https://www.polity.org.za
Deepening Democracy through Access to Information
Home / Speeches RSS ← Back
Close

Email this article

separate emails by commas, maximum limit of 4 addresses

Sponsored by

Close

Embed Video

SA: Blade Nzimande: Address by the Minister of Higher Education and Training, at the Launch of the Department of Higher Education and Training and Swiss Chamber of Commerce Partnership, Ekurhuleni West TVET College, Germiston (16/04/2014)

Minister Blade Nzimande
Photo by Duane Daws
Minister Blade Nzimande

16th April 2014

SAVE THIS ARTICLE      EMAIL THIS ARTICLE

Font size: -+

Mr Heinrich Maurer, the Acting Ambassor from the Swiss Embassy
Mr Bob Judelson, the Vice President of the Swiss Chamber of Commerce and Managing Director of Portman Wealth
The Director-General, Mr Gwebinkundla Qonde
The Representative of the Swiss Embassy
My Adviser, Mr John Pampallis,
Deputy-Director General, Dr Maboreng Maharaswa
Mr Ken Duncan from the Swiss South African Cooperation Initiative
A particular warm welcome to all the Swiss business leaders present here today
Our participating colleges, Westcol and Ekurhuleni West TVET colleges
Officials from the department
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen

Good morning to you all.

Today we are celebrating the launch of DHET and the Swiss Chamber of Commerce Partnership programme. This programme will, amongst other things, ensure the full empowerment of our students and lecturers from Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges, developing people who are highly skilled and qualified.

Today’s launch would have not been possible without the Swiss business community, here with us today, and we really thank them for showing visionary leadership.

To provide a brief background: towards the latter part of last year the Swiss Chamber of Commerce requested a meeting with me to discuss a partnership between Swiss businesses and our TVET colleges. As the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) we responded positively.

After all, as government we have strong diplomatic relations with Switzerland. I, together with some of the senior officials from my department, met with the Swiss business delegation. After listening to their proposed partnership, which would see some of our TVET colleges working closely with Swiss companies, enabling, amongst other things, our students to receive workplace training and possibly become future employees of Swiss enterprises, we were convinced that my Department should partner with the Swiss Chamber of Commerce.

This programme will involve the following key aspects:
1. Lecturers will be placed in Swiss companies for workplace exposure
2. Industry experts from Swiss Companies will be placed in the Colleges (Exchange)
3. Lecturers and experts from Switzerland will be placed in Colleges in specifically nominated programme
4. Learners will be placed in the workplace for practical exposure
5. Learners will undergo Work integrated learning in the organisations
6. Curriculum enhancements will be made to the programme to ensure relevance of the programmes for industry, and finally
7. Learners may be recruited by the organisations post the training for employment

For those of you who follow the work of this department, you will know that Work Integrated Learning (WIL) is one of our most critical initiatives. In 2013-14 we have formally launched WIL programmes in three provinces, Gauteng, the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal, in partnership with the respective provincial governments.

I can say straight out, in fact, that WIL is our greatest priority in achieving access to education, followed by the quality and relevance of programmes delivered. Simply put, quality and relevance is directly measured by the interest industry shows in selecting our learners for employment. If our learners are unable to find employment after the completion of their studies, their education becomes meaningless: it becomes education for unemployment.

Let me sketch the realities of TVET in the country. This will enable you all to see that as DHET we take vocational schooling very seriously. When I became the Minister of Higher Education and Training in 2009, enrolment at universities exceeded that in the college sector by almost 4 to 1.

Very little funding was being directed to TVET colleges and student enrolment was dwindling. The country’s industry was very vocal and critical about the lack of industry related programmes in colleges. These included the NATED programmes, better known as the “N” programmes, which had been discontinued.

Little knowledge existed about the National Certificate Vocational NC (V) and, frankly, the college system was in a downward spiral. As more and more industries disinvested in this sector, the quality of programmes suffered, throughput and pass rates declined and enrolments dropped.

Needless to say, this situation was untenable with unemployment rising in the country and many industries complaining, as they still are, about the lack of skills. Drastic measures were needed to turn this desperate situation around and this is where the DHET came in. From 2009 to date, I am pleased to say that we have made significant progress.

For example, we reintroduced the “N” programmes required by industry and are actively promoting industry focussed occupational programmes in TVET colleges. We have also established the Work Integrated Learning Chief Directorate to strengthen the initiative of placing learners in the workplace.

TVET student enrolments increased by 131% from 345 566 in 2010. We are targeting 800 000 in 2014. Our 2030 enrolment targets are 1.62 million in public universities, 2.5 million in TVET colleges, 1 million in community colleges and 0.5 million in private institutions.

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) budget for 2014/15 amounts to R6 billion, comprising R3.9 billion set aside for universities and R2.1 billion for TVET college bursaries and loans. This budget has grown from R578 million in 2005 to over R9 billion in 2014, taking into account all bursaries and loans administered by NSFAS from other Government departments and entities.

We are also building twelve new TVET colleges in different parts of the country. All 50 existing TVET colleges have shifted from being a provincial to a national competence, making it easy for the DHET to manage them effectively. Furthermore, as DHET we have asked SETAS to open offices in TVET colleges mainly to facilitate work placement. To date more than 40 SETA offices have been opened in the country’s various TVET colleges.

TVET colleges are indeed the foundation of our post-school education system. Our White Paper on post-school education, launched on January 16, emphasises the crucial role of technical and vocational education that combines academic and workplace learning.

It sets out our strategies for transforming it further and ensuring that it leads to a brighter future for its students and for the country. This new policy will strengthen and expand the public colleges, enabling them to attract a large proportion of school leavers and become institutions of choice.

Key objectives in strengthening TVET colleges include improving access, throughput rates, management capacity, student support services and student accommodation. We intend to develop management information systems, strengthen governance, increase funding, build partnerships between colleges and local employers, and improve the placement of college graduates in jobs.

From this outline you can see clearly that the TVET College sector is the cornerstone of our post-school education system, critical for the provision of skills for the development of industry and the economy of this country.

All these interventions will help the sector to gain traction, and above all this we need industry’s participation and investment in skills development. Without this it would be difficult to succeed. Industry can help us mould our colleges and ensure that they meet the economy’s needs, enabling our young people to gain meaningful employment.

I am happy that our partner, The Swiss Chamber of Commerce, has proposed supporting our colleges in developing the highly skilled and qualified employees which they and other industrialists need. We really require and urge the whole private sector to follow in the footsteps of the Swiss Chamber of Commerce.

Ekurhuleni West TVET College and Westcol TVET College have been selected for this project due to their location and their accessibility to most Swiss companies in Gauteng. Depending on the project’s success, we may later expand it outside Gauteng to rural and other colleges.

Two campuses from each of these colleges have been identified as participants in this project. These are Tembisa and Germiston, under Ekurhuleni West College, and Carltonville and Randfontein under Westcol.

Furthermore, we have focussed on enhancing the skills programmes identified by the Swiss Chamber of Commerce and much needed by Swiss companies.

These include:

Advertisement
  • Information Technology;
  • Mechanical and Electrical Engineering;
  • Sales and Marketing;
  • Office Administration;
  • Accounting; and
  • Business Studies.

This partnership programme will include engagements and exchanges between our college lecturers and industry. In that way lecturers will be exposed to the latest developments and trends in their respective fields, whilst industry specialists will give lectures to students from Ekurhuleni West TVET College.

We are also considering lecturer and specialist exchange programme between colleges in Switzerland and our local TVET colleges in an effort to enhance knowledge and skills. This partnership will also work actively on career guidance programmes for students.

It goes without saying that Ekurhuleni West and Westcol TVET colleges will greatly benefit from this initiative. The participating Swiss companies will equally benefit. For example, at the end of the programme, Swiss companies will be provided with suitably qualified learners who could be taken up for employment. Appropriately skilled employees are needed by industry. This programme will provide you with a pool to select from.

A great deal of effort has gone into ensuring that this programme gets off the ground. I am confident that the two colleges, with the support of the Swiss Chamber of Commerce and the DHET, will make it a success. We have also realised that a single year programme will not be adequate to ensure significant and tangible results and together with our Swiss partners we have decided to extend this programme to three years.

Allow me to talk about a related but slightly separate matter which is equally important in the context of this initiative. Following a request from our Swiss partners, we have engaged the Department of Trade and Industry to look at the latest published Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) codes with a view to understanding how these could be used to support this skills programme.

We have asked DTI to support companies in undertaking work which will earn them B-BBEE points and at the same time help secure them the skills they require. As the department we think this initiative will help redirect large businesses to support our objectives.

We have met with the DTI and together with the Swiss and other companies we will be developing an implementation guide for the codes in the area of skills development. This will direct the efforts of companies towards supporting the objectives of the post school education and training system.

The Swiss Chamber of Commerce has initiated discussions around this matter and we believe that it will be of national importance for all companies operating within South Africa to be part of this initiative. We therefore invite all corporates to work with the DHET and DTI on this initiative.

In conclusion, let me take this opportunity to once more commend the Swiss Chamber of Commerce for stepping forward in such a wholehearted and committed manner. Once more I would like to stress that this initiative holds benefits for participating colleges and industry alike. I am therefore challenging all other South African based companies, big and small, to learn from this initiative. My message to them is: invest in the South African post school education and training system as the Swiss have done. Government alone cannot succeed without the contribution of the private sector. Together we can make meaningful change.

I thank you.

To watch Creamer Media's latest video reports, click here
 
Advertisement

EMAIL THIS ARTICLE      SAVE THIS ARTICLE

To subscribe email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or click here
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here

Comment Guidelines

About

Polity.org.za is a product of Creamer Media.
www.creamermedia.co.za

Other Creamer Media Products include:
Engineering News
Mining Weekly
Research Channel Africa

Read more

Subscriptions

We offer a variety of subscriptions to our Magazine, Website, PDF Reports and our photo library.

Subscriptions are available via the Creamer Media Store.

View store

Advertise

Advertising on Polity.org.za is an effective way to build and consolidate a company's profile among clients and prospective clients. Email advertising@creamermedia.co.za

View options
Free daily email newsletter Register Now