Professor Yael Shalem is an associate professor of education at the Wits School of Education. Her research interests include professional knowledge, curriculum, teacher education and teacher work. She is one of two editors (Yael Shalem and Shirley Pendlebury) of Retrieving Teaching: Critical Issues in Curriculum Pedagogy and Learning, which was written in memory of Wally Morrow, the founder of educational theory in South Africa. Her recent book is Knowledge, Curriculum, and Preparation for Work, co-edited with Stephanie Allais (Brill Sense, 2018).

Jeanne Gamble worked for many years in adult and vocational education. Her academic field is sociology of education and her theoretical and research interests focus on the relation between how knowledge is structured, how it is represented in the language of teaching and learning and what this means for different types of pedagogy. She also works in post-school educational policy analysis and assists students in working with the relation between conceptual and empirical work in qualitative research. Currently, she is an Honorary Research Associate in the School of Education of the University of Cape Town and a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Researching Education and Labour (REAL), School of Education, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Dr. Gamble publishes widely, both locally and internationally and she continues to present conference papers and participate in student development activities.

Dr. Siphelo Ngcwangu is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Sociology Department at the University of Johannesburg. He teaches Sociology at the undergraduate level and supervises at postgraduate level. His research focusses on skills development, education and the economy, youth unemployment, technological transformation of the labour process and the post school education and training system. He has published a range of journal articles, book chapters and monographs in his areas of research.  Dr. Ngcwangu has worked at BANKSETA as a research manager from 2008 to 2011 where he gained extensive experience on the skills development system in South Africa as well the sectoral skills planning methodologies. Dr. Ngcwangu worked as project leader on Theme 2 of the Labour Market Intelligence (LMIP) project of the DHET which gave him good exposure and knowledge of critical questions of labour market planning in South Africa. He is currently part of the research team on the Higher Education, Inequalities and the Public Good: Perspectives from four African Countries project which is done jointly by the University College London’s Centre for Education and International Development and the REAL Centre.

Dr. Volker Wedekind is Deputy Head of School and Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange in the School of Education, University of Nottingham. He is an Associate Professor of Vocational Education in the Centre for International Education Research and is coordinator of the UNEVOC Centre at Nottingham. He is an honorary Associate Professor at the University of Witwatersrand and is currently Visiting Fellow at the University of Cologne. He has a PhD in sociology from the University of Manchester.

His research focuses on historical-sociological perspectives on education policy, on the policy effect on teachers, institutions and curriculum, on vocational education policy in Africa, and the role of vocational education for migrants. He has published numerous articles and book chapters related to this research. He has had extensive experience working on policy processes in South Africa as a member of a number of ministerial committees and with statutory bodies including SAQA, Umalusi and the HEQC.

He serves on the Editorial Boards of the journals Pedagogy Culture Society, Journal of Education, Zeitschrift für Weiterbildungsforschung and Journal of Vocational, Adult and Continuing Education and Training and was a section editor of the Springer Handbook of Vocational Education and Training.

Dr. Linda Zuze is an economist with over 15 years of experience in policy research at both the local and international levels. She has a PhD in Economics and has worked and published extensively on topics that address gender inequalities in education, the labour market and access to financial services. Linda has worked as a resident researcher for UNESCO, a university academic, a chief research specialist at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), an independent consultant and as Head of Research for Financial Sector Deepening Zambia (FSDZ). She is also an investigator on an innovative project that is testing how social norms influence the financial decision-making of Zambian men and women. Linda is committed to reversing the acute shortage of women in policy research. She has successfully supervised a number of women in their Masters’ dissertations as well as three women with their PhDs and continues to train and mentor several others. Linda is the founder and director of Chimango Research, which works to strengthen links between research, policy and practice in order to increase developmental impact.

Carmel Marock is a South African who has been working in the development sector for the past 30 years. Carmel is currently the coordinator of the Presidential Jobs Summit process. She also supports the Presidency on research and integrated planning to address youth unemployment. Carmel was also the chairperson of the Ministerial Task Team for Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and is supporting the Human Resource Development Council to reflect on their achievements as part of their planning for the next HRD Summit scheduled for 2020. Carmel has also been a member of the Ministerial Task Team to address the restructuring of the Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) and has supported government with the revisions to the National Skills Development Plan and the Human Resource Development Strategy.

As an associate of REAL Carmel acts as an evaluation ‘global backstopper’ for a 6 country study on the relationship between TVET and inclusive growth. Also in this capacity Carmel has worked with REAL on a meta review of SETA and NSF programmes as well as supported a tracer study. Previously Carmel also worked with REAL to undertake research for the International Labour Organisation to explore the impact of National Qualifications Frameworks on youth employment;

As the Executive Director of Singizi, which is a research, monitoring and evaluation organisation, she has been involved in the management, design, fieldwork and analysis of numerous research and evaluation processes in the areas of TVET, skills, youth, employment creation, health, gender and human rights. This includes a range of research and evaluation studies in South Africa, in the Continent and Globally undertaken for organisations including Heartlines, Synergos, International Youth Foundation, the World Council of Churches, COC, the European Union and World Bank amongst others.

Prof Young is now an Emeritus Professor at the Institute of Education, University of London. He began his professional career as a secondary school science teacher. After studying Sociology part time, he joined the Institute as a lecturer in sociology of education in 1967. In 1985 he established a Research and Development Centre for Post  16 Education funded initially by the government’s Technical and Vocational Education Initiative. The Post 16 Education Centre  shared many of the aspirations of the REAL Project at Wits with a particular focus on programmes for  those leaving school with poor qualifications and few employment prospects.  By the early 1990s, the Centre was offering a range of courses for college and vocational teachers from initial training to the first UK  master’s degree in Vocational Education and Training. It also became the academic base for the RESA (Research in Education in Southern Africa) Programme when Professor Harold Wolpe returned to South Africa.

Prof Young has been visiting South Africa regularly since he was involved in the NEPI Programme in the early 1990s, as a member of the Study Team reviewing the South Africa National Qualifications Framework, and in 2004 as a Research Fellow at the HSRC in Capetown. This Fellowship led to the book he jointly edited with Dr Jeanne Gamble (UCT) Knowledge, Curriculum and Qualifications for Further Education in South Africa (HSRC 2006). He is currently co-directing (with Professor Johan Muller (UCT)  a project funded by the British Academy on Educational Futures in the UK and South Africa: the main focus of this project, which involves seminars in Cape Town and London,  is on professional education. His research interests continue to be around questions concerning knowledge and the curriculum with special reference to vocational and professional education. My most recent book Bringing Knowledge Back In was published by Routledge in 2008.  

Gift Luxomo is currently a PhD fellow at the Education Policy Unit (EPU) based at the University of the Witswatersrand. Gift’s research interests are in areas of Sociology of Education, Youth, Education and Development, Education Policy and planning (especially issues pertaining to meaningful access).

Gift’s research career started at the Wits EPU when he worked as the field manager on the CREATE project. Previous appointment include Social Surveys Africa where Gift worked as assistant researcher after serving a yearlong internship programme at the Human Sciences Research Council. Prior to this he taught Mathematics and Life Orientation in a High School based in Alberton.   

Vusi Nkosi is currently a Sasol Inzalo fellowship Master in Education student. Due to the nature of his research interest i.e Colleges-Industry partnerships, he is located at the Education Policy Unit of the University of the Witwatersrand as a fellow. His research interests are in the sociology of education and training, policy development and implementation in the Further Education and Training (FET) sector.

Prior to this he was a Deputy Chief Education Specialist at Tshwane South College for FET. He joined the college as an educator in the electrical engineering programmes. He has a B. Ed Hons in education management from Tshwane University of Technology and a NQF level 7 Project Management Certificate from the University of Pretoria in South Africa.

Prof. Hugh lauder is a Visiting Professor at REAL.

Hugh Lauder is Professor of Education and Political Economy at the University of Bath. He specialises in the relationship of education to the economy and has for over 10 years worked on national skill strategies and more recently on the global skill strategies of multinational companies.

His books include: Brown, P, Lauder, H, Ashton, D (September, 2010) The Global Auction: The Broken Promises of Opportunities, Jobs and Income, Oxford University Press, New York; Lauder, H and others: Education and the Knowledge Economy?: A Critical Analysis: London, Routledge (forthcoming).  Lauder, H, Brown, P, Dillabough J-A and Halsey, A.H. (eds.) (2006) Education, Globalization and Social Change, Oxford, Oxford University Press; Brown, P, Green, A and Lauder, H., (2001) High Skills: Globalisation, Competitiveness and Skill Formation, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Brown, P and Lauder, H (2001) Capitalism and Social Progress: The Future of  Society in a Global Economy, Basingstoke, Palgrave Press.  Reprinted in Mandarin, 2007. He has published many academic papers including on international education and globalization, and is editor of the Journal of Education and Work. He is a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Education, London University and a member of the ESRC Virtual College.

http://www.bath.ac.uk/education/people/profiles/hlauder.html