Against the background of a two-model vocational education and training (VET) typology, which contrasts occupation-based apprenticeship systems with skills-based VET systems, the chapter places the analytical focus on technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in South Africa and particularly on the envisaged revitalisation of the South African apprenticeship system. Even though the previous apprenticeship system was linked to a racially stratified and segmented labour market, apprenticeship continues to be viewed positively by both employers and new labour market entrants. It is seen a means of opening up and extending structured pathways into the relatively stable conditions of work in the occupational labour market. After a brief investigation of how various forms of modularisation have shifted the South African apprenticeship system from being occupation-based to being skills-based and then towards a 'hybridised' mode that spans across both systems, an empirical study is presented to investigate whether 'occupation' remains as viable a basis for an apprenticeship system as it was in the previous system when it supported mainly the engineering and motor trades. Findings from two case studies which represent emerging sectors with a promise of formal as well as informal employment, show the continued presence of strong identification with holistic work forms and stable, recognised social identities associated with 'occupation'. On the basis of these findings and, contra to the logic of breaking down occupational qualifications into part-qualifications, a recommendation is put forward for sector-specific introductory apprenticeships that lead to broad occupation-based qualifications as the basis of subsequent specialisation. The rationale is that this combination represents the best possible option for building strong technical expertise as a defining feature of the South African TVET system. The inequities of the past will be repeated in a new guise, if a revitalised TVET system continues to focus mainly on individuated labour market entry at a one-dimensional, low-skill level. Opening up and extending TVET in South Africa depends on sector-driven entry to intermediate-level occupational labour markets. © Peter Lang AG, International Academic Publishers, Bern 2021.
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