Experts celebrate first print edition of Jovacet journal

EDUCATION experts behind the historic Journal of Vocational, Adult and Continuing Education and Training (Jovacet) celebrated the first print edition at a cocktail party at the V&A Waterfront.

The event, attended by experts from around the world, served as an occasion to distribute and celebrate the new journal as it is a historic first for vocational education and adult education in South Africa.

It was hosted by the University of the Western Cape (UWC) Institute for Post-School Studies (IPSS), under the theme “Access, Barriers, and Success for Adult Learners: Rethinking Equity and Social Justice”.

UWC’s Faculty of Education Managers director Joy Papier said the unveiling of the journal was a historic occasion.

“The aim of the new journal is to grow a local knowledge base and build the specialist field on TVET (Technical and Vocational Education Training) and Adult Ed, so that we share contextually relevant research from the South with colleagues in the North, rather than only referring to research in European, American or other developed regions. The cocktail party is therefore more of a celebration of the first print edition of the new Jovacet, which will be distributed to participants at the event,” she said.

Papier said the actual launch of the journal took place at a large conference held in November last year.

It had taken all of this year to get the papers which were submitted after that launch conference through an academic peer review process and all the associated processes in order to arrive at this moment.

IPSS at UWC consists of three focus areas of study and research, namely, Adult Education Studies, Vocational/ TVET education studies, and Higher Education Studies.

The conference was hosted by the Adult Education Studies unit and convened by Professor Zelda Groener.

It was announced at the conference that international leaders in higher education were launching the first World Access to Higher Education Day (Wahed) which took place yesterday.

This was a platform to raise global awareness around inequality in access and success in higher education.