5th February 2025
Higher Education and Training Deputy Minister, Dr Mimmy Gondwe, has inspired learners to consider the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges like a worthwhile and viable option for advancing their occupations.
The Deputy Minister was talking through an oversight visit on the post-school education and schooling (PSET) institutions inside the Western Cape this 7 days.
Gondwe described the TVET colleges as critical for job creation and youth skills development in the region.
The Deputy Minister frequented the West Coast College Vredenburg Campus, plus the Cape Peninsula {University of Technology (CPUT) Bellville Campus in Cape Town.
Gondwe's visits directed at assessing the state of readiness of better education institutions across the nation, ahead with the 2025 academic year.
Over the visit at West Coast College, she inspired learners to consider delight in attaining artisan capabilities as they provide terrific entrepreneurship opportunities.
"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, college students at CPUT expressed fears about college student residences and various services. The Deputy Minister directed the establishment to work with the Student Representative Council (SRC), to speedily take care of check here the discovered 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), at the Welkom campus.
In the course of the visits, the Deputy Minister has long been accompanied by vital senior officials from Higher Education and Training, check here 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 get more info administrative problems confronted via the NSFAS was inside the spotlight over 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 read more of wellbeing and dignity," Gondwe said.
Gondwe embarked here 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