5th February 2025
Higher Education and Training Deputy Minister, Dr Mimmy Gondwe, has encouraged learners to consider the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges as being a valuable and feasible alternative for advancing their occupations.
The Deputy Minister was talking in the course of an oversight visit to your post-school education and instruction (PSET) institutions inside the Western Cape this 7 days.
Gondwe explained the TVET colleges as vital for job creation and youth skills development from the country.
The Deputy Minister visited 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 better education institutions across the country, ahead in the 2025 educational year.
In the visit at West Coast College, she inspired learners to choose delight in buying artisan techniques as they provide wonderful entrepreneurship chances.
"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 tvet colleges open for applications robotics, AI [Artificial intelligence], and coding," Gondwe said.
At the second part of the visit, college students at CPUT click here expressed concerns about student residences and various facilities. The Deputy Minister directed the establishment to work with the Student Representative Council (SRC), to speedily resolve the recognized problems.
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), orbit tvet college at the Welkom campus.
Through the visits, the Deputy Minister continues to be accompanied by key senior officials from Higher Education and Training, and the National check here Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).
The Deputy Minister’s dedicated Help Desk has also formed part of the delegation, check here assisting with all higher education related queries on each visit.
The issue of funding and administrative challenges confronted by the NSFAS was during the spotlight in 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 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