Image: Joaquin Reyes Ramos, Pexels

For decades, they stitched school uniforms, altered garments and ran small businesses from their homes and communities. They learned through experience, persistence and necessity. What many did not have, however, was a formal qualification recognising those skills.

Through the University of the Western Cape's (UWC) work in Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL), that is beginning to change. Hosted by the Institute for Post-School Studies (IPSS) in partnership with the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), a recent three-day workshop brought together Community Education and Training (CET) college officials from across South Africa to strengthen the implementation of RPL nationally.

RPL enables people to receive formal recognition for knowledge and skills acquired outside traditional education pathways. For many participants in a pilot project implemented in Gauteng and the Western Cape, it provided an opportunity to convert years of practical experience into recognised qualifications.

Welcoming participants, the UWC Faculty of Education Dean, Prof Rajendran Govender, described RPL as a powerful mechanism for social change: “We have to recognise that RPL is the vehicle to change society, because we have too large a number that's out there without that opportunity.”

Image: Supplied

At the Thuto Mfundo Community Learning Centre (CLC) in Vosloorus, skills lecturer Lindiwe Latha worked with seamstresses who had years of experience but no certification.

“We just put a poster out for anyone who was interested in sewing or who had done sewing in factories or at home but was not certified,” she explained. “They came so that we could gather evidence of what they had done and start the RPL programme.”

Many participants were already using their skills to generate income. “They also go to the schools and ask for business, like, ‘Can we do tracksuits? Can we do school uniforms?” Latha said.

According to Bheki Nkosi, the centre manager at Thuto Mfundo CLC, the programme recognised the knowledge participants already possessed. “They come with prior knowledge. They know what they are doing. They’ve been doing it. They learn by experience,” he said. And demand for the programme continues to grow.
“Her list is over a hundred people who want to come and join, but we cannot take them all,” Nkosi noted.

From left to right, Bheki Nkosi, the Centre Manager at Thuto Mfundo Community Learning Centre, Mase Makhalanyane, Lecturer at the Sharpeville Community Learning Centre, Lindiwe Latha, the Skills Centre Lecturer, Thuto Mfundo Community Learning Centre and Alina Phale the Centre Manager at the Sharpeville Community Learning Centre. Image:Supplied

A similar response emerged at the Sharpeville Community Learning Centre (CLC), where lecturer Mase Makhalanyane worked with participants aged 35 and older. “The students were very happy with this programme because they already had the skill, but they did not have the certificate. RPL is helping to close that gap,” she said.

Makhalanyane highlighted another challenge often overlooked in skills development initiatives. “Some of them cannot read or write, which makes aspects such as pattern design and calculations challenging, but I try to help them until they gather the information and evidence required,” she said.

For Alina Phale, Centre Manager at Sharpeville CLC, the workshop demonstrated the value of collaboration across the CET sector. “The workshop has been extremely helpful. We are hearing from other educators and centre managers about their challenges, discussing our own challenges, and getting alternative solutions to the problems we face,” she said.

The success of the pilot project has already attracted interest from Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, and has secured additional funding for a national rollout.