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 useful and viable option for advancing their professions.
The Deputy Minister was talking all through an oversight visit for the post-school education and coaching (PSET) institutions during the Western Cape this 7 days.
Gondwe explained the TVET colleges as critical for job creation and youth skills development while in the state.
The Deputy Minister frequented the West Coast College Vredenburg Campus, and the Cape Peninsula {University of Engineering (CPUT) Bellville Campus in Cape Town.
Gondwe's visits aimed at evaluating the state of readiness of increased education institutions across the country, ahead in the 2025 academic year.
In the course of the visit at West Coast College, she inspired learners to acquire delight in attaining artisan competencies as they supply good entrepreneurship alternatives.
"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 check here said.
At the second part of the visit, students at CPUT expressed issues about college student residences along with other services. The Deputy Minister directed the establishment to work with the Student Representative Council (SRC), to speedily solve the identified difficulties.
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 is accompanied by important senior officers from Higher Education and Training, and the National Student read more 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 difficulties confronted by here the NSFAS was from the spotlight through 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 tvet colleges open for applications dignity," get more info 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