Address by the Minister of Education Naledi Pandor during the South African Colleges Principals' Organisation Conference, Johannesburg

Director-General of the Department of Education, Mr Duncan Hindle
Director-General of the Denmark Department of Education, Mr Roland Osterlund
College principals
South African Colleges Principals' Organisation
National Board of Further Education and Training
Representatives from Further Education and Training Colleges
Government officials
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

Good evening and I wish to welcome you all to this conference, which has been jointly organised by the department and the South African College Principals' Organisation (Sacpo). Sacpo is co-hosting this conference with the department.

It provides us all with an opportunity to reflect on the progress we are making in the colleges as well as with the recapitalisation programmes. Further, the conference provides a joint forum in which the leadership of the Further Education Training (FET) sector can engage with policy matters, on key challenges and successes.

The fundamental restructuring and re�engineering of the College sector that began in 2001 has begun to show many positive trends.

Firstly, the sustained attention of policy makers, improved financing and the creation of Sacpo.

Secondly, the improved, and constantly improving, status of Colleges as institutions of choice, signals the fact that we have begun to capture public attention through the new college programmes and the capacity of the sector to develop programmes that respond to the interests of young people and of industry.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, the colleges are increasingly viewed as major drivers of the emerging skills revolution in South Africa.

The government allocation of R1,9 billion for the recapitalisation of FET colleges is proof of this positive attitude. According to the most recent report, the department indicates that the conditional grant has enabled the FET College sector to:

* train 4 666 lecturers, which is 2 666 more than the projected 2 000, which is the projected figure over three years of the recapitalisation grant
* upgrade information technology system in all 50 colleges
* upgrade 57 workshops, 64 classrooms and 15 resource centres
* build 18 new classrooms
* upgrade 130 campus sites
* purchase learning and teaching support material to the value of R122 million.

All this has happened over a period of one and a quarter years. I strongly urge the colleges to make profitable use of the Recapitalisation Grant, as it is calculated to serve as a springboard for skills development. The statistics on staff upgrading clearly disproves recent statements that college lecturers wish to exit colleges.

Another major achievement of this sector is the introduction in 2007 of the 11 new, vibrant and responsive programmes of the National Certificate Vocational / NC(V). These comprise over 50 qualifications that serve as the colleges' response towards the skills shortages identified as binding constraints in the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (AsgiSA). In 2008, an additional NC(V) programme will be offered at a few colleges in 2008. This is the Safety in Society NC(V) programme which will be done in partnership with the South African Police Service. Students enrolled on this programme will also have an opportunity to get drivers licences. This means that colleges that will offer this programme will have to make provision for facilities for training towards obtaining a driver's licence.

I must further congratulate the college management and staff for being able to enrol over 25 000 students at NC(V) Level 2 in the new programmes. This is quite an achievement considering that the National Certificate Vocational programmes have been offered for the first time in 2007. The colleges and the department are also focussing on the challenge of scarce skills and this year 12 597 engineering and 2 033 IT NC(V) students were enrolled. I wish to encourage colleges to grow these numbers in 2008, if we are to reach the targets set in the Government Programme of Action. The NC(V) programmes will lead to the development of FET college graduates with the kind of skills that are needed by industry. While we celebrate these notably high enrolments the challenge that lies ahead for each college principal and lecturer is to ensure that at least 20 000 (80%) students enrolled on the NC(V) Level 2 programmes this year progress to Level 3 in 2008.

Targeted attention must be given to student academic support. Each College must provide academic support and ensure that these programmes address students' academic needs. The presentation earlier today by Mr Osterlund clearly outlines the role of academic support in vocational education and training. The Department will use his input in refining student support services with a focus on academic support. This will assist colleges in strengthening academic support services rendered to students. A key aspect of any academic support must be communication skills and work related numeracy since these are the skills that enable learning to be achieved and sustained.

As part of encouraging, recognising and rewarding achievement and excellence in this sector, the department will be giving awards to the top performing colleges in each NC(V) programme. These awards will be given to the top performing colleges based on the 2007 final examination results. Similarly, top-performing students in each programme will also be recognised and rewarded for their overall performance.

Another first in the history of vocational education in South Africa is the introduction this year of the Department of Education FET College bursary scheme, the aim of which is to ensure that deserving, talented and financially needy students are not denied access to education and training at FET colleges. Of the R100 million allocated for 2007, colleges projected an expenditure of R66 million to cover 12 857 students, which is more than 50% of the students enrolled on the NC(V) programmes.

It would be remiss of me not to note the progress which the department and the colleges have made in respect of the implementation of the Further Education and Training Colleges Act of 2006. This legislation was put in place to make colleges centres of the skills revolution in South Africa. To this end, the Act requires FET college educator staff and administration staff to transfer from State employment to the employment of the college so as to make colleges responsive and flexible in dealing with the needs of the community they serve the economic development needs of the provinces and national priorities.

In this regard, I am delighted to note that on 17 July 2007, the Collective Agreement Resolution No 4 of 2007 was signed at the Education Labour Relations Council. This agreement paved the way for the facilitation of the transfer of the staff currently employed in terms of the Employment of Educators Act of 1998 to the College Councils as the new employers. A further resolution five of 2007 is due to be signed by the State, the new employer and the labour unions.

This will be the last piece in the puzzle, as it will signal the beginning of a new era in the governance, management and staffing in the FET the college sector. In this respect I wish to refer to features of the College sector that point to Colleges as attractive employers. First, colleges remain public institutions. Second, the FET college sector is an expanding sector full of hope, promise and opportunities for youth and adults, as well as for vocational education professionals. The College sector is being transformed into a specialised, professional sector. Support for lecturer development will be provided and the initial training for professional vocational education will also be redesigned to suit new needs. I therefore invite every lecturer to join me in this venture as the future in the FET college sector has never looked brighter than now.

As we continue to implement the NC(V) programmes, it is imperative to constantly monitor the state of readiness at colleges to offer additional or advanced levels of the NC(V) programmes. Last year an external Ministerial Team monitored and evaluated the state of readiness of colleges to deliver the NC(V) programmes. This year an internal team has been monitoring the state of readiness for the delivery of Levels 2 and 3 of the NC(V) and will present me with a report at the end of October 2007. The challenge is that of keeping the recapitalisation goals in mind, which are to increase the number of students enrolled in the high priority skills NC(V) programmes and to offer quality programmes that respond to our skills gaps. The investment made through the recapitalisation of the colleges must result in an increase in the number of students enrolled on and succeeding in NC(V) programmes.

I also want to thank the Government of Denmark, in particular the Danish Embassy for their continued support for the transformation of education in this country. The Danish International Development Assistance (Danida) Support to the Education and Skills Development (SESD) programme has a clear strategic focus on supporting the Government of South Africa's policy for transforming Further Education and Training (FET) colleges, with the aim of making them responsive to the needs of the community, of facilitating the delivery of relevant and high quality programmes, and of contributing generally to improved life opportunities. The programme represents a significant financial and human resource investment in the transformation process by both Danida and the Government of South Africa. The SESD II programme has provided funding for the following Department of Education initiatives:

* the development of the manual for the implementation of the FET Act of 2006 and to facilitate the understanding and implementation of the Act.
* the efficiency study which is aimed at providing a status overview of efficiency and effectiveness of colleges with a view to identifying and recommending ways of enhancing cost-effectiveness and utilisation of resources. * the pilot implementation of student support services and tracer studies. The student support focus is on academic support to increase student retention and throughput rates and to ensure that placement in employment is achieved.
* tracer studies will enable us to determine the contribution and impact made by the graduates of FET colleges to the skills needs of the country.

As the year draws to a close, I wish to challenge college principals and staff to ensure that:

* an 80% pass rate is achieved in the NC(V) Level 2 programmes
* the college's programme offerings are widely marketed and advertised to ensure that we achieve the projected enrolment of 40 000 students in the NC(V) Level 2 in 2008. In the context of the severe skills shortage, we cannot afford to have even a single campus site under-utilised.
* to consider increasing student enrolment in the fields of Engineering and information technology on condition that available equipment, infrastructure and staff capacity support such increase
* to assist and support the facilitation of staff transfer such that by 31 October 2007 all staff will have signed employment contracts with the college
* to ensure that the Recapitalisation Grant is used effectively to increase the capacity and readiness of our colleges to offer Levels 3 and 4 in 2008 and 2009 respectively.

I wish you a successful and productive day tomorrow as you continue deliberating on issues that affect the sector. To all of us here, I believe this conference should serve as a medium through which we can appreciate the milestones we have achieved to date and to honestly consider and examine the as yet untapped potential of the sector and the challenges that lie ahead of us as we advance the nation's human resources and skills development agenda.

I wish to conclude by placing before you a challenge that we have not addressed in Higher Education and in the FET Sector. This is the development of Centres of Excellence and niche programmes in a range of diverse locations. Is it possible, for example, that Sacpo can agree on the colleges that are to become key institutions for language study of foreign language toward training of interpreters?

Sectors have great difficulty is assessing their own abilities and strengths in academic programmes, but this is a necessary task if we are to achieve high levels of quality. That then is the challenge; for the FET College sector to be able to assess its abilities and excellence as a sector and as colleges within the sector, and to promote these for the good of the nation.

Thank you.

Issued by: Department of Education
30 August 2007