Faculty of Humanities (ETDs)

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Dental occupations in transition: Boundary contestation and curricula for Oral hygienists in South Africa
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-09) Vergotine, Glynnis; Allais, Stephanie; Shalem, Yael
This study sought to understand how changes to the scope and autonomy of the oral hygiene occupation in South Africa have influenced relations among dental occupations. Over the past two decades, legislative advances in South Africa have sanctioned new possibilities for mid-level dental occupations such as oral hygienists, allowing them greater independence and additional procedures. The division of labour within the dental profession is that oral hygienists and dental therapists supplement the work that dentists do by offering some of the basic dental services. The changes to oral hygienists’ scope and independence have initiated boundary contestations around the work and training of dental professionals. The qualitative study involved analysing relevant regulatory documents and included semi-structured interviews with representatives of professional bodies and regulatory bodies as well as practitioners and lecturers representing the three dental occupations, and curriculum analyses. A key empirical finding is that the regulatory changes have not been implemented and this is so not only because of contestations by dentists. The study highlights boundary contestations between dentists and oral hygienists. These contestations are about specific procedures in the expanded scope of practice and the opportunity for hygienists to practice independently. The study found that boundaries have been established from outside of the oral hygiene occupation by dentists, to control their work and training. Dentists’ power is exhibited in the labour market and the education and training arena and provides justifications for why the official legislative changes in scope are not being implemented. Despite this, hygienists also place boundaries on themselves, so within the occupation, there are various ways in which hygienists limit their advancement. The hygienists are hesitant to perform certain procedures and have not opened independent practices. This suggests that pressure to narrow the scope and autonomy may not only come from outside of occupations but also from the inside of an occupation. The thesis shows a web of power relations between occupations and provides insights into a dominant occupation controlling the jurisdiction of subordinate occupations; but more unusually, it reveals the dynamics within the mid-level occupation that stifle its advancement.
The job prospects of ICT graduates in internship programmes – A comparison between public sector and private sector internships
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Masilela, Bongani Frank; Allais, Stephanie
The ICT skills paradox is a phenomenon in South Africa where there is industry demand for ICT skills, yet there remain many unemployed ICT graduates. The motivation for this study is to investigate the reason why this demand does not lead to the wholesale absorption of graduates, and how internship programmes remedy this paradox by bridging school and work for ICT graduates. The knowledge gap here lies in why graduates with the requisite skills, do not attain jobs after their graduate internship programmes, despite the demand for those skills in the industry. This paper argues that human capital theory and its application to graduate internship programmes is non-linear, because the investment of learning and upskilling in these programmes does not necessarily guarantee higher wages, and sometimes not even a job offer following the internship. This challenges the expectation of returns from the investment made into the graduates and thus the base assumptions of human capital theory. Secondarily, the paper also argues that even if the assumptions of human capital theory are true, the investment made into the graduates in the form of learning can be impeded by the structure of the programme and the resources that are made available. The quality of the learning thus challenges social learning theory and its assumptions about the impact of learning in and through the work environment. The research design of this paper is qualitative, and it investigates ten case studies of managers from the public and private sectors. The data was analysed by coding the responses of the managers about how interns learn in the workplace, what resources are available for learning in and through work, and finally whether interns are retained and how managers determine which interns ought to be retained. The codes were then measured against the assumptions of human capital theory – specifically if there is linearity in the investment into human capital (learning) and returns (in this study, the attainment of a job after the programme). The study finds that two factors influence the employment prospects of ICT graduates in the labour market. The first influencing factor is the capacity of their programme host organisation to retain their interns as full-time staff, which is informed by government policy and directives, as well as the organisation’s budget for wages. The second influencing factor, where managers have the capacity to retain interns, is the set of skills that the managers screen for, which, in this study, are unanimously soft skills such as problem-solving and “self-motivation”. This study concludes by contemplating the non- linearity of human capital theory as it applies to the programmes that are studied, as well as the limits to social learning theory as it applies to learning in and through work in graduate internship programmes. Following this is a discussion of the remaining gaps in the knowledge and how they could be studied further.
The perceived strengths and weaknesses of NATED, NCV and Occupational Qualifications in training plumbers at TVET Colleges
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-09) Mogale, Lesetja James; Shalem, Yael; Allais, Stephanie
This research report investigated the perceived strengths and weaknesses of NATED, NCV and Occupational Qualifications in training plumbers at TVET Colleges. The research investigated the views of lecturers, learners and campus managers on what they view as the strengths and weaknesses of NATED, NCV, and Occupational Qualifications in training plumbers at TVET colleges. The main differences are the manner in which practical and theoretical knowledge are taught in the three courses, which appears to be a strong factor in the perception of the strengths and weaknesses of NATED, NCV, and Occupational Qualifications. The main weakness of the NATED qualification is the absence of the practical component at the college level. However, the main strength of the NATED is its flexibility to allow working students to attend classes on a block release basis or as part time students. The main weaknesses of NCV is that it does not allow employed students to attend classes on full time or part time bases. The qualification require students to complete the whole three years to exit the programme. However, the strength of the qualification is the basic practical component which provide students the skills to start own businesses. The strength of Occupational Qualification is that its students are already employed by their different companies as apprentices. The main weakness is when the host employer is not able to conduct all practical component and the lead employer is not able to find the alternative host employer to conduct the missing practical component. In conclusion, the three qualifications differ significantly in the approach and delivery method. Although they all lead to apprenticeship which ends with candidates taking a trade test to qualify as artisans, their different approaches signify weaknesses and strengths.