This investigation is concerned with the urgent need to overcome the legacy of illiteracy and low skills of the majority of South Africans and to promote higher skills as a central part of the wider economic and political reconstruction of society. Realisation that the conventional three tier structure of primary, secondary and tertiary education falls far short of serving society's needs for education and training brings forcefully to the fore the vital need for structural change and innovation in the organisation and delivery of education and training. The study, therefore, focuses on the provision of career education within community colleges.
While it focuses mainly on the province of KwaZulu-Natal, as the sample group, the research concerns itself with a wide range of philosophical, historical and practical considerations concerning career education and community colleges that could be applicable to any other province in the RSA. The investigation elucidates the bleak and harsh realities concerning the neglect and underprovision within the education and training environment in KwaZulu-Natal.
The questionnaire survey reveals that universal access to adult learners is either very limited or non existent; there is no policy for the provision of career education; the stratification of education and training institutions reduce their connectedness; education and training institutions are not responsive to parochial concerns and conditions characteristic of the greater local communities. The survey also reveals a large measure of expectation that the introduction of community colleges will serve the multitudes by providing adult basic, further, tertiary, compensatory, community and career education.
Two of the main recommendations based on the literature survey and the empirical investigation are that community colleges ought to be established in the province and that career education should be introduced into the curriculum at schools and colleges. The hallmarks of the community colleges should be their open door policy, accessibility, affordability, articulation and transfer policies, the provision of high quality education and training and its strong links with the community through its governance, programmes and organisation.
