Education and training

Graduating as Handypersons will boost employment chances.

Sector Insight

UKZN has close to 40 000 students.

The college offers a range of national business and engineering programmes which include the National Certificate (Vocational) and N4-N6 Diploma programmes. KwaZulu-Natal has nine Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Colleges with a total enrolment of about 80 000.

Adouble graduation took place at the end of 2022 at the uMfolozi TVET College at the Installation, Repair and Maintenance (IRM) Hub in Mandeni. The 43 students graduating as Assistant Handypersons were joined by 10 candidates from the Artisan Recognition Prior Learning Programme (ARPL), whereby candidates’ prior learning and experiences is acknowledged through formal certification. All graduates were awarded with a toolkit and a tablet to assist them in starting their own businesses.

The IRM Hub is supported by the National Business Initiative, GIZ, the German development agency, Sappi and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, which also supports the Vuthela iLembe LED Support Programme.

The hub aims to expand opportunities for job retention and job growth across a range of sectors such as domestic appliance repairs, autobody repairs, cellphone repairs, plumbing, electrical and general maintenance. It is SETA-accredited to offer trade tests for electrician, fitter, fitter and turner and instrument mechanic.

Of the 10 ARPL graduates, seven qualified as electricians and three qualified as fitters.

uMfolozi College has eight main campuses: Chief Albert Luthuli, Eshowe, Esikhawini, Mandeni and Richtek, Sundumbili/Isithebe, Bambanana and Nkandla. There are a further six skills centres.

Coastal KZN TVET College gives students practical experience through facilities such as the Nongalo Industrial Park. The college hosts the Samsung Engineering Academy, a Tooling Centre of Excellence and a manufacturing plant for sanitary towels. The college has several sites on the South Coast and caters for 15 400 students.

Majuba TVET College is a Centre of Specialisation for boiler-making. The Mnambithi TVET College is located in the Battlefields Route tourism area and offers National Diploma courses in tourism, among other qualifications. A satellite campus operates at Estcourt.

Universities

There are two universities and two universities of technology in KwaZulu-Natal, and the national distance university, the University of South Africa (Unisa), has a presence in five locations. USB Executive Development offers business courses for executives.

UKZN has close to 40 000 students studying on five campuses in two cities. Greater Durban hosts Howard College, Berea (environment, engineering, law, humanities) and the Nelson Mandela School of Medicine at Congella. The UKZN administration and the Graduate School of Business are based at Westville (also science, engineering and health) whereas the Edgewood, Pinetown, campus focusses on education.

The Pietermaritzburg campus offers a broad academic programme but its specialities are fine art, theology and agriculture. UKZN also hosts the National Research Foundation.

The Durban University of Technology (DUT) has six faculties operating in seven campuses in Durban and in the Midlands. DUT is well known for its outstanding graphic-design school and offers one of only two chiropractic programmes in South Africa.

The University of Zululand offers diploma and degree courses on two campuses at Empangeni and Richards Bay.

Several provincial government departments make tertiary bursaries available to qualifying students, including Agriculture and Rural Development, Human Settlements, Public Works, Transport and the Treasury. The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) supports 26 public universities across the country in advancing payment of registration fees for poor students.

The private sector also actively supports education through bursaries. A crowdfunding platform set up by Standard Bank, the Feenix Trust, raised more than R35-million in three years to support more than 1 000 students. The bank’s Ikusasa Student Financial Aid Programme (ISFAP) provides bursaries for students from families earning less than R600 000 per annum.

Schools

KwaZulu-Natal has 2.8-million school pupils, many of whom are in rural areas. With 30% of South Africa’s pupils in its schools, the province’s results have a big bearing on how the nation fares in annual examinations. There is now near universal access to primary and secondary schooling and a new drive to enrol pre-school children in Grade R has achieved

Online Resources

KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education: www.kzneducation.gov.za

National Research Foundation: www.nrf.ac.za

National Skills Authority: www.nationalskillsauthority.org.za uMfolozi TVET College: www.umfolozicollege.co.za a 70% success rate. The province has 1 689 early childhood development centres. Transport is provided to 350 schools, covering 59 000 pupils, and 2 400 bicycles have been made available under the Shovakalula programme.

A primary school in the Harry Gwala District was the site of the launch of an e-learning infrastructure programme that is intended to be rolled out to rural areas throughout the province. Digital access will allow pupils in remote areas to be connected to the best teachers in the province.

The unbundling from the successful Curro group of a separate tertiary entity which listed on the JSE as Stadio Holdings is a good indicator of the growth of the private sector in education.

Stadio currently has three institutions: Southern Business School, AFDA (the School for the Creative Economy) and the Embury Institute for Higher Education which has a campus in Musgrave, Durban. There are seven schools in KwaZulu-Natal operating under Curro brands.

Advtech, the other big private company in the sector, already has 27 tertiary campuses nationally, in addition to its 78 schools operating under a variety of labels. Advtech operates 10 educational sites in KwaZulu-Natal, including schools such as Crawford and Trinity House, a chefs’ school (Capsicum), three Varsity Colleges and the Design School for Southern Africa. ■