Rolled-up sleeves, a tool kit and a business opportunity — the department of trade & industry’s new pilot project for colleges could be just what SA needs to defuse the time bomb that is youth unemployment.
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has agreed to provide R6.2m from its middle-income countries’ grant to fund the enterprise development pilot project in four technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges in Ekurhuleni, the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga.
The pilot project aims to shift TVET colleges from churning out employable students to producing tradespeople who are ready to start their own businesses after qualifying. As such, it incorporates two additional elements in vocational training: students spend half of their time working in industry and are given starter kits — a toolbox they need in their trade — allowing them to immediately take up small-scale contracts in their field of work.
The department of trade & industry, which with the AfDB is spearheading the pilot project, is closely involved in the running of the four colleges.
“If we provide new-venture creation type of courses, then we are providing learners with the skills and toolboxes. They can combine what they have with friends and go out there to start something small,” said Ekurhuleni East TVET College acting centre manager Gardner Dewu.
The students also work with local SMEs and students in other disciplines and are given resources to form multidiscipline businesses while at college. For instance, in college workshops building, plumbing and electrical students work on a single project as subcontractors would in a real-world scenario.
For the Ekurhuleni East TVET College in Springs, the bank has allocated R800,000 to build sheet-metal and boiler-making workshops that will be used by students and local entrepreneurs.
On the face of it, the pilot project has the potential to revitalise TVET colleges. But will it work without fixing the college system first? Can SA’s youth pin its hopes on this multimillion rand project?
Former higher education minister Blade Nzimande admitted in 2017 that the TVET colleges were a “mess”. When the department of higher education & training briefed the National Council of Provinces earlier in 2019, the problems of enrolling too many students, poor infrastructure and delays in awarding qualifications, remained.
This means that instead of helping to reduce SA’s unemployment figures, colleges may be worsening the situation as many students remain unemployable for years after completing their studies. A scroll down the department of higher education’s Facebook page gives a glimpse of the frustration of students who are still waiting for their qualification papers.
Will the colleges involved in the pilot be run differently? The department of trade & industry, which with the AfDB is spearheading the pilot project, is closely involved in the running of the four colleges. In Ekurhuleni East, the department started by sending the college to the drawing board to redesign its entrepreneurial studies programme.
“They didn't have a structured entrepreneurial development programme. We found the same thing for Sekhukhune [in Mpumalanga] as well,” said the department’s project coordinator, Nontombi Marule.
Before pouring in money to buy equipment and build the workshops, the department stepped in to fix the curriculum, added the business incubation element alongside the vocational training and is monitoring the number of students being trained and will track their journey once they complete their studies.
The pilot project aims to open the multimillion-rand manufacturing workshops to local entrepreneurs and tradesmen. The idea is that because they are experienced, they can transfer skills to students and give them real-world experience while they benefit from using manufacturing equipment.
The locals who participate in the pilot are chosen through a recruitment process and don’t have to pay to be part of it. In other areas, such as the Sekhukhune TVET College in Mpumalanga, the department has asked community leaders to identify businesses that could benefit from the programme. The progress of these small businesses too will be monitored.
If the department of trade & industry and the AfDB can get this pilot to work as envisaged, it could inject life into SA’s vocational college system. Time will tell if this well-intentioned programme will not end up like many other government-driven incubation schemes that oozed potential but failed at execution stage.
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