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 professions.
The Deputy Minister was speaking for the duration of an oversight visit into the post-school education and teaching (PSET) institutions from the Western Cape this 7 days.
Gondwe explained the TVET colleges as crucial for job creation and youth skills development inside the place.
The Deputy Minister visited the West Coast College Vredenburg Campus, along with the Cape Peninsula {University of Technology (CPUT) Bellville Campus in Cape Town.
Gondwe's visits targeted at assessing the condition of readiness of greater education institutions across the nation, ahead on the 2025 educational year.
Through the visit at West Coast College, she inspired learners to get pleasure in getting artisan skills as they offer great entrepreneurship options.
"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 expressed concerns about student residences together with other amenities. The Deputy Minister directed the institution to work with the Student Representative Council (SRC), to speedily resolve the discovered issues.
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 click here (CUT), at the Welkom campus.
In the course of the visits, the Deputy Minister has long been accompanied by vital 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 troubles confronted by the NSFAS was inside the spotlight over 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 sedibeng tvet college 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 click here 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 tvet colleges open for applications is expected to western tvet college continue in other provinces, with North West higher education institutions being the next on the list.
– SAnews.gov.za