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 like a important and viable different for advancing their professions.
The Deputy Minister was talking throughout an oversight visit to your post-school education and schooling (PSET) establishments while in the Western Cape this week.
Gondwe explained the TVET colleges as important for job creation and youth skills development in the nation.
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 aimed toward evaluating the condition of readiness of better education institutions across the nation, in advance with the 2025 educational year.
Over the visit at West Coast College, she inspired learners to acquire delight in buying artisan techniques as they supply good 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 considerations about student residences as well as other facilities. The Deputy Minister directed the establishment to operate with the Student Representative Council tvet colleges open (SRC), to speedily resolve the identified issues.
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 here campus.
In the visits, the Deputy Minister has long been accompanied by critical senior officials from Higher coastal tvet college 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 issue of funding and administrative worries faced from the NSFAS was during the spotlight over the Free State leg in 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 more info 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 capricorn tvet college North West higher education institutions being the next on the list.
– SAnews.gov.za