Date: 23/11/2004
Title: Pandor: FET Conference
ADDRESS BY THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION, NALEDI PANDOR, MP, AT THE FET CONFERENCE, Pretoria
Members of the NBI
College principals
It is a pleasure to be here this morning to share with you a few thoughts on further education and its role in meeting our challenge to provide opportunities for all our people.
Government values further education and we believe that the colleges have an absolutely crucial role to play in transforming the economic and social prospects of our country.
We believe that it is vital in the national interest that this country dramatically improves its performance in providing education and skills to those sections of our society whom further education serves.
There is a growing demand to meet the needs of the 16 – 18 age range - those who leave school after grade 9.
At the moment colleges are responding very largely to the needs of 19 - 24 year olds, and the evidence shows a clear decline in the participation of adult learners and workers in the 25 - 35 brackets.
The responsiveness of colleges to the needs of younger students is essential and welcome. More needs to be done to ensure that programmes, support services and financial support mechanisms recognise and respond to this change in demand.
Colleges have a new set of opportunities. They are among those sectors in the economy that have an opportunity to determine new ways of contributing to change.
Significant steps have been taken in the past five years to transform the FET college sector. The first step was the mergers; the second step was the appointment of college principals; the third was the development of strategic plans.
We now have to translate the changes into the transformation of both the nature and quality of the learning and teaching experience at the FET Colleges.
We have to make sure that further education courses are attractive to students who will want to go to college to acquire the knowledge and qualifications to build their futures. It is clear that careers visits to schools will increase interest in colleges as a new career option. There is an untapped customer base that we should reach.
Our programmes and ancillary activities must be designed in a manner that provides critical relevant responsive skills training and affords students access to new work or entrepreneurial opportunities. Academic development, student support services and staff development are all areas that must become institutionalised.
By the same token employers have to want to use further education colleges to fulfil their own training and development for their workforce. The potential offered by partnerships is immense new training programmes and courses, modernising and recapitalisation of colleges etc. What we also must attend is government financial support to give effect to the promise in our plans.
Our partnerships with employers must enable them to see that the experience of students in further education colleges will be of material benefit to their organisations. Colleges must act in a manner that recognises that employers will continue to train their own artisans, unless they can rely on the quality and responsiveness of colleges.
These market realities mean that further education is under real pressure to market itself better, to persuade both students and employees that the further education college offer is valuable and enriching.
Only last week a prominent union strategist remarked at a conference on higher education, the Council on Higher Education conference, that technikon diplomas were a "con job on the working class", that they were not worth the paper they were written on.
We have to ensure that similar remarks are not made about the further education colleges and that both government and business come to value them for the quality of the programmes they offer.
What little research has been done suggests that in general college graduates do not easily find employment. This is an indication of a mismatch between courses offered - the majority in engineering and business studies - and jobs available. This needs to be addressed.
All of us must pay more attention to the development of our economy and utilise the results to give shape to our programmes:
* interpreters
* designers
* service industry
* construction
* Arts and Creativity
We are concerned that growth in college enrolments is occurring primarily in non-departmental programmes, while, enrolments in the NATED programmes has stagnated. As matters currently stand, it would appear that the national college curriculum is not serving to widen participation, expand access, promote lifelong learning, or offer an increasingly diverse range of qualifications and pathways into higher education and work.
It is our job in government to help the whole sector, and indeed to help every college, to improve so that each educational establishment offers professionalism, economic strength and vitality, making them an essential partner for every economic organisation in South Africa.
We acknowledge that this is a daunting task but we really do believe that it is the path upon which we must all set out.
So my appeal today is for all of us to work together to get further education in this country into top quality shape. We all have to find ways of working positively and constructively. We in government have to change. Education and Labour need to work together for the common good, to develop an agreed platform of joint initiatives that will strengthen this sector.
The government's action plan contains a commitment to making sure that the courses colleges offer are aligned with the needs of industry.
As I said in my budget speech in May - six months is a very long time in politics - "the evidence shows that the foundations have been laid for a new kind of college that will be able to meet the needs of industry and communities and to focus on the job creation and skills agenda that are key to South Africa's future success."
Are you ready to meet the needs of a growing economy? What do we have to do in the Department of Education to make sure that the new colleges are ready?
We are extremely lucky to have the benefit of five years work in the National Business Initiative's College Collaboration Fund - my special thanks go to all those who led this work.
This initiative has provided the Ministry with a set of policy options for the future and I am sure that during the conference they will discuss thoroughly.
Here I would like to highlight three policy issues that have been raised and that are worth deeper consideration.
The first concerns system and organisational issues at the level of the departments of education.
There is no single, dedicated coordinating point of authority within the department of education, to direct, oversee and monitor the development of a new FET colleges system that must meet significantly expanded and more urgent public and political expectations. Key responsibilities - for funding, programme and curriculum development, examinations, infrastructure development and planning, monitoring and information systems, staff administration etcetera - are dispersed across different directorates and even branches.
The colleges need special attention. If they are to train as many students as we think they can in new and modern skills, then we must give them the appropriate organisational support.
Colleges are not, like institutions in higher education, a national preserve. However, restructuring the further education and training branch at the national level to adequately focus on colleges is a major change we must attend to.
This will mean significant reorganisation in the department; it will also assist in achieving a clear distinction between colleges and FET schools.
Such a reorganisation will also give a clear signal to the provinces that the colleges must become a driver of change in our economy.
The second policy issue is the importance of agreeing to a "core business" for the colleges. The college sector is still small and developing and it cannot do everything all at once.
So focus is critical. Focus on those skills that we need the most, a limited number of fields in which there is large-scale demand.
The suggestion is to focus on accredited skills training for adults and the provision of alternative programmes and pathways for school leavers. In order to drive this forward it is essential that there are established college-industry partnerships - in gold mining, in the steel industry, in the construction industry and so on.
The third policy issue concerns the importance of securing the ladders between higher and further education.
White Paper 4 speaks of a 'soft boundary' between FET and HE. Articulation and transfer between FET and HE is important, if colleges are to promote access and mobility. Indeed, it has long been ANC policy, dating back to the National Education Policy Investigation of 1991-2 and the ANC's pre-1994 Education Policy Yellow Book.
In practice, however, it seems that student mobility between colleges and HE is very limited. The lack of articulation and transfer will be perceived by students as a disincentive to enrolling at a college, and might act as a brake on the expansion and diversification of the sector, and on the broadening of access and participation.
What we need to see is a massive and rapid growth in intermediate skills and the colleges have the central role to play in achieving this goal.
A fourth important area is distinctiveness within the sector. We should plan for and allow differentiation. The core mission is leading edge core skills training drawing on socio-economic needs.
In closing, we are convinced that together we can work towards realising our vision of a college sector that will be a sector of "first choice" rather than "last chance" for many young people who today see only an immediate future of unemployment.
Issued by: Ministry of Education
23 November 2004
Title: Pandor: FET Conference
ADDRESS BY THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION, NALEDI PANDOR, MP, AT THE FET CONFERENCE, Pretoria
Members of the NBI
College principals
It is a pleasure to be here this morning to share with you a few thoughts on further education and its role in meeting our challenge to provide opportunities for all our people.
Government values further education and we believe that the colleges have an absolutely crucial role to play in transforming the economic and social prospects of our country.
We believe that it is vital in the national interest that this country dramatically improves its performance in providing education and skills to those sections of our society whom further education serves.
There is a growing demand to meet the needs of the 16 – 18 age range - those who leave school after grade 9.
At the moment colleges are responding very largely to the needs of 19 - 24 year olds, and the evidence shows a clear decline in the participation of adult learners and workers in the 25 - 35 brackets.
The responsiveness of colleges to the needs of younger students is essential and welcome. More needs to be done to ensure that programmes, support services and financial support mechanisms recognise and respond to this change in demand.
Colleges have a new set of opportunities. They are among those sectors in the economy that have an opportunity to determine new ways of contributing to change.
Significant steps have been taken in the past five years to transform the FET college sector. The first step was the mergers; the second step was the appointment of college principals; the third was the development of strategic plans.
We now have to translate the changes into the transformation of both the nature and quality of the learning and teaching experience at the FET Colleges.
We have to make sure that further education courses are attractive to students who will want to go to college to acquire the knowledge and qualifications to build their futures. It is clear that careers visits to schools will increase interest in colleges as a new career option. There is an untapped customer base that we should reach.
Our programmes and ancillary activities must be designed in a manner that provides critical relevant responsive skills training and affords students access to new work or entrepreneurial opportunities. Academic development, student support services and staff development are all areas that must become institutionalised.
By the same token employers have to want to use further education colleges to fulfil their own training and development for their workforce. The potential offered by partnerships is immense new training programmes and courses, modernising and recapitalisation of colleges etc. What we also must attend is government financial support to give effect to the promise in our plans.
Our partnerships with employers must enable them to see that the experience of students in further education colleges will be of material benefit to their organisations. Colleges must act in a manner that recognises that employers will continue to train their own artisans, unless they can rely on the quality and responsiveness of colleges.
These market realities mean that further education is under real pressure to market itself better, to persuade both students and employees that the further education college offer is valuable and enriching.
Only last week a prominent union strategist remarked at a conference on higher education, the Council on Higher Education conference, that technikon diplomas were a "con job on the working class", that they were not worth the paper they were written on.
We have to ensure that similar remarks are not made about the further education colleges and that both government and business come to value them for the quality of the programmes they offer.
What little research has been done suggests that in general college graduates do not easily find employment. This is an indication of a mismatch between courses offered - the majority in engineering and business studies - and jobs available. This needs to be addressed.
All of us must pay more attention to the development of our economy and utilise the results to give shape to our programmes:
* interpreters
* designers
* service industry
* construction
* Arts and Creativity
We are concerned that growth in college enrolments is occurring primarily in non-departmental programmes, while, enrolments in the NATED programmes has stagnated. As matters currently stand, it would appear that the national college curriculum is not serving to widen participation, expand access, promote lifelong learning, or offer an increasingly diverse range of qualifications and pathways into higher education and work.
It is our job in government to help the whole sector, and indeed to help every college, to improve so that each educational establishment offers professionalism, economic strength and vitality, making them an essential partner for every economic organisation in South Africa.
We acknowledge that this is a daunting task but we really do believe that it is the path upon which we must all set out.
So my appeal today is for all of us to work together to get further education in this country into top quality shape. We all have to find ways of working positively and constructively. We in government have to change. Education and Labour need to work together for the common good, to develop an agreed platform of joint initiatives that will strengthen this sector.
The government's action plan contains a commitment to making sure that the courses colleges offer are aligned with the needs of industry.
As I said in my budget speech in May - six months is a very long time in politics - "the evidence shows that the foundations have been laid for a new kind of college that will be able to meet the needs of industry and communities and to focus on the job creation and skills agenda that are key to South Africa's future success."
Are you ready to meet the needs of a growing economy? What do we have to do in the Department of Education to make sure that the new colleges are ready?
We are extremely lucky to have the benefit of five years work in the National Business Initiative's College Collaboration Fund - my special thanks go to all those who led this work.
This initiative has provided the Ministry with a set of policy options for the future and I am sure that during the conference they will discuss thoroughly.
Here I would like to highlight three policy issues that have been raised and that are worth deeper consideration.
The first concerns system and organisational issues at the level of the departments of education.
There is no single, dedicated coordinating point of authority within the department of education, to direct, oversee and monitor the development of a new FET colleges system that must meet significantly expanded and more urgent public and political expectations. Key responsibilities - for funding, programme and curriculum development, examinations, infrastructure development and planning, monitoring and information systems, staff administration etcetera - are dispersed across different directorates and even branches.
The colleges need special attention. If they are to train as many students as we think they can in new and modern skills, then we must give them the appropriate organisational support.
Colleges are not, like institutions in higher education, a national preserve. However, restructuring the further education and training branch at the national level to adequately focus on colleges is a major change we must attend to.
This will mean significant reorganisation in the department; it will also assist in achieving a clear distinction between colleges and FET schools.
Such a reorganisation will also give a clear signal to the provinces that the colleges must become a driver of change in our economy.
The second policy issue is the importance of agreeing to a "core business" for the colleges. The college sector is still small and developing and it cannot do everything all at once.
So focus is critical. Focus on those skills that we need the most, a limited number of fields in which there is large-scale demand.
The suggestion is to focus on accredited skills training for adults and the provision of alternative programmes and pathways for school leavers. In order to drive this forward it is essential that there are established college-industry partnerships - in gold mining, in the steel industry, in the construction industry and so on.
The third policy issue concerns the importance of securing the ladders between higher and further education.
White Paper 4 speaks of a 'soft boundary' between FET and HE. Articulation and transfer between FET and HE is important, if colleges are to promote access and mobility. Indeed, it has long been ANC policy, dating back to the National Education Policy Investigation of 1991-2 and the ANC's pre-1994 Education Policy Yellow Book.
In practice, however, it seems that student mobility between colleges and HE is very limited. The lack of articulation and transfer will be perceived by students as a disincentive to enrolling at a college, and might act as a brake on the expansion and diversification of the sector, and on the broadening of access and participation.
What we need to see is a massive and rapid growth in intermediate skills and the colleges have the central role to play in achieving this goal.
A fourth important area is distinctiveness within the sector. We should plan for and allow differentiation. The core mission is leading edge core skills training drawing on socio-economic needs.
In closing, we are convinced that together we can work towards realising our vision of a college sector that will be a sector of "first choice" rather than "last chance" for many young people who today see only an immediate future of unemployment.
Issued by: Ministry of Education
23 November 2004
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