5th February 2025
Higher Education and Training Deputy Minister, Dr Mimmy Gondwe, has encouraged learners to take into account the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges as being a important and viable alternate for advancing their occupations.
The Deputy Minister was talking in the course of an oversight visit on the post-school education and education (PSET) institutions within the Western Cape this week.
Gondwe described the TVET colleges as very important for job creation and youth skills development within the place.
The Deputy Minister frequented the West Coast College Vredenburg Campus, and also the Cape Peninsula {University of Technological know-how (CPUT) Bellville Campus in Cape Town.
Gondwe's visits geared toward evaluating the condition of readiness of better education institutions across the nation, ahead in the 2025 academic year.
Over the visit at West Coast College, she inspired learners to choose pride in obtaining artisan abilities as they supply fantastic entrepreneurship options.
"I am very encouraged by what I'm seeing at TVET colleges, I believe they are the future of this country. TVETs are producing artisans with much needed skills [and] also offer opportunities for learners to acquire future skills, such as robotics, AI [Artificial intelligence], and coding," Gondwe said.
At the second part of the visit, students at CPUT expressed considerations about student residences and also other services. The Deputy Minister directed the institution to work with tvet college courses the Student Representative Council (SRC), to speedily resolve the identified issues.
The Deputy Minister’s visit to the Western Cape, read more follows read more her recent visit to higher education institutions in the Free State where she visited Goldfields TVET College and the Central University of Technology (CUT), at the Welkom campus.
Throughout the visits, the Deputy Minister continues to be accompanied by important senior officials from Higher Education and Training, and the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).
The Deputy Minister’s dedicated Help Desk has also formed part of the delegation, assisting with all higher education related queries on each visit.
The difficulty of funding and administrative problems confronted because of the NSFAS was from the spotlight in the course of the Free State leg on the visits.
"NSFAS needs to get its act together, in order to tvet colleges open ensure that student allowances are paid on time with no delays. Delays cause serious challenges for lephalale tvet college learners; learners need allowances to eat and to buy hygiene products. This is important for their sense of wellbeing and dignity," Gondwe said.
Gondwe embarked on the state of readiness visits following a plan of action, announced by Higher Education and Training, Dr Nobuhle Nkabane at the special meeting of the Post Education and Training sector held in January 2025, to establish the state of readiness for the 2025 academic year.
The Deputy Minister's oversight is expected to continue in other provinces, with North West higher education institutions being the next on the list.
– SAnews.gov.za