Regulating private Vocational Education and Training (VET) in South Africa: The national development imperative

The skills development imperatives with which the country is charged requires the creative synergy of both the public and private post-school sectors to respond to national development imperatives. This paper explores the nature, form and context of the current private Vocational Education and Training (referred to as the Further Education and Training) sector and the impact of the current regulatory environment that frames its legitimacy in South Africa. By reviewing results of studies into private provision in South Africa, it posits the view that a more enabling regulatory environment is necessary to be more responsive to the needs of a developmental state, understood as one that is required to be responsive to the excluded and vulnerable in society. An understanding of the heterogeneity of the various types of provision forms will provide an important starting point for an enabling regulatory climate that is indeed responsive to those marginalised providers responding to those most in need of skills development.