REAL PSETA partnership
REAL and the PSETA have, over the last three years, been involved in an exciting research partnership. This partnership has sought to support the PSETA in providing evidence-based research to facilitate skills development and effective skills planning so as to contribute to the development of a competent and capable state.
The research partnership between REAL and the PSETA has sought to contribute towards:
- More effective skills planning by surfacing skills demand and supply challenges and how the public service sector can respond more efficiently.
- Improved research outputs that can guide the planning of more evidence-based skills development processes within the public service sector.
Some of the key areas of research undertaken as part of this partnership:
- Improving the uptake of E-learning in the public service: The study has surfaced the challenges surrounding the better usage of e-learning as a tool for education and training. It also provided a clearer understanding of the processes and actors involved in the implementation of e-learning in the public service sector. A key output has been the development of an assessment framework that all government departments can use to evaluate the effectiveness of e-learning programmes.
- Jobs, occupations and qualifications in the Public Service sector: This study seeks to analyse the relationships between jobs, occupations and skills so as to enable clearer insights into the dynamics impacting on skills demand within the public service sector. This will ultimately contribute to the PSETA’s mandate of strengthening skills planning in the public service sector.
- Public sector policy directions and priorities associated with the UN’S Sustainable Development Goals (SDG): This study seeks to explore the role that the public service needs to play to improve the quality and affordability of post-school education and training (PSET) in order to realise SDG 4.3 – which is focused on realising the goal of affordable and quality PSET.
- A review of Professional Competence Frameworks in the Public Service sector: This study explores the competency frameworks being used in the public service sector. This analytical work will then help with the development of a framework that will assist the public service sector with assessing critical elements of competency frameworks. This project will support initiatives striving towards the realisation of a capable and competent state.
- A critical review of skills demand and supply processes in the Public Service sector: This research will focus on mapping the processes and mechanisms of public service skills development and planning systems. Ways to build a more aligned, flexible and responsive skills planning system to ensure the public service sector has the right skills for a capable and developmental state will be explored.