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This article provides graduates' views on teaching and learning methods for skills acquisition in adult nonformal education (NFE) centers in KwaZulu-Natal province. It analyzes how adult facilitators applied the principles of constructivist theory in teaching and assessing the learners. The researchers used a mixture of stratified and purposive sampling to select six NFE centers and twelve (out of 200) adult learners who studied skills training and became selfemployed. The data collection techniques consisted of semi-structured interviews, observation, and document analysis. The evidence from the adult learners reveals that facilitators applied the constructivist theory principles of interactive learning, collaborative learning, facilitating learning, authentic learning, and learner-centered learning while teaching and accessing the learners. The researchers conclude that in the majority of the NFE centers, the teaching and learning methods were of high quality because the training delivery encompassed practice-oriented approaches in workshops and field trip activities to businesses and companies for learners to obtain real-world experience. This article contributes to the literature by demonstrating the importance of five principles of the constructivist theory of learning and authentic assessment for effective teaching and learning in adult NFE programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the perceptions of adult learners towards the use of constructivist approach in teaching and learning in non-formal education (NFE) centres of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The analysis is based on five principles of the constructivist theory of learning-interactive learning, collaborative learning, facilitating learning, authentic learning and learner-centred learning. The researcher used the mixed of stratified and purposive sampling methods to select six NFE centres and 12 (out of 200) learners who studied skills training and became self-employed. The data collection techniques were semi-structured interviews. From learners' perceptions, the findings reveal that the use of the constructivist principles enhanced or influenced adult learners' educational attainment in offering learners with experiences ranging from vocational skills to real-life problem-solving. Therefore, the researchers conclude that adult learners were motivated in learning new skills when facilitated using the constructivist approach. The practical and policy implication of the findings is that adult facilitators and managers of NFE programmes should take into consideration the constructivist approach of teaching and learning when designing the curriculum of non-formal education and training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to assess the course content relevance in contributing to wage- or self-employment of adult non-formal education and training (NFET) in the context of South Africa. The concern that informed this article is that adults who face long-term unemployment due to a lack of marketable skills remain unemployed after completing NFET programmes. Findings reveal that in the private and few public centres, the course contents included vocational skills training, a component of practicum and entrepreneurial training in order to meet the needs and objectives of the formerly unemployed trainees. For graduates who participated in the private training centres and whose objective was to become self-employed, the training course contents contributed to starting of a micro-enterprise or co-operative. The author concludes that in most of the private centres and few public centres the course contents were relevant in contributing to self-employment of the graduates. The cause is that a number of centres provided vocational skills combined with business skills in order to enable graduates to be involved in income-generating activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article outlines the results of a qualitative study, which investigated the adult non-formal education and education (NFET) centre linkages with external role-players in providing post-training support for the employment of graduates. The concern that informed this article is that adults who face long-term unemployment remain unemployed after completing the NFET programmes in South Africa. The article reports on an empirical study conducted to investigate what constitutes NFET enabling environments for employment. The findings reveal that most managers did not create institutional centre linkages that could enable graduates having access to essential post-training support, community resources, public goods and services. The author concludes that without linking the NFET programmes to external stakeholders, graduates will continue finding it difficult to be integrated in the labour market which perpetuates unemployment and chronic poverty in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]