OVERVIEW
Education and training North-West University now offers Mechatronic Engineering. Sector Insight Civil servants are getting extra training.
The Tebogo Nokwana Foundation donates shoes and sanitary towels to Matlhare Mokautu Secondary School. Image: North West Department of Education
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bank and Royal Bafokeng Holdings have established the Thutopele Learnership which provides young people with working experience while they study towards a National Banking Certificate NQF level 5. Of the first 15 trainees who went through the learnership, 13 were employed by Ubank within the province or in neighbouring Gauteng. The programme prepares students for positions as tellers, sales consultants and in-service consultancy. A Provincial Government three-year programme has placed 120 unemployed graduates in the agricultural sector on farms as part of experiential training and learning. The North West Office of the Premier disburses bursaries to the Ikatisong School of Governance (located at the University of Pretoria) for civil servants or prospective civil servants. Studies can be undertaken in seven faculties. The North-West University Business School has agreed to collaborate with the North West Provincial Government in building the relevant skills of officials. The school offers an MBA and a Postgraduate Diploma in Management at three sites. A specific initiative to tackle unemployment was planned for 2020, a Provincial Skills Development Lekgotla. Participants were to be the National Skills Authority (NSA) and various SETAs and their brief was to develop a provincial intervention strategy relating to young people who are neither employed nor in education and training.
NORTH WEST BUSINESS 2020/21
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South Africa’s educational institutions are being encouraged to focus on artisan skills. At the moment, about 13 000 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 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 work place. 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
