IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/rza/ersawp/vy2025iid178.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Post-School Education and Training Policies in South Africa: From 1994 to now

Author

Listed:
  • Nicola Branson
  • Emma Whitelaw

Abstract

During apartheid, the Post-School Education and Training (PSET) system was deeply fragmented, unequal, and racially biased, with vast disparities in access, resources, and quality. Legislation, provision, and institutional structures explicitly enforced a racial demarcation between skilled and non-skilled workers. The transition to democracy presented an opportunity to transform the PSET sector. The new government aimed to create an inclusive, integrated education system that would meet the needs of a rapidly transforming economy, respond to the demands of a modern labour market, and promote social justice. Policy interventions were therefore required to address structural deficiencies, expand access, and improve quality. In this paper, we summarise some of the key post-apartheid PSET policies, evaluate what empirical evidence shows about progress in the sector, taking stock of key trends, and finally, discuss some of the challenges and tensions that remain.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicola Branson & Emma Whitelaw, 2025. "Post-School Education and Training Policies in South Africa: From 1994 to now," ERSA Working Paper Series, Economic Research Southern Africa, vol. 0.
    • Handle: RePEc:rza:ersawp:v::y:2025:i::id:178
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ersawps.org/index.php/working-paper-series/article/view/178/127
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rza:ersawp:v::y:2025:i::id:178. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Maggi Sigg (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://ersawps.org/index.php/working-paper-series/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.