5th February 2025
Higher Education and Training Deputy Minister, Dr Mimmy Gondwe, has encouraged learners to evaluate the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges as being a beneficial and feasible different for advancing their professions.
The Deputy Minister was talking through an oversight visit to the post-school education and education (PSET) establishments during the Western Cape this week.
Gondwe described the TVET colleges as essential for job creation and youth skills development within the state.
The Deputy Minister frequented the West Coast College Vredenburg Campus, along with the Cape Peninsula {University of Technological innovation (CPUT) Bellville Campus in Cape Town.
Gondwe's visits targeted at examining the state of readiness of larger education institutions across the nation, ahead from the 2025 academic year.
Through the visit at West Coast College, she inspired learners to just take delight in buying artisan skills as they offer terrific 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 facilities. The Deputy Minister directed the establishment to lephalale tvet college operate with the Student Representative Council (SRC), to speedily take care of the identified problems.
The Deputy Minister’s visit to the Western Cape, follows her recent visit to higher education institutions in the Free State where she here visited Goldfields TVET College and the Central University of Technology (CUT), at the Welkom campus.
Through the visits, the Deputy Minister is accompanied by vital 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 lephalale tvet college visit.
The problem of funding and administrative problems confronted by the NSFAS was during the spotlight over the Free State leg in the visits.
"NSFAS needs to western tvet college get its act together, in order to ensure that student allowances are paid on time with website 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 higher education institutions being the next on the list.
– SAnews.gov.za