Eastern Cape Province TVET Colleges, Eastcape Midlands and King Sabata Dalindyebo are participants in an exciting ‘International Skills Partnerships’
programme with Belfast Metropolitan College. The programme is an initiative of the British Council which provides investment funding, enabling partners to tackle some key challenges encountered globally in skills development.
The main focus is to develop a strategy that will promote and sustain comprehensive partnerships with employers, Sector Education and Training Authorities and government departments. The partnering colleges share best practices regarding approaches to bridging the skills gap that occurs in learners between school completion and college registration. It should lead to a focused approach with respect to Work Integrated Learning, Workplace Based Exposure and the employment of college graduates. The programme hopes to assist unemployed young people and college graduates with the skills, knowledge and qualifications required to enter the workforce or higher education. A component of the initiative is the implementation of bridging programmes which will identify skills gaps. This step will ultimately improve the retention and throughput (pass) rates of colleges.
This writer, on behalf of Eastcape Midlands TVET College and Mr Wanda Ndinisa, Head of Department for Engineering Studies at King Sabata Dalindyebo TVET College, visited UK partner, Belfast Metropolitan College as part of the initiative. The visit coincided with the “Bring the Learning Home” international conference held in Birmingham. One of the highlights of the visit was a meeting with Mr Jonathan Stewart, Deputy Director of the British Council. Matters for discussion included the role of the British Council in international skills development and the importance of partnership building. The importance of employer involvement in curriculum structuring and skills development was also emphasised. This linked with project findings that stress the importance of identifying skills needed by employers and an employability framework for graduates. The objective of employer engagement is to close the gap between what education produces in terms of human capital and what industry requires. Employers must be given a voice and colleges should engage them more fully in education initiatives. This could be achieved by the formation of employer representative bodies. Industry should also be involved in standard setting and the incorporation of course content proven to be effective.
Editor’s note: Mr Adriaan Boyce is a First Education Specialist for National Certificate Vocational and Report 191 Engineering Studies at Eastcape Midlands TVET College.
A skills audit should be conducted before the process of student recruitment can be embarked upon. Inputs from employers, local, provincial and national government, are of great importance to ensure the employability of graduates. Information obtained from employers, will prevent colleges from over-recruiting in specific skills (programme) areas. Over enrolment in some courses could lead to training for unemployment which in turn would be a gross wastage of subsidy and bursary funding. School feeder ‘appetite programmes’ should be implemented to ease the bridging from school into the college sector. In most instances learners that exit before grade 12, failed at school level and enter college as a last resort. This is one of the contributing factors for the high drop-out numbers reported by colleges. Feeder ‘appetite programmes’ will enable their development and the achievement of an exit qualification.
International collaboration allows for staff development, exchanges and exposure to new ways of delivering programmes for the ultimate benefit of students.
