Brickies to welders, appies will be back
● South Africa’s 50 technical vocational education and training colleges could soon specialise in teaching certain trades if Naledi Pandor has her way.
Pandor, who replaced Hlengiwe Mkhize as higher education minister in February, is committed to college specialisation.
“This is where colleges develop particular skill domains we would invest in. We should support diversification of the colleges. We shouldn’t expect all institutions to be doing the same thing,” she said.
In an interview with the Sunday Times, Pandor said her department was piloting the colleges-of-specialisation model next year at 26 institutions.
“We have already put aside funding to identify particular colleges. They would have particular occupations that they focus on, so we will build or expand workshops. We will modernise them. We are making sure the appropriate infrastructure is in place.”
Tooling sector
Pandor said she was astounded to discover there were “very few” good bricklayers in the country, adding that one of the colleges involved in the pilot programme would be designated to offer training in bricklaying.
“You know that we have a problem of welders in South Africa, so one of the occupations will be welding. Another is in the tooling sector, draughtspersons, where there’s also a particular gap.”
A total of 790 students will be selected as the pilot group to be trained in one of 13 priority trades, which will include electrical, plumbing, welding, carpentry, bricklaying and boilermaking.
“The TVET colleges are going to be a particular focus for me because I really believe they hold great promise for the future of the youth in our country.”
“I don’t want to just train young people for the sake of a certificate. I’d like them to be absorbed in the workplace, in industry or in creating their own businesses.”
She said her department had spoken to several organisations, including those responsible for the interests of welders and plumbers, to help establish links with employers.
One of the minister’s concerns was training
The TVET colleges are going to be a particular focus for me because I really believe they hold great promise for the future of the youth in our country
young people with technical and occupational skills and then finding them doing public administration and secretarial courses.
“Secretaries are very important and we wouldn’t survive without them, but we need to build more houses. We need competent bricklayers, we need plumbers because young people must be able to start their own enterprises.”
Pandor said the private sector and business associations had committed to offering apprenticeships to students participating in the pilot project.
She also unveiled plans to build 10 TVET campuses. “We have already identified the sites and I will announce the plans in my budget speech.”
TVET colleges have come under fire for students’ high failure rates in the national certificate vocational courses.
But Pandor gave assurances that there was going to be “proper support for the TVET sector so that the colleges come into their own in the skills development of young people in our country”.
She said that the content of the curriculum was “open for discussion”.
She also vowed to offer institutions greater support for their foundation and academic development programmes to assist students to complete their degrees.
“We have had disappointing levels of dropouts in some universities. We will ensure that the funds we make available, which are ring-fenced for student support, are utilised to improve success in our universities.”
Aviation courses
Another issue that Pandor has to tackle is resourcing research-intensive universities and those that don’t have a strong research record.
“The fear, particularly from historically disadvantaged institutions, is that differentiation means they will never receive research funds. I don’t see it that way.”
A senior lecturer in the electrical electronics field at the Ekurhuleni West TVET College in Gauteng, who spoke on condition of anonymity, welcomed Pandor’s move to get colleges to specialise in certain trades.
The academic, who was a former systems engineer in avionics, said the Kempton Park campus should, for example, offer aviation courses, because it was close to SAA, Comair and Denel.
“In the old days, almost our entire enrolment comprised SAA apprentices and apprentices from Denel, which was the old Atlas aircraft. We offered subjects such as avionics, aircraft metal, aircraft fitter and aircraft instruments.”
He said they had to cancel their specialised aviation subjects after the government scrapped the apprenticeship system about 20 years ago.
“If government wants to rescue the country’s economy, they need technical people. Unfortunately when we enrol students, they want to become managers, not artisans or technical workers.”