This paper examines three interrelated factors outside of formal provision of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in sub-Saharan Africa that have undermined TVET systems. The first is the process, pace, and levels of industrialisation, which has had a direct effect on TVET provision: low numbers of well-paying jobs requiring…

Qualifications have become academic currency. Apart from adding to the success and fluency with which people can move or be transferred from job to job, nationally and internationally, qualifications also serve to shape individuals' perceptions of their own worth because of their impact on their holders' expectations and prospects, as well as…

In the South African context, the schooling returns of young African males aged 20-29 increased significantly between 1975 and 1985, whereas the returns enjoyed by older African males improved only negligibly. This paper shows that an improvement in schooling quality for Africans between the early sixties and early seventies partly explains the…