04.06.2025
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Higher Education department admits TVET Colleges lack support

4 mins



  • Minister of Higher Education and Training Nobuhle Nkabane.

3 minutes

The Department of Higher Education and Training has acknowledged that it does not give sufficient support to TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) Colleges in the country. 

The department says it’s working on transforming the education system in colleges by using new technology and revamping dilapidated infrastructure. Minister Nobuhle Nkabane visited the Mankwe campus of the Orbit TVET College, in Mogwase, outside Rustenburg.

The campus also received a donation of new technology worth R13 million. 

The Department conducted an oversight visit to assess the state-of-the-art technology donated by investors aimed at improving TVET colleges across the country. Minister Nobuhle Nkabane admitted that TVET colleges are not well supported. 

“I believe that we did not do much as the country to showcase what our TVETs can offer in terms of their career paths. When you look at them, naturally they are designed to be more inclusive and also they produce graduates that are competitive in terms of the labour market, because when you go to TVET it is guaranteed that when you acquire a particular qualification, you are in a position to sustain yourself. Because when you become an artisan or maybe an electrician, there is no way you can suffer, you can be an entrepreneur; you can also look for employment. So that is what we did not do as the country — to showcase what our TVETs are doing,” explains Minister Nkabane. 

Though students have welcomed the new technology, they also complained about dilapidated accommodation and lecture halls.

The Student Representative Council President, Mbuso Tshabalala, voiced the students’ concerns, “The maintenance issues regarding the infrastructure here at Mankwe, Brits, and Rustenburg, but most importantly, we know that water is in crisis. We need boreholes, we need Wi-Fi, because we are in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, right? So those things are unavailable, and we really are trying to achieve them. I think there is a delay in terms of procurement processes, and it’s taking time. Yes, they promised us some things, but some things we cannot receive and yes, it’s a problem for the students, especially some solar panels for the students who are living here at res.” 

With strides being made to improve the quality of TVET colleges, government has pleaded with young people to further their careers at these facilities. 

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