5th February 2025
Higher Education and Training Deputy Minister, Dr Mimmy Gondwe, has inspired learners to take into account the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges to be a beneficial and viable alternate for advancing their occupations.
The Deputy Minister was talking for the duration of an oversight visit to your post-school education and teaching (PSET) institutions in the Western Cape this week.
Gondwe described the TVET colleges as very important for job creation and youth skills development in the region.
The Deputy Minister visited the West Coast College Vredenburg Campus, plus the Cape Peninsula {University of Engineering (CPUT) Bellville Campus in Cape Town.
Gondwe's visits targeted at assessing the state of readiness of higher education institutions across the country, forward of your 2025 academic year.
In the visit at West Coast College, she encouraged learners to get pride in obtaining artisan abilities as they provide excellent entrepreneurship prospects.
"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, capricorn tvet college AI [Artificial intelligence], and coding," Gondwe said.
At the second part of the visit, students at CPUT expressed issues about college student residences along with other amenities. The tvet college courses Deputy Minister directed the establishment to operate with the Student Representative Council (SRC), to speedily take care of the identified 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.
Over the visits, the Deputy Minister has been accompanied by key senior officers more info 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 issues faced from the NSFAS was in the spotlight throughout the Free State leg with the visits.
"NSFAS needs to get its act together, in order to ensure that student allowances are paid on time with check here 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 website provinces, with North West higher education institutions being the next on the list.
– SAnews.gov.za