"Ambitions Revised" by Michael Cosser with Sekinah Sehlola

This monograph is the sequel to a 2005 baseline study of the aspirations for future study and/or work of a sample of Grade 12 learners in schools across South Africa.

In that study, the research team distributed questionnaires to an estimated 58 965 learners in 771 schools.



Contents

Tables and figures
Series preface
Project preface
Acknowledgements
Acronyms and abbreviations
Executive summary
1 Introduction
Organisation of the report
2 Review of the literature
Student choice behaviour, learner aspirations and learner pathways
Teacher recruitment and retention
3 The research problem
Research questions
Research hypotheses
4 The research design
Questionnaire design
Sampling
Response rates
Data analysis
5 Learners’ destinations
Present study and work situation
6 Students in higher education
Students enrolled in a higher education institution
Factors affecting student enrolment in a specified higher education institution
Programmes in which students are enrolled
7 Students in further education and training
Students enrolled in an FET college
Students enrolled in a private FET institution
Factors affecting enrolment in an FET institution
8 Learners still at school
9 Professional aspiration
Factors affecting preference for a specified profession
10 Enrolment in education programmes in higher education
11 Learners not studying
12 Employment
Profile of the employed
Profile of the unemployed
13 Experiences of 2006
First-year students’ experiences of 2006
All learners’ experiences of 2006
14 Interpretation of key findings
Translation of aspiration into enrolment
The school-to-labour market transition
Testing the hypotheses
15 Conclusion
Assessing the aspirations gap
Enhancing teacher recruitment
Appendix
Grade 12 learner destination questionnaire
References