Learning potential as an indicator of the ability to acquire computer skills for previously disadvantaged adult learners

Abstract

M.Ed.

This study aims to describe and explore the experiences of selected National Union of Mine Workers' affiliates (NUM) while completing a course in computer skills at Rand Afrikaans University. The participants are partaking in a learnership programme and were selected on the basis of a learning potential test (LPT), which indicated that their performance is below the expected norm for gaining entry to university education. In South Africa, learnerships are intended not only to empower the workforce with the skills demanded by the organizations in the .21st century but also to improve the performance standards and competence levels of employees who were previously excluded from learning opportunities (National Qualifications Framework (NQF), 2002 [Online]). Hodge and Miller (1996:79), affirm this exclusion by reporting in their study on Information Technology in South Africa that 24% of blacks were barred from computer literacy and the power of information technology. The majority of participants in this study are blacks and has indeed not had learning opportunities that exposed them to computer literacy. Out of 23 participants, 10 have never been exposed to computers while 13 participants received informal training to use computers for specific tasks at the work place, e.g. typing minutes, capturing leave days and keeping staff records. Due to the fact that one of the structural problems facing South Africa is the problem of skills deficit (Ramashia, 2002 [Online]), providing the participants in this study with a learning opportunity to acquire computer skills is not only an imperative but also a matter of survival. The provision of such a learning opportunity "guarantees second chance opportunities for people, who for a variety of reasons, were excluded" (Anon, 2002 [Online]). This learnership programme can therefore, be viewed as a second chance opportunity for the participants to acquire basic computer skills and also as a step towards the alleviation of the problem of skills deficit in South Africa.