The department of higher education and training is on track to revitalise the technical and vocational education and training college system. John McCann, M&G
The technical vocational education and training (TVET) college system is made of 50 colleges with just over 274 campuses. The purpose of the colleges is to train young school leavers and provide them with the skills, knowledge and attitudes necessary for self-employment and employment in the labour market. TVET colleges cater mainly for those who have left school, whether they have completed secondary school or not, and those who wish to do vocational training.
The TVET colleges sector is central to the provision of post-school education and training. It is for this reason that as a department we are deliberately investing more of our resources and energies into the college sector. It is our responsibility as officials of the department of higher education and training to ensure that the TVET sector does not fail as we expand, strengthen and as envisaged in the White Paper, transform TVET colleges into institutions of choice for school leavers.
Transforming the image of the TVET sector started with the migration of TVET colleges, then called further education and training (FET) colleges, from the provincial education department to the national competency under the department of higher education and training. This shifting of functions saw the department welcoming, in April 2015, approximately 38 000 officials from TVET and community education and training (CET) college units and TVET and CET colleges, previously overseen by the provincial education department. The renaming of the sector from FET colleges to TVET colleges better reflects their nature and defines their main role in the diversified post-school education and training system.
Taking over the colleges’ administrative function brought with it a number of challenges from which we’ve confidently gained a number of victories. But more than anything, the key challenge which continues to drive us even today is to ensure the success of the college sector is realised, a task to which I believe we are all equal.
TVET colleges are often viewed as being less prestigious than universities, and are frequently associated with poorly performing students. The department’s strategic plan for the years 2020-2025 posits that, as a result of the historical exclusion of African people from skills development programmes and technical colleges prior to 1994, most African students saw universities as their only salvation for learning and development. The document further says the image challenge of the college system relates to its poor grounding in the experiences of the African majority. It should worry us all, as it does Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology Blade Nzimande, that more often than not, some students, if not most, will only see TVET colleges as an option only if they are not accepted or they know they are not likely to be accepted by universities. This is a concern that should propel us to do even more in the transformation of our college system so that our colleges are not seen as the last but first option.
Key to dealing with the image and transformation of the college system includes improving their management and governance, developing the quality of teaching and learning, and increasing their responsiveness to local labour markets, among other key objectives. This is the work we are wrestling with on a daily basis and we have put structures in place to address these issues. We will not rest until all these key objectives are met.
We are on the right track. The milestones we have reached thus far, should be further motivation and encourage us all to move with speed in one direction, in transforming the sector to the benefit of society, particularly students and potential students. All of us have a role and must play it to the best of our ability to ensure that these objectives are realised.
The National Development Plan (NDP), a government plan which aims to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality by 2030, sees education, training and innovation as central to South Africa’s long-term development. The NDP says the latter are core elements in eliminating poverty and reducing inequality, and the foundations of an equal society.
The NDP further calls for a diverse set of private and workplace providers to offer targeted work-based training. Delivering his state of the nation address in February 2022, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the department of higher education and training will place 10 000 TVET college graduates in workplaces from April 2022 so that they will be offered workplace experience to complete their qualifications, thus improving their prospects of employability or starting their own small businesses.
In response to the president’s call, Nzimande announced in his budget vote address that this is the beginning of opportunities that we plan as a department to roll out every year, so that we address the need for what is sometimes called in-service training for TVET college students.
Furthermore, Nzimande called all 21 sector education and training authorities (Setas) under one roof to deal with a number of skills development interventions in our drive to fight unemployment, inequality and poverty. All Seta chairs and chief executives were present at the meeting. The minister urged all the Setas in the meeting to give priority to the work placement of TVET college graduates who require workplace exposure so as to complete their training and to facilitate the transition for learning to working.
Reporting back to the media on the discussions, Minister Nzimande said the following, “I must indicate that there is widespread agreement and commitment by the Setas that we need to significantly expand the participation of young people in skills development programmes as well as workplace-based learning opportunities. And this has been given practical effect in their 2022-23 annual performance plans. I am happy to indicate that each and every Seta in relation to the president, have committed to place no less than 500 TVET learners in various workplaces. In addition, the AgriSeta, working together with the National Skills Fund, is going to focus on placement of not less than 500 work placements of students coming out of agricultural colleges and agricultural programmes offered in some of our TVET colleges”.
At a recent media briefing on the 2023 National Student Financial Aid Scheme, the minister said he was happy to announce that “in line with the commitment to place 10 000 unemployed TVET graduates to workplaces from April 2022, 6 779 students have been placed”.
The higher education department has increased our targets for workplace-based learning for the financial year which started on 1 April 2022.
In addition to the 107 000 workplace-based learning opportunities (which includes learnerships, internships, and work integrated learning) for the financial year 2022-23, we are also targeting 20 500 opportunities for apprentices, 22 500 for artisanal trades, 31 300 for those completing learnerships and 148 000 for learners entering into various other skills development programmes, such as digital skills, crop production and plant production.
Our established centres of specialisation based in more than 20 TVET colleges continue to focus on employer-linked, quality training in 13 designated trades. The programme is designed to meet two objectives simultaneously: firstly to address the demand for priority trades needed for the implementation of government’s NDP in general and its National Infrastructure Plan more particularly, and secondly to contribute towards the building of the capacity of its public TVET college system to deliver trade qualifications with employer partners.
The latter is in line with the White Paper for the post-school education and training system.
Colleges must constantly be seen by their communities as providers of skills that offer a route out of poverty and that promote personal and collective advancement. Minister Nzimande recently launched the Automotive Training Academy in partnership with Toyota at Coast KwaZulu-Natal TVET college Swintop Campus. The training academy offers training and re-skilling of the vulnerable youth and women in the Mobeni and neighbouring communities in KwaZulu-Natal.
The launch was preceded by the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the UN Development Programme South Africa and DHET, supported by the government of Japan, in July 2021. The parties agreed to set up a project that would upskill youth and women for skills relevant to the automotive industry, supported by the government of Japan.
The project launch must be seen as a direct response to the clarion call by Minister Nzimande for colleges and industry to partner and work together to the benefit of South African youth, particularly TVET college students.
This clarion call was further made at the TVET Colleges and Industry Partnerships Summit late in July 2022. The summit provided an opportunity to the department and relevant stakeholders in government, industry and academia to share best practices and innovation regarding the expansion of workplace-based learning opportunities for TVET college graduates.
TVET colleges and industry partnerships will, among others, afford colleges an opportunity to be able to benefit from donations of equipment from industry; industry will be able to advise colleges around issues of curriculum and experts from industry could teach at colleges on a part-time or occasional basis; college staff can also get regular workplace exposure to keep abreast of developments in their industries.
Nzimande said part of the performance assessment of principals must be based on how many partnerships they have been able to establish with industry. “As TVET college principals, you owe it to the youth and the country to manage student admission with the end in mind of what those students are going to transition into”.
It cannot be correct that a student does his or her N4 – N6 over 18 months and they leave the system without being afforded work experience. Indeed, it is an injustice and in the minster’s words, if this is allowed, it means we are sentencing our youth to permanent unemployment.
A lot of work has been done which I cannot cover completely in this publication. We are hopeful that the summit will yield positive results in the near future in assisting us to upscale TVET college and industry partnerships.
There are also a number of challenges that the sector is still facing to which we must continue to pay attention and find solutions.
What is important as we continue with the great work we are doing in the sector is to update society about our wins in the colleges sector and dispel the myths around TVET colleges. While the work should and does speak for itself, we will take a deliberate decision for a communications campaign that focuses on the good work and milestones we have achieved in this sector. Of course, where we fall short, we must and we will accept, learn, and rectify.
There are a lot of businesses out there whose owners were moulded by public TVET colleges. The sector has produced artisans who are today self-employed and making a good living for themselves and their immediate families, straight from Public TVET colleges.
Let’s get working.
Dr Nkosinathi Sishi is the director general of the department of higher education and training
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Mail & Guardian.