5th February 2025
Higher Education and Training Deputy Minister, Dr Mimmy Gondwe, has inspired learners to evaluate the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges to be a valuable and feasible choice for advancing their careers.
The Deputy Minister was speaking through an oversight visit to the post-school education and instruction (PSET) establishments inside the Western Cape this week.
Gondwe described the TVET colleges as critical for job creation and youth skills development while in the country.
The Deputy Minister frequented the West Coast College Vredenburg Campus, plus the Cape Peninsula {University of Technologies (CPUT) Bellville Campus in Cape Town.
Gondwe's visits directed at examining the state of readiness of bigger education institutions across the nation, ahead with the 2025 academic year.
Through the visit at West Coast College, she encouraged learners to just take satisfaction in buying artisan skills as they supply excellent entrepreneurship alternatives.
"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 check here said.
At the second part of the visit, students at CPUT expressed considerations about college student residences and other amenities. The Deputy Minister directed the establishment to operate with the Student Representative Council (SRC), to speedily resolve 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 tvet college courses without matric University of Technology (CUT), at the Welkom campus.
Through the visits, the Deputy Minister has long been accompanied by key 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 problem of western tvet college funding and administrative challenges confronted via the NSFAS was within the spotlight in the course of the Free State leg with the 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 check here meeting of the Post Education and Training sector held in January 2025, to establish the state of readiness here 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