International Social Science Journal (Chinese Edition)

No.2, 2018

Graduates’ views on the impact of adult education and training for poverty reduction in South Africa (Abstract)

Celestin Mayombe

The purpose of this article is to investigate the extent to which the skills acquired from adult education and training (AET) centres, leading to paid jobs and small businesses, have enabled trainees to be successful in generating income and the impact of AET programmes on living conditions of trainees in South Africa. The main findings reveal that the improvement in income impacted on living conditions of trainees’ households and in the education of their children. As a result, the majority of the trainees became self-sufficient and had a good life after graduating. The author concludes that AET programmes for unemployed and unskilled adults can reduce poverty and social exclusion if the AET centres have a strong emphasis on entrepreneurship and post-training support for earning wages or creating self-employment. The present article has implications for public policy on AET, with reference to the objective of supporting the dynamics of cohesion and social inclusion, as reflected in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals.