, et al., (2020). Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review of the Research Landscape - see https://opendeved.net/lib/ZEDIHF57. The document is available under Creative Commons Attribution, and both a PDF and a Word document are avaialable.

Chapter 09. Inclusion-related Challenges and Policies

This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of ... more This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of Haßler, et al., (2020). Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review of the Research Landscape - see https://opendeved.net/lib/ZEDIHF57. The document is available under Creative Commons Attribution, and both a PDF and a Word document are avaialable.

Chapter 00. Executive Summary

This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of ... more This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of Haßler, et al., (2020). Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review of the Research Landscape - see https://opendeved.net/lib/ZEDIHF57. The document is available under Creative Commons Attribution, and both a PDF and a Word document are avaialable.

Appendix 5. List of Additional Materials

This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of ... more This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of Haßler, et al., (2020). Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review of the Research Landscape - see https://opendeved.net/lib/ZEDIHF57. The document is available under Creative Commons Attribution, and both a PDF and a Word document are avaialable.

Appendix 2. Methodology for the Interviews and Structured Community Review

This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of ... more This document forms part of the full report This record is a placeholder for a future version of Haßler, et al., (2020). Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review of the Research Landscape - see https://opendeved.net/lib/ZEDIHF57. The document is available under Creative Commons Attribution, and both a PDF and a Word document are avaialable.

Why students enrol at vocational education and training colleges

Skills for Human Development, 2019

Marketing higher education is a growing field of expertise in many developing countries. However,... more Marketing higher education is a growing field of expertise in many developing countries. However, little research has been done on marketing Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Colleges in South Africa. Evidence suggests that it may suffer from a lack of expertise to provide direction to the practical aspects of marketing TVET Colleges. Most of the marketing practices of Higher Education are underdeveloped and lack a strategic focus when it comes to Technical Vocational Education and Training. For TVET Colleges marketing communication plays an important role in students' recruitment. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the influence of marketing communication towards students' decision to enrol at Technical Vocational Education and Training Colleges. The study was conducted in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, where the targeted TVET colleges are based. This is a quantitative, descriptive, and cross-sectional study conducted among a sample of 400 TVET College students. The results of this study reveal the need for marketing communication in TVET Colleges to be addressed urgently in order to improve public perception and enrolment rates at TVET Colleges. Both the students and TVET Colleges will benefit from the study because marketing and communication as a source of information will assist when selecting a college of choice. In addition, this will assist TVET Colleges in the selection of appropriate marketing communication media to enable proper allocation of marketing budget and resources. The findings of this study will then act as guidelines to determine a more appropriate marketing communication strategy to improve the public perceptions of TVET Colleges to make TVET Colleges a students' first choice.

Operationalising the realist-capability model

Skills for sustainable development: Transforming vocational education and training beyond 2015

International Journal of Educational Development, 2016

The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of record. I... more The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher's version. Please see the repository url above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription.

Advancing Life Projects: South African Students Explain Why They Come to FET Colleges

Journal of International and Comparative Education, 2014

The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of record. I... more The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher's version. Please see the repository url above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription.

The multiple dimensions of poverty

Skills for Human Development, 2019

7 Exploring the Value of the Capability Approach for Vocational Education and Training Evaluation: Reflections from South Africa

Education, Learning, Training

In the late 1990s, South Africa faced the threefold challenge of reforming the apartheid-divided ... more In the late 1990s, South Africa faced the threefold challenge of reforming the apartheid-divided institutional landscape of vocational education and training (VET) institutions; ensuring equitable access to skills; and reorienting its skills development system in line with the nation's reinsertion into the global economy. A wave of institutional reforms was enacted which was followed by a large programme of evaluative research. While this body of work was both valuable and necessary, it nonetheless had several limitations. As part of efforts to overcome these, the authors suggest an alternative evaluation method that draws on insights from the 'capability approach'. By putting the needs of people first-rather than the needs of the economy-the capability approach emphasises social justice, human rights and poverty alleviation in VET evaluation. This approach is more focused on the values and goals of individuals and institutions, while retaining the economic rationale as a key analytical tool and emphasising the continued importance of evaluation for the improvement of delivery and outcomes.

Planning for freedom: From human capital to human capabilities

Journal of education, 2021

In this article, I build on critiques of the dominant skills orthodoxies that underpin National S... more In this article, I build on critiques of the dominant skills orthodoxies that underpin National Skills Planning Systems (NSPS). I respond to calls for a broader conceptualisation of skills planning by discussing the contribution that the capability approach brings to the reconceptualisation of the role, purpose, and orientation of NSPS. Applying the capability approach as a thinking tool for building a broader approach to skills planning led to the identification of seven dimensions that frame an emancipatory approach to skills planning. My core argument is that COVID-19 has laid bare the urgent need for new approaches to skills planning that are informed by a different set of assumptions, driven by a different set of indicators, inclusive of different voices, undertaken through different processes, and, importantly, driven by a different set of goals. Responding to the call for a broader approach to skills planning and taking seriously the seven dimensions of an emancipatory skills planning system will require an alternative vision not only of skills and of work, but of society as a whole.

In Search of the Holy Grail: Critique of the National Skills Planning Cycle