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 being a beneficial and feasible option for advancing their occupations.
The Deputy Minister was talking all through an oversight visit on the post-school education and coaching (PSET) institutions during the Western Cape this 7 days.
Gondwe explained the TVET colleges as essential for job creation and youth skills development while in the state.
The Deputy Minister frequented the West Coast College Vredenburg Campus, and also the Cape Peninsula {University of Technology (CPUT) Bellville Campus in Cape Town.
Gondwe's visits geared toward assessing the state of readiness of greater education institutions across the country, ahead from the 2025 educational year.
In the visit at West Coast College, she encouraged learners to just take pleasure in obtaining artisan competencies as they offer terrific entrepreneurship opportunities.
"I'm 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, college students at CPUT more info expressed problems about student residences along with other facilities. The Deputy Minister directed the establishment to work with the Student Representative Council (SRC), to speedily take care of the recognized concerns.
The Deputy Minister’s visit to the Western Cape, follows 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.
Through the visits, the Deputy Minister continues to be accompanied by key senior officers 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 more info troubles confronted via the NSFAS was while in the spotlight in the course of the Free State leg in the visits.
"NSFAS needs to get its act together, in order to ensure that student allowances are paid on time with no delays. Delays cause serious challenges for 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 here the Post Education and Training sector held in orbit tvet college 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.
– more info SAnews.gov.za