How TVET lecturers prepare electrical infrastructure construction students for industry

Abstract

The shortage of skilled lecturers in the technical and vocational education and training (TVET) sector has been pointed out in several studies. This shortage has been a particular challenge in the training of Electrical Infrastructure Construction (EIC) students for the field of practice. This is the “real world” problem that prompted this study. The issue to be addressed is the extent to which TVET lecturers’ qualifications and skills, both in the engineering field and in education, as well as the extent to which they have attained the practical knowledge and workbased experience necessary, are suitable to teach and prepare EIC students for the employability in the field. The need for qualified and effective lecturers in NCV programmes underpins this study’s specific focus and this study therefore addressed the main research question: “How do NCV EIC lecturers prepare students for industry?” Drawing on the literature and Legitimation Code Theory’s (LCT) Semantics dimension, curricula and pedagogies were assessed in terms of their relative strengths of semantic gravity and semantic density. Ideally, engineering curricula would introduce basic scientific knowledge, then engineering knowledge, procedural knowledge, and implementation knowledge. Pedagogy would, ideally, take the form of a ‘semantic wave’ in which lecturers move down the wave from conceptual, to applied, to procedures and implementation, and then back up the wave. The activities of conceptualising, applying, proceduralizing and implementing support the students’ acquisition of the different knowledge forms. Semantics explains that it is not sufficient to travel only down the wave from theory to implementation; cumulative learning happens through forms of reflection on practice (e.g., reporting, debriefing and reflection on theory). Thus it is necessary to travel both down and up the semantic wave. The study focused on the subject, Electrical Workmanship 4, as it is a key component of the EIC curriculum. Fourteen lecturers who teach the subject (or parts of the subject) across three TVET sites were interviewed. The study found that, while Electrical Workmanship included both theoretical and practical knowledge, these knowledge forms were disconnected, resulting in gaps in supporting students’ cumulative knowledge building towards competent technical engineering practice in the field of EIC. The emphasis on safety and typical electrical installations was evident, but further development in areas such as procedural knowledge and reflection would enhance the curriculum's effectiveness in preparing students for real-world electrical installation work, as would clear linkages between the different knowledge forms. The lecturer interviews highlighted the importance of practical experience. They expressed their concerns about curriculum-industry alignment and made many constructive suggestions for curriculum revision, collaborative teaching approaches, the role of the basic and engineering sciences, and the need for increased practical training to prepare students for EIC work. Analysis of the curriculum and lecturers’ inputs through the lens of Semantics made visible the underpinning principles of the curriculum and pedagogy, showing how semantic gravity could be strengthened to better align a vocational engineering subject with industry practice. LCT’s Semantics also revealed how the relationship between theory and practice within and across subjects might be strengthened – and pointed to the need for TVET colleges to collaborate with industry partners to better align the semantic profiles of practical work activities with those of industry standards. Finally, the study developed LCT tools to assist engineering lecturers in developing a pedagogy of practice that would enable them, beyond the EIC programme, to teach vocational engineering subjects in ways that would better support students’ transition into the world of engineering work.