The Management Competencies Required by Managers in South African TVET Colleges: A Coaching Perspective

This empirical study explores the management competencies required by TVET managers from a coaching perspective. Managerial competencies significantly impact organisational performance in tertiary institutions. Without competent managerial performances, institutions are likely to perform poorly across different measures, from dealing with day-to-day issues to the quality of graduate outputs. In South Africa, managerial performance concerns have become topical in most Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges, considering that they are struggling to deliver on the national mandate of becoming an economic tool and fulfilling the industry requirements. Of note is that these TVET colleges encounter numerous challenges that need to be addressed if they are to act as significant drivers in addressing inequality, unemployment, and poverty in the country. To overcome these challenges, the country needs and demands the presence of effective managerial competencies amongst institutional leaders. Therefore, this chapter explores the management competencies required by managers in TVET colleges in South Africa. To achieve this goal, this chapter will first examine contextual issues that define the TVET college education framework in South Africa, including its history and performance levels. Literature that examined leadership and management issues in this sector will be analysed and synthesised to establish the background of the problem being addressed. This will ensure that TVET colleges in South Africa have the required management competencies to achieve organisational goals. In addressing these elements, this chapter relies on action learning theoretical lens to examine the management competencies needed by managers in TVET. In this chapter, empirical work is organised through a mixed survey methodology to collect data from the participants from five (5) TVET colleges in Johannesburg, using a questionnaire circulated online to 85 participants and interviews were conducted through Microsoft Teams and Zoom. Field data is statistical and thematically analysed using the NVivo software application. The conclusion of this chapter presents the core management competencies required by managers in TVET colleges. These include giving effective feedback, being knowledgeable and experienced, being dedicated to personal development, effective communication, and problem-solving. Based on empirical and a review of related literature, the chapter concludes that managers need the management competencies to ensure the provision of inclusive and equitable quality education that promotes lifelong learning for all in TVET colleges in South Africa.