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SA Qualifications Authority

Qualifications awarded to women and black learners

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 13:01

Saqa’s Trends in Public Higher Education in South Africa 1995 to 2004 reveals important trends in qualifications awarded to Women and Black learners

While the proportion of qualifications awarded to Black and women graduates has increased substantially, a key area of concern is that the majority of these qualifications are still at relatively low levels – 6 and 7 on the National Qualifications Framework.

This is according to research published in SAQA’s second Trends in Public Higher Education Report (1995-2004), based on statistics from the National Learners’ Records Database which Saqa collates and manages.

The report covers trends in Public Higher Education from NQF Level 6 upwards in 54 work-related categories across five broad fields of study, tracked for the decade from 1995 to 2004.

Yvonne Shapiro, the Director of the NLRD at Saqa, identifies some key points of interest from the report. “The proportion of qualifications awarded to Black learners (African, coloured and Indian) increased from 44.9% in 1995 to 63.7% in 2004. However, most of this is still at the lower levels - 67.2% at Level 6 and only 47.7% at Level 8 and above".

"Similarly, women’s share in qualifications awarded increased from 47.9% in 1995 to 56.0% in 2004 but most is still at the lower levels with 55.8% at Level 6 and only 43.1% at Level 8 and above".

“Overall, the average annual growth stands at 4.3% with 98 029 qualifications awarded in 2004 with the largest average annual growth in the field of Business and Management Sciences - 8.4% or 29 702 qualifications awarded in 2004.

Two areas of concern regarding the lowest average annual growth are in the fields of Social Sciences at only 2.4% (39 781 qualifications in 2004) and Engineering Sciences and Technology, which has been identified nationally as a field of scarce and critical skills, also only 3.5% (11 038 qualifications in 2004).

"There is a need to improve the senior certificate pass rate, especially in Maths and Science, in order to fulfil the requirements of this field.”

Snapshots of Availability data were taken in 1994, 1999 and 2004. The total availability figures (the total number of people with their highest qualifications in each field – the South African “pool”) grew by 116.9% (from 542 398 in 1994 to 1 176 496 in 2004). The largest growth was in Business and Management Sciences with 153.8% growth of the field since 1994.

By 2004 the proportion of Black graduates (African, coloured and Indian) of the total pool was 46.3%, up from 23.8% in 1994 with Black graduates best represented in the Social Sciences and Humanities field (56.3%) and worst represented in the Engineering Sciences and Technology pool (31.2%,)” explains Yvonne.

By Gender:

The proportion of women graduates in South Africa increased from 41.0% in 1994 to 48.4% in 2004 with the smallest share for women graduates in Engineering Sciences and Technology - only 16.0% in 2004 but, even then, up from 10.3% in 1994.

By Field of Study:

* Largest growth: Business and Management Sciences: 279 803 in 2004 (153.8% growth of the field since 1994)
* Lowest growth: Health Sciences: 117 303 in 2004 (91.6% growth of the field since 1994)
* Engineering Sciences and Technology: 143 062 in 2004 (92% growth of the field since 1994)

Work-related categories:

Nature Conservation and Environmental Management: 299.5% growth of the category, up to 4760, since 1994,br> Computer Science and Information Technology: 238.4%, up to 24 279
Industrial Arts and Technology: 208.4%, up to 6 057
HR Management and Industrial Psychology: 358.9%, up to 18 621
Design Studies: 676.9%, up to 9 024

Comparatively high numbers:

Biological Sciences: 29 007 (21% of the total of 135 517 in Natural Sciences)
Electrical and Electronic Engineering: 31 359 (21% of the total of 151 960 in Engineering Sciences and Technology)
Medicine and Surgery: 39 034 (32% of the total of 122 881 in Health Sciences) Commerce, Business Management and Business Administration: 229 975 (77% of the total of 300 244)
Education: 184 826 (34% of the total of 548 283)

Low growth:

Agricultural Engineering: 24.9%; 534 people in 2004
Pharmacy: 50.4%; 12 794 people in 2004

The National Learners’ Records Database (NLRD), upon which the trends report is based is designed to capture and store information on:

qualifications and unit standards registered on the NQF – at present more than 902 NQF-aligned qualifications, and 7878 qualifications from providers (including Higher Education Learning Programmes recorded on the NQF) and almost 9000 unit standards have current registrations on the NLRD.
learner achievements pertaining to registered qualifications and unit standards – the original historical Higher Education (HE) data from the HSRC Register of Graduates is still in place, and HEMIS data is added annually; new data is continually being uploaded from the Education and Training Quality Assurance Bodies (ETQAs); data gaps are continuously being identified and filled; currently more than 20 million learner achievements are captured against approximately 7.5 million learners.

The information in this report assists with the understanding of the uptake of qualifications and unit standards. Four levels of uptake can be identified for each qualification registered on the NQF:

“The next report from the NLRD will include information on the interfaces between different levels of education and training. It is a key strength of the design of the NLRD that it is possible to produce such reports. Two key NLRD projects at present are to fast-track the loading of information on engineers (an identified scarce and critical skill) and to obtain and load legacy information on artisans from the Department of Labour, as well as new artisan information.

SAQA has been approached to assist other bodies with methodology and information for their own information systems such as the Department of Labour’s Employment Services of South Africa (ESSA) Project via its Labour Centres and the South African Council for Educators (SACE), which is compiling a detailed register of all educators’ skills and continuous professional development,” explains Yvonne.