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 useful and viable alternative for advancing their occupations.
The Deputy Minister was talking throughout an oversight visit to your post-school education and coaching (PSET) institutions while in the Western Cape this 7 days.
Gondwe described the TVET colleges as critical for job creation and youth skills development inside the state.
The Deputy Minister visited the West Coast College Vredenburg Campus, along with the Cape Peninsula {University of Technological innovation (CPUT) Bellville Campus in Cape Town.
Gondwe's visits directed at assessing the condition of readiness of better education institutions across the country, in advance on the 2025 academic year.
In the course of the visit at West Coast College, she inspired learners to choose pride in attaining artisan skills as they provide good entrepreneurship prospects.
"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 here intelligence], and coding," Gondwe said.
At the second part of the visit, college students at CPUT expressed worries about student residences along with other services. The Deputy Minister directed the institution to operate with the Student Representative Council (SRC), to speedily solve the identified problems.
The click here 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 has long been accompanied by key 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 difficulties confronted click here by the NSFAS was within the spotlight during the Free State leg with the visits.
"NSFAS needs to get its act capricorn tvet college 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 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 more info higher education institutions being the next on the list.
– SAnews.gov.za