TVET colleges are crucial for South African youth: Gondwe

Technical and Vocational Education Training colleges are crucial for South African youth to be educated, skilled and become entrepreneurs. This was said by Deputy Minister for Higher Education and Training, Dr Mimmy Gondwe, who was speaking during a visit to the West Coast TVET College in Vredenburg.

Gondwe is visiting a number of institutions of higher learning to assess the state of readiness for the 2025 academic year.

The deputy minister Gondwe says TVET institutions are key for any country to succeed. While often perceived as the “step-child” of education, TVET colleges also prepare students to become business owners.

“Don’t be discouraged if you cannot get into a university. There are TVET colleges and they offer you can even do courses like AI, so they offer future skills like robotics, coding you know. So TVET colleges really have something to offer and I encourage them to look at their local TVET colleges such as Westcoast TVET College, such as Goldfields TVET College and consider entering into that space because they will get a proper education in those spaces as well,” adds Dr. Gondwe.

Educators in the artisanal space say the skills acquired and developed speak to the needs of the labour market and economy.

“With TVET colleges you either become an employee or an employer, because what we also do at this college particularly we have got a centre of its called Sefarer it’s a centre of entrpreneurship where we take the same students, your artisans, we teach them to start a business so when a student comes out of the institution they can be able to start their own business. So it’s a vehicle where we assist them to start their own business in welding, business in entrepreneurship in different skills,” West Coast College Campus Manager, Themba Ndaba explains.

With what has been described as a crisis in the administration of the National Students Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), the visits to various institutions are also about making sure that contingencies are in place for students who may still be waiting for residence placements.

NSFAS has been beset by issues ranging from unpaid fees to delayed funding.

Video: 2025 Academic Year – Higher education state of readiness: Dr Mimmy Gondwe