ABSTRACT
Against a backdrop of policy ambitions in South Africa and globally to rapidly expand participation in VET, this chapter unpacks the reasons that public TVET college students give for choosing to enrol at TVET colleges. The findings show that VET is valued by these students for reasons which include employability and preparation for the world of work, but which are not limited to employability. Instead, their narratives include the desire to contribute to their communities, to raise their self-esteem, and to expand their future life possibilities. The chapter suggests that the ways in which we have considered and understood the reasons for students enrolling at TVET colleges is profoundly limited. Drawing on the voices of students, we see that there is much to learn from their conversations, which function as a counter-narrative to the dominance of the productivist and narrow employability narrative.
