CAPE TOWN - The Western Cape Community Education and Training (CET) College head has blamed a lack of infrastructure for not building more sites in the province to equip communities with education and skills.
According to Jerimia Thuynsma chairperson of the Western Cape CET College Council more than 80% of their sites operate out of schools as after school activities.
He was speaking at the Cape Town International Convention Centre where a two days ministerial CET summit came to an end on Wednesday.
The aim of the summit which hosted different role players aimed to deal with the upsurge in the number of people who are not in employment, education or training (NEET).
“The reality is that our target market is available throughout the day. People prefer to come into an institution that is not in a school because they have dropped out of school early or they have never entered a formal school. For them to return to a normal school is a problem due to the stigma attached to that.
“As we have shared this plight where the national Department of Public Works and Infrastructure was present we are hoping we will be able to be assisted to expand. The provincial department has already given us some facilities in Caledon and Stanford,”said Thuynsma.
He said in terms of the skills development areas, the relationship with employers was the issue.
“We have not ventured with employers at a rate we think is necessary for us to make an input in skills shortages in the province,” said Thuynsma.
Deputy Director General responsible for Community Education and Training Thembisa Futshane welcomed R200 million in funding announced by Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande announced on Tuesday.
“There are nine CET colleges across the country and they deliver to about 1791 sites where teaching, learning and training is taking place. This will enable our colleges to run their school buildings, as each in the nine provinces will receive more than R22 million. They have submitted proposals to indicate which programs will be implemented,” said Futshane.
Deputy Minister Manamela said he envisaged an expanded CET College system able to respond to the targets as set out in the National Development Plan (NDP) 2030.
The NDP 2030 targets sets a student enrolment target of 1 Million in CET Colleges.
Cape Times