A study of factors that enable the development of sustainable FET college entrepreneur development partnerships
This thesis is concerned with developing understanding of the issue of partnership sustainability and the factors that enable this. The South African further education and training (FET) college sector forms the context for the research and the specific focus is on entrepreneur development partnerships that have a community development focus. Numerous factors were found to strongly influence the sustainability of these kinds of partnerships. Of these factors, institutional 'will' was found to drive the establishment and continuation of partnerships, and the strength of this was largely determined by the relevance of a partnership to the strategy of an organisation, and the degree to which it delivered outcomes and benefits that matched expectations and were considered mutual. 'Will' on its own was found to be insufficient though as institutions also need the 'means' to put partnerships into practice and keep them going. 'Means' is understood as constituting a vision and strategy for the partnership, resources in the form of people, to lead it and carry out its work, and funding to finance its activities. Furthermore, for a partnership to be effective and continue over time it needs to be evolutionary and to go through cycles of implementation, reflection, learning and renewal. Good leadership, management and communication play a central role in this process. Additionally, healthy relationships are at the heart of effective long-term partnerships and, as such, a focus is needed on developing and maintaining the 'relationship' element of partnerships if these are to continue over time. Finally, the sustainability of partnerships is facilitated by formalised agreements, and their continuation beyond the individuals that established them is ensured through institutionalisation.
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