Abstract:
Adult non-formal education and training (NFET) in South Africa was adopted in 1990 to
address the problem of unemployment of non-educated and unskilled adults. Public and private
NFET centres aim to meet the training needs of adults who were deprived of formal
education that would foster access to opportunities for employment. The paper reports on a
study conducted to investigate what constitutes NFET enabling environments for employment.
The paper focuses on the approach of training delivery fostering labour market entry of graduates.
The findings show that individual trainees who participated in private centres had a higher
probability of being employed because of the creation of internal enabling environments for skills
acquisition and focus on income-generating activities. The authors conclude that an integration of
technical skills with business skills and ‘learning by earning’ is a potential training delivery approach
enabling graduates to participate in economic activities.
