Education and training

Education

Online schools are booming.

The new School for Climate Change at Stellenbosch University has faculty status. Credit: SU

The University of Cape Town announced the establishment of an online high school in 2021 with virtual classes due to start in January 2022. The school hopes to close the opportunity gap for poor students in under-resourced areas. UCT is partnering with the Valenture Institute, a South African education technology company specialising in high school education. By September 2020, the school had received more than 4 000 applications.

Online learning is one of the world’s fastest-growing sectors and the investment of $3-million by Construct in a new Cape Town office is evidence that the trend is well and truly established in the Western Cape. The Construct Learning Lab supports universities in Boston, Doha and Oxford as well as companies and government bodies. The company expects to increase its staff complement by 150 over three years.

Tuberculosis continues to affect the lives of thousands of South Africans so the efforts of UCT Professor Keertan Dheda and a team of researchers is a most welcome and relevant application to local conditions. They have developed a new method of diagnosing tuberculosis from skin which is non-invasive, fast and highly accurate.

Another relevant piece of work by a UCT academic won for Associate Professor Gina Ziervogel the institution’s Social Responsiveness Award. As a climate change adaption expert and geographer, Ziervogel played a key role in a team that advised the City of Cape Town during the severe drought that threatened water supplies. An important contribution was to stress the importance of community understanding and involvement. She and renowned environmental journalist Leonie Joubert have produced a book called Day Zero: One city’s response to a record-breaking drought.

Another climate adaptation has been observed at Stellenbosch University where a School for Climate Studies has been launched in response to growing interest in climate resilience and trying to move away from fossil fuels. It is the first such institution in the country to enjoy the status of faculty and it

SECTOR INSIGHT Stellenbosch University has established a School for Climate Studies.

will work in an interdisciplinary way. The school has joined an illustrious set of international universities known as the Global University Alliance on Climate (GUAC) which includes the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Berkeley and Oxford and Cambridge.

A R386-million campus is to be built by False Bay TVET in Mitchells Plain to serve that suburb, Strandfontein and surrounding areas. It will eventually cater for more than 5 000 students.

The new Mitchells Plain Campus will complement the College’s existing campus presence in Khayelitsha, Fish Hoek, Westlake and Muizenberg. Programmes will be offered in tourism, creative media, business BPO, wholesale and retail and the services sectors. Bridging classes will also be presented for young people who do not meet entry requirements.

The province’s I-CAN centres allow for public access to digital skills programmes, WiFi and business services. The centres are divided into zones (including Create, Study and Learn) and printing, graphic design and laminating services are available.

The University of Cape Town has more than 21 500 students, 720 permanent staff and 39 A-rated researchers (40% of South Africa’s total). Stellenbosch University is linked to Stellenbosch’s growing reputation as a technology hub. The University of the Western Cape is home to several national research bodies.

These three institutions, plus the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, produce approximately 12 000 science, technology, engineering and mathematics graduates every year and host 11 000 students from other African countries.

University education is available in George through the Nelson Mandela University (NMU): Saasveld is home to the School of Natural Resource Management and the York Street Campus delivers courses in business and social science, accounting and business management.

SARETEC offers industry-specific training in a new economic sector. The South African Renewable Energy Technology Centre is managed by the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (Bellville campus) but it collaborates with several other institutions and private companies.

Unisa, the country’s biggest distance learning institution, has a campus in Cape Town and a service centre in George.

Airports Company SA (ACSA), the City of Cape Town and the False Bay TVET College in Westlake have combined to offer residents of Blikkiesdorp a chance to learn skills in brick-laying, house-building, scaffolding and health and education. ACSA is investing R5-million in the 12-month certification project and the Construction Education and Training Authority (CETA) will channel funds to False Bay College for training.

ONLINE RESOURCES

Apprenticeship Game Changer: www.westerncape.gov.za Centres of Specialisation: www.dhet.gov.za SA Renewable Energy Technology Centre: www.saretec.org.za TVET colleges: www.tvetcolleges.co.za Centres of Specialisation Programme

A Centres of Specialisation Programme has been introduced by the Department of Higher Education and Training to tackle priority skills.

The Swartklip campus mentioned above will focus on training riggers and mechanical fitters. With the oil and gas sector expected to grow rapidly in the near future, trained artisans can expect to find employment quickly. The College of Cape TVET is concentrating on plumbing and automotive motor mechanics.

The College of Cape Town has seven campuses from the city centre to Guguletu and Wynberg. A new welding academy in Thornton was opened with support from the merSETA (Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services SETA). Northlink College is in the northern suburbs of Cape Town.

Outside of the Cape metropole, Boland College looks after Stellenbosch, Worcester, Paarl and Caledon, while the Southern Cape College covers a wide area, from George to Beaufort West. The West Coast College also has a big catchment area. Boland College participates in an Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) run by the South African Chefs’ Association. ■

Sustainable skills development

College of Cape Town is the preferred provider for education and training.

The College of Cape Town for TVET is strategically aligned through the Linkages and Partnerships Department of the College to establish and maintain strategic partnerships as well as to secure new projects, funding, equipment and other training and development resources. The College continuously expands and maintains a broad link with industry, various SETAs, provincial and national government sectors, other TVET Colleges and stakeholders within the training environment. The College boasts an impressive partnership list on which the names of both local and international partners appear. We welcome new partnerships with the private and public sectors, especially for occupational skills development.

The College has longstanding partnerships and relationships with the private sector, various government departments and institutions, industry, SETAs and other postschool institutions, particularly for WorkplaceBased Learning or Exposure. Most of these partnerships have been formalised through Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) lodged with our Linkages and Partnerships Department which serves as a support area for the Centres of Specialisation, Occupational Development and delivery.

We have recently launched a Power Partnerships campaign (Power Partners) to acknowledge and grow our existing partnership base. The programme works by leveraging the power of workplace base learning through the Power Partnerships Programme to improve people’s skills and livelihoods, in particular, our youth in the following areas: • Student placements (in-service training, internships and workplace-based learning) • Apprenticeships • Skills training • Course design • Workplace mentorship

The power of partnerships The Power Partners campaign was officially launched in April 2021 at the Gardens Campus, in an auspicious event for the Centre of Specialisation (CoS) Power Partners.

The event was for the College of Cape Town for TVET and affiliated project partners of the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET); Energy and Water Sector Education Training Authority (EWSETA); Institute of Plumbing South Africa (IOPSA); Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services SETA (merSETA) and Retail Motor Industry (RMI) to acknowledge the role demonstrated by these partners. The College expressed appreciation for the unwavering support and commitment demonstrated by these partners in recognition of the partnership agreement to collectively address the skills development needs in the Western Cape. All partners successfully accomplished the rollout and implementation of the the CoS Apprenticeship Programme for Automotive Motor Mechanic and Plumbing.

When CoS was developed, the Department of Higher Education and Training had two objectives: address demand for priority trades and contribute towards capacity building of the public TVET

College system in delivering occupational trade qualifications with employers as partners. Out of the 13 Centre of Specialisation trades identified and developed, the College started with Automotive Motor Mechanic and Plumbing.

The College expressed gratitude to all the partners and host employers and acknowledged sponsors (Autobooks, HaynesPro, Ford Motor Company ZA and Geberit ZA) for their meaningful contributions. Thirty Automotive Motor Mechanic apprentices were recruited and 10 host employers contracted, namely: Car Smart Service Centre, Taylor’s Auto Services, Automax Service & Fitment Centre, German Autoworks, Riaan’s Auto Repairs, Super Group, Unitrans, Canterbury Motors, Barloworld Barons Tokai and McCarthy. In addition, there are 20 plumbing apprentices and one contracted host employer, Peninsula Plumbing and Engineering Works.

The College of Cape Town for TVET is not just the “Coolest College in South Africa”, but a Skills Battleground, with a strong army, made up of the best soldiers (affiliated partners) to collectively address the skills development needs of the Western Cape and South Africa. Our motto for the year is “EXCELLENCE STARTS WITH ME”. We strive for excellence and quality in everything we do and this is commensurate with our mission of being “committed to being an institution of excellence that develops the potential of clients through quality Education and Training in response to the skills development needs of the country”. ■

Specialised skills are practised in excellent facilities at the Collge of Cape Town.