5th February 2025
Higher Education and Training Deputy Minister, Dr Mimmy Gondwe, has encouraged learners to look at the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges for a beneficial and practical alternative for advancing their professions.
The Deputy Minister was talking throughout an oversight visit to your post-school education and coaching (PSET) establishments during the Western Cape this week.
Gondwe described the TVET colleges as very important for job creation and youth skills development within the region.
The Deputy Minister frequented the West Coast College Vredenburg Campus, and the Cape Peninsula {University of Technology (CPUT) Bellville Campus in Cape Town.
Gondwe's visits geared toward evaluating the condition of readiness of better education institutions across the nation, ahead from the 2025 academic year.
In the visit at West Coast College, she inspired learners to take pride in attaining artisan skills as they provide fantastic entrepreneurship possibilities.
"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 get more info part of the visit, college students at CPUT expressed concerns about student residences and various facilities. The Deputy Minister directed the establishment to work with the Student Representative Council (SRC), to speedily solve the determined challenges.
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 check here has long been accompanied by crucial senior officers from capricorn tvet college 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 problems faced with website the NSFAS was within the spotlight in the course of the Free State leg of your 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 the Post Education and Training sector held in January 2025, tvet college courses 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