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 precious and viable option for advancing their professions.
The Deputy Minister was speaking through an oversight visit to the post-school education and coaching (PSET) institutions inside the Western Cape this week.
Gondwe described the TVET colleges as crucial for job creation and youth skills development while in the region.
The Deputy Minister frequented the West Coast College Vredenburg Campus, plus the Cape Peninsula {University of Technological innovation (CPUT) Bellville Campus in Cape Town.
Gondwe's visits aimed toward assessing the point out of readiness of bigger education institutions across the nation, ahead of the 2025 educational year.
Through the visit at West Coast College, she inspired learners to just take pride in attaining artisan capabilities as they offer wonderful 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 part click here of the visit, students at CPUT expressed concerns about college student residences as well as other services. The Deputy Minister directed the establishment to operate with the Student Representative Council (SRC), to speedily take care of 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 (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 problem of funding and administrative website troubles check here confronted via the NSFAS was in the spotlight throughout 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 esayidi tvet college delays. Delays cause serious challenges for learners; learners check here 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