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For apprenticeships to really flourish in South Africa, there needs to be a committed and ongoing commitment from both industry and educational institutions and continuous training of teachers to address the influx of young apprentices increasingly wanting to enter the sector.
Over the last four weeks, specialist teacher training for various TVET colleges in the Eastern Cape has been taking place to ensure the programme with the Handwerkskammer (HWK) Erfurt Germany really gains momentum in 2022.
The end of the latest four-day training session with four of the TVET colleges co-incided with an event that brought together delegates from private companies from East London, Mthatha and even Durban, with representatives from five TVET institutions from East London, King Williams Town, Butterworth and Mthatha.
This meeting under the banner of “promoting cooperation between the private sector and TVET training institutions” was organised together with the TVET partnership project from the HWK Erfurt in Germany and the Retail Motor Industry Organisation (RMI) and was hosted by Buffalo City College at its Mdantsane campus. The meeting was opened by Mr. Chola from BCC head office in East London, followed by presentations by Erwin Stroebel, the regional manager for the RMI in the Eastern Cape and Birgit Mac Mahon, the project manager of the partnership. Guest speakers included Mr. Ntsikilelo from Ntsiki Motors who made a passionate appeal to all companies to engage in TVET training to give young people a better chance to become wage earners and Mr Makatala from the Office of the Premier, who added his voice to the importance of training young people for the future of the country.
Representatives from all colleges present also spoke about their training courses, and stressed their commitment for better cooperation with private companies, urgently inviting these businesses to their campus for further discussion.
Apprentices themselves, Asheko Makhaphela, Kamva Maki and Nasiphi Gayoyo, all spoke enthusiastically about their passion in auto mechanics and Mr. Matlebetsha, Mrs. Seti and Mr. Ludidi, teachers from KSD, BCC and King Hintsa TVET colleges, were eager to demonstrate some of the functions of car diagnostics to the guests.
Birgit Mac Mahon closed by reminding the participants about the important role that private companies play in TVET training to ensure both relevance and quality.
