5th February 2025
Higher Education and Training Deputy Minister, Dr Mimmy Gondwe, has encouraged learners to think about the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges to be a worthwhile and viable alternate for advancing their occupations.
The Deputy Minister was talking all through an oversight visit to your post-school education and education (PSET) institutions during the Western Cape this 7 days.
Gondwe explained the TVET colleges as crucial for job creation and youth skills development within the country.
The Deputy Minister frequented the West Coast College Vredenburg Campus, plus the Cape Peninsula {University of Technological know-how (CPUT) Bellville Campus in Cape Town.
Gondwe's visits aimed at assessing the state of readiness of larger education institutions across the country, forward on the 2025 academic year.
In the course of the visit at West Coast College, she inspired learners to just take delight in buying artisan techniques as they supply great entrepreneurship prospects.
"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 said.
At the second part of the visit, students at CPUT expressed issues about student residences and other amenities. The Deputy Minister directed the establishment to work with the Student Representative Council (SRC), to speedily solve the recognized concerns.
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 actually been accompanied by crucial 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 website part of the delegation, assisting with all higher education related queries on each visit.
The issue of funding and administrative difficulties confronted because of the NSFAS was within the spotlight over the Free State leg on 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 website 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 motheo tvet college of action, announced by website 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 website education institutions being the next on the list.
– SAnews.gov.za