Education and training

A new programme is training plumbers.

South Africa’s educational institutions are being encouraged to focus on artisan skills. At the moment, artisans are trained in the country every year: the National Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) wants that figure to be 30 000 by 2026.

The first 164 graduates of a joint programme of the North West Department of Economy and Enterprise Development and the Construction Education and Training Authority (CETA) have received their certificates in plumbing. The three-year apprenticeship is focussed on women and youth.

Technical Vocational and Educational Training colleges teach skills that are relevant to the workplace. North West has three TVET colleges with several campuses each. Vuselela TVET College has its headquarters in Klerksdorp, where there is also an accredited trade test centre. There are a further four campuses: Jouberton Centre for Engineering Studies; Matlosana Campus; Potchefstroom Centre for ICT and Taung Campus.

Orbit TVET College has three sites, Rustenburg, Mankwe and Brits with about 15 000 students overall. The Rustenburg campus of Orbit College hosts a Microsoft IT Academy while the Mankwe campus offers automotive training, the result of a partnership between the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services SETA (MerSETA), Lelethu Training and Ford South Africa.

Orbit TVET College also hosts an electronics academy courtesy of sponsor Samsung Electronics. Located on the Mankwe campus, and in partnership with MerSETA, the academy has everything a trainee technician might want.

The Taung Agricultural College is accredited by the Council on Higher Education (CHE) to offer the NQF level 6 Diploma in Agriculture specialising in Irrigation Technology.

ONLINE RESOURCES

Mining Qualifications Authority: www.mqa.org.za North West Department of Education and Sport Development: www.nwdesd.gov.za North-West University: www.nwu.ac.za

SECTOR INSIGHT

North West has three TVET colleges.

The North-West University and its researchers are leaders in many fields, including astrophysics, tourism, solar energy and extruder technology.

Among the research entities at NWU, there are five chairs allocated by the South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI): Astrophysics and Space Physics, Coal Research, Biofuels and other clean alternative fuels, Nuclear Engineering and Early Detection and Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease in Africa. The Engineering Faculty’s partnerships include Sasol, Eskom, Denel Aviation, Telkom and Sappi.

North-West University (NWU) has more than 65 000 students, with about 26 000 studying by correspondence. The university's main campus is at Potchefstroom with satellite campuses at Mmabatho and Vanderbijlpark. The pharmaceutical faculty at the Potchefstroom campus of the North-West University is regarded as a national leader.

The University of South Africa (Unisa) has three branches in North West, at Rustenburg, Potchefstroom and Mmabatho.