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 as being a beneficial and feasible option for advancing their professions.
The Deputy Minister was talking all through an oversight visit towards the post-school education and education (PSET) establishments within the Western Cape this week.
Gondwe described the TVET colleges as essential for job creation and youth skills development within the nation.
The Deputy Minister visited the West Coast College Vredenburg Campus, and also the Cape Peninsula {University of Technology (CPUT) Bellville Campus in Cape Town.
Gondwe's visits geared toward assessing the state of readiness of larger education institutions across the nation, ahead on the 2025 academic year.
Over the visit at West Coast College, she inspired learners to consider pleasure in attaining artisan techniques as they offer great entrepreneurship prospects.
"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 said.
At the second part of the visit, students at CPUT expressed problems about student residences and also other facilities. The Deputy Minister directed the establishment to work with the website Student Representative Council (SRC), to speedily take care of the recognized issues.
The Deputy Minister’s visit more info 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 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 part read more of the delegation, assisting with all higher education related queries on each visit.
The difficulty of funding and administrative difficulties faced with the NSFAS was from the spotlight in the course of the Free State leg of 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 website 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 more info 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