In South Africa, Adult and Community Education and Training
(ACET) is established to cater for the educationally disadvantaged
individuals, especially rural women, hence, ACET programmes are running
in the country nationally. One of the aims of ACET is to open economic
opportunities for women; however, the majority of rural women are still
performing poorly economically. This empirical study aimed to explore the
effect of ACET on the economic development of women in the Lusikisiki
district of South Africa. A qualitative approach in the form of a case study
design was used for the study to help the researcher relate to the real life
circumstances of the women. Purposive sampling was used to select 35
participants from a population of 115. The participants were selected because
they had wealth of information and could explain better the phenomenon
under study. Data collection instruments used were face to face individual
interviews which were audio recorded with the consent of participants. The
major findings of the investigation include the following: inadequate
learning resources available to women; inadequate skills development
programmes provided and skeptical perception of the economic benefit of
ACET to women. The study suggested that the programmes of ACET should
be restructured and skills driven to meet the needs of women, especially in
rural communities.