Abstract:

Women comprised the largest segment of the adult population in the South African rural communities. However, apartheid colonial masters denied most women, especially those in rural areas, the opportunity for education and training, thus aiming to use Africans for cheap labour. Undoubtedly, neglecting women in education and training could severely affect the country's socio-economic developmental agenda. The paper argues that without primary education and skills for women, most rural communities will remain poor and undeveloped. Thus, the authors believe that if women can lead productive lives in any emerging economy, it is crucial to equip them with practical livelihood skills. Unfortunately, the education and training required for women to engage in economic activities are shelved, leading to unemployment and poverty. To help combat this problem, the Department of Higher Education and Training instituted community education through Community Colleges for the underprivileged, prioritizing women and outdating the injustices done to them in the past. Community Colleges aim to run programmes directed toward the needs of women, thereby empowering them with life skills for self or industrial employment. Despite the efforts made to educate women, most remain unskilled, unemployed and live in perpetual poverty. Therefore, the study aimed to investigate how education and training provided through Adult and Community Education helped equip rural women with practical livelihood skills for poverty reduction. The researchers employed qualitative inquiry to investigate this phenomenon. Data was collected through individual interviews, focus group discussions, and documentary analysis. These three techniques triangulated the data collected, and subsequent findings derived. The researchers gathered data through interviews with 20 female learners registered at four different Adult and Community Education and Training (ACET) learning centres. In addition, four (4) female educators were engaged in a focus group discussion. The focus group discussion allowed for varying ideas since the participants selected were from different learning centres. The interviews and focus group discussion lasted 35 minutes on average with each participant. The authors analyze Community College documents such as ACET admission registers, minute books, reports and adult education policy documents. The information gathered was analyzed using the thematic analysis approach. The findings under specific themes reiterate the need to train ACET educators with relevant skills to impart to their learners. The ACET curriculum should be tailor-made to meet the learning needs of learners, and the challenges encountered in ACET delivery must be addressed with the urgency that it requires. The paper recommends that women access adult education programmes, particularly ACET, whose curriculum should be geared towards self-employment to alleviate poverty and encourage nation-building. It is essential to perform a needs analysis to provide relevant skills training programmes for women.

Keywords:

practical skills, poverty, education, rural women, socio-economic development.