Skills training to ease strain on universities

The Department of Basic Education was hoping that its new “three-stream model” will help reduce demand for university places, Parliament heard on Tuesday. /

The Department of Basic Education is hoping that its new “three-stream model” will help reduce demand for university places, Parliament heard on Tuesday.

The model is meant to boost technical skills at school level, thus making studying at Technical and Vocational Education Colleges (TVET) more attractive.

Basic education has historically channelled pupils into two streams — an academic stream that led to the National Senior Certificate (matric) and a technical vocational stream that led to a qualification within the National Qualifications Framework (NQF). After Grade 9, learners could either stay at school or transfer to TVET colleges.

The three-stream model, which the department began piloting in 2017, adds a technical occupational stream, which places greater emphasis on practical training than the vocational stream.

It also directs more resources into technical skills, which the National Development Plan says is essential if SA is to produce more artisans and boost employment.

The Department of Basic Education had discussed with the Department of Higher Education and Training raising the entry-level qualification offered by TVET colleges to NQF level 5 and restricting NQF level 4 to schools, basic education director-general Mathanzima Mweli told MPs.

Pupils would only be able to go to TVET colleges after Grade 12, he said.

“With the advent of the threestream model we are making a clear distinction between school and TVET colleges,” Mweli said.

“That will help to ease the pressure on universities because more learners will want to go to TVET colleges when they offer higher qualifications (than they can get at school).”

Mweli said the policy change would not require amending legislation. He also told MPs that universities now accepted all subjects from aspirant undergraduates after former higher education and training minister Hlengiwe Mkhize scrapped the list of 29 approved subjects they had previously used.

This should help raise the status of vocational subjects such as tourism, he said.