LATEST NEWS
News from 2008 | News from 2007 | News from 2006 | News from 2005 & previous
ADULT BASIC EDUCATION & TRAINING
Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) ABET is the recognised acronym for Adult Basic Education and Training in South Africa. The description includes more than just education alone. It explicitly adds "Training" to ensure that all Adult Basic Education encourages a culture of lifelong learning. ABET is certainly not adult school or inferior or limited to literacy and numeracy or back to school for "large children".
ABET constitutes the holistic development of an individual to fulfil his\her social (private), economic (work) and political rights in society. It is an enabling vehicle to ensure that all education is fair, equal and recognised and that those who become educated through ABET are not discriminated against because they might have received an inferior education in this instance. ABET is linked to organisational HRD goals and objectives and is a sensible approach in the development of human resources within an organisation and so too the people of South Africa.
ABET is where adults, who did not go to school, or who did not have the opportunity to attend school, or who were unable to attend school, or who attended substandard education school systems, or who have regressed in their education, is given the opportunity to access education and attend educational events in order to rectify their lack of education so that they too may begin the journey towards lifelong learning and contribute to the social, economic and political environment as well as develop essential skills to encourage the economic competitiveness of South Africa.
It must be clearly understood and recognised that ABET has no relation to "school" and by no means requires a school-type approach. ABET, as defined by the Department of Education in the Policy Document (October 1997), is the general conceptual foundation towards lifelong learning and development, comprising knowledge, skills and attitudes required for social, economic and political participation and transformation applicable to a range of contexts.
ABET is flexible, developmental and targeted at the specific needs of particular audiences and ideally provides access to nationally recognised certificates. This definition outlines our work in the ABET field, but the question remains: Do we apply it in practice? What is the general conceptual foundation towards lifelong learning and development? It is what we need most to ensure that people are able to realise their dreams and points to the need for all learning to be customised for the individual learner in his/her specific situation. Meeting the knowledge, skills and attitudes that lead to social, economic and political participation and transformation applicable to a range of contexts can make the difference between a successful and an unsuccessful programme.
The knowledge that is shared with the learner should be based on what he/she already knows intertwined with new and useful information that will enable the ABET learner to get a better grasp of the skills that he/she will acquire from gaining this new knowledge. Knowledge becomes supportive and reinforcing of the skill. The skill component should once again be woven in with knowledge so that the intelligence of the application becomes clear to the ABET learner.
The skill that ABET learners require depends on the environment in which they function. In a male-only ABET class, you will not necessarily teach them how to cook food unless they are employed by or are (as a group) interested in specific jobs within the hospitality industry.
Attitudes and values are often neglected in the ABET class, but this is where the standard or quality of the knowledge and skill is embedded. Attitude refers to the manner in which the knowledge is applied and the skills performed, while value refers to the level of excellence that the learner displays, not only during the learning programme and assessment, but also through understanding it on an ongoing basis, so that he/she becomes proud of themselves in the process. Social, economic and political participation refers to the development of the learner's understanding and application of norms and standards as a friend, partner, worker and citizen.
The aim of any ABET programme should not be to get learners to pass an NQF 1 exam, but rather to ensure that the right knowledge and skills are shared and imparted to the learners to ensure that they can, by themselves, enter programmes which will directly result in their accessing subsequent qualifications on the National Qualifications Framework. That is really what a general conceptual foundation to lifelong learning means. The facilitator, programme designer, assessor, learner and organization should work together as a team to ensure that ABET learners learn what they need and need what they learn.
HR Future - Feb 2004
