5th February 2025
Higher Education and Training Deputy Minister, Dr Mimmy Gondwe, has encouraged learners to evaluate the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges as a valuable and feasible choice for advancing their careers.
The Deputy Minister was speaking all through an oversight visit towards the post-school education and education (PSET) establishments in the Western Cape this week.
Gondwe described the TVET colleges as critical for job creation and youth skills development from the state.
The Deputy Minister frequented 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 greater education institutions across the country, forward in the 2025 academic year.
In the course of the visit at West Coast College, she inspired learners to consider pleasure in attaining artisan skills as they offer great entrepreneurship possibilities.
"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 click here fears about college student residences together with other services. The Deputy Minister directed the institution to work with the Student Representative Council (SRC), to speedily take care of the discovered troubles.
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 is accompanied tvet college courses by crucial senior officials from Higher Education and Training, and the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).
The Deputy Minister’s dedicated Help Desk has also formed part of elangeni tvet college the delegation, assisting with all higher education related queries on each visit.
The difficulty of funding and administrative issues confronted from the NSFAS was within 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 website 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 check here 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