Educating for work in the time of COVID-19: Moving beyond simplistic ideas of supply and demand. Southern African Review of Education.
Date
2020
Authors
Allais, S.
Marock, C. C.
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Abstract
This article describes how the Covid-19 pandemic has been particularly negative for skill
formation in South Africa but, at same time, there are high expectations for the technical and
vocational education and training system to support economic recovery and individual livelihoods.
We argue that many policy recommendations for how education can meet these expectations are
trapped in a narrow and mechanistic notion of supply and demand. The knowledge and skills
required to do work are not developed somewhere outside of the economy, and then ‘supplied’ to
meet labour market ‘demand.’ Skill formation is embedded in a range of different economic,
social, and political arrangements and systems. Policy notions of ‘supply and demand’ of skills
also underestimate how the ability of education to prepare for work is shaped by the ways in which
work is organised. We argue that both researchers and policymakers need to think about vocational
skills development programmes within industry sector master plans that drive economic recovery.
We provide ideas of how policymakers can think about education and work more holistically, and
argue that the key move is away from market-based regulatory models and towards models
focused on building institutional capacity.
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Citation
Allais, S., & Marock, C. (2020). Educating for work in the time of COVID-19: Moving beyond simplistic ideas of supply and demand. Southern African Review of Education, 26(1), 62 - 79.