TVET SI: Learning at Sea - Blended courseware creation for non-accredited vocational education and training for sea-farers at sea and ashore

Abstract

Approximately 80% of South Africans do not receive formal post-school education and training (Southafricami, 2020) which implies that the majority of adults may receive non-accredited Vocational Education and Training (VET) or teach themselves. This article provides a theoretical and practical lens for VET educators and researchers on non-accredited VET courseware creation at an intra-programmatic level and it joins a long conversation in the regional and international academy on VET. It draws upon the case study of a production programme which was rolled out in three phases over five years for approximately 400 seafarers. The production programme was a forerunner in the deep-sea trawl industry and facilitated the inclusion of sea-going factory workers in workplace training for the first time. The Theory of Practice Architectures was employed as a conceptual framework to analyse and synthesis the corpus of data arising from a case study with nine methods for data collection. The findings reflect four characteristics concerning the practices of courseware creation for non-accredited VET. Three recommendations are made in the conclusion of this article which concern theoretical, methodological and systemic areas of of non-accredited VET. Keywords: non-accredited Vocational Education and Training (VET); Theory of Practice Architectures; courseware creation; sea-going workers