A Proposed Modular Work Integrated Learning Framework for South Africa

The skills' crisis in South Africa is a growing problem, exacerbated by the lack of adequate structures to study and assess the gap between the skills offered by young graduates and those required in the labor market. The purpose of this paper is to verify whether the achieved competencies of graduates are comparable with the expectation from the employers. This raises the awareness of the need for training institutions to train students on new areas of knowledge, skills, and attitudes capable of responding to the specifications of the contemporary workplace in the competitive economic environment of South Africa. In order to address the skills' gap, work integrated learning (WIL) and other internship programs can be deployed in a partnership between the training institutions and the industry. To accommodate working students in finding a willing industrial company to fulfill their WIL requirement, the introduction of a modular WIL program is aimed at providing a space to groom more skilled hands in a flexible mechanism allowing students to complete their qualification on a part-time basis, made of compulsory and optional practical combined subjects. This paper proposes a framework for modular WIL. In such a context, the focus is on the processes of monitoring, evaluation, and progression of students within the framework.