SKILLS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES

Abstract

Post 1994 a plethora of workshops and train programmes were offered to provide principals with opportunities to develop their management and leadership skills; and with the implementation of the Skills Development Act, No. 97 of 1998 and the Skills Development Levies Act, No. 9 of 1999, government intended to afford these opportunities to all employees including school principals. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the impact of the training and formal accredited skills development programmes; whether principals were benefiting from the skills development legislation; and also to find out what their recommendations were regarding their skills development. The main two findings of the research were that the in-house training by mode of workshops and formal accredited skills development programmes had very little impact; and that principals were not benefiting from the skills development legislation. It was also established that principals regarded their continuous skills development as being important