"Doing something in life”: Rural youth reimagining technical vocational education and training

Abstract

Recent post-schooling policy continues to emphasise the importance of technical vocational education and training (TVET) for employability in the workplace, thus largely reflecting the interests of capital. However, the discourse of educating for employability is under increasing attack as unemployment levels rise; and recent policy has begun to argue for a consideration of skills for livelihoods other than formal employment. Unemployment disproportionately affects the youth and those living in rural areas, and TVET policy has begun to address this. However, such policy remains firmly within neoliberalism, and does not address the interests or lived experience of rural youth. A reimagining of TVET is required. In this, there is a need to understand what rural youth themselves consider to be most appropriate for local development needs. This article reports on a qualitative study done with ten youth from Limpopo Province to investigate what sort of TVET out-of-school youth consider to be relevant in their context.