South African Colleges Principals' Organisation Conference, Johannesburg
30 August 2007
Director-General of the Department of Education, Mr Duncan Hindle
Director-General of the Denmark Department of Education, Mr Roland
Osterlund
College principals
South African Colleges Principals' Organisation
National Board of Further Education and Training
Representatives from Further Education and Training Colleges
Government officials
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Good evening and I wish to welcome you all to this conference, which has
been jointly organised by the department and the South African College
Principals' Organisation (Sacpo). Sacpo is co-hosting this conference with the
department.
It provides us all with an opportunity to reflect on the progress we are
making in the colleges as well as with the recapitalisation programmes.
Further, the conference provides a joint forum in which the leadership of the
Further Education Training (FET) sector can engage with policy matters, on key
challenges and successes.
The fundamental restructuring and re�engineering of the College sector that
began in 2001 has begun to show many positive trends.
Firstly, the sustained attention of policy makers, improved financing and
the creation of Sacpo.
Secondly, the improved, and constantly improving, status of Colleges as
institutions of choice, signals the fact that we have begun to capture public
attention through the new college programmes and the capacity of the sector to
develop programmes that respond to the interests of young people and of
industry.
Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, the colleges are increasingly viewed
as major drivers of the emerging skills revolution in South Africa.
The government allocation of R1,9 billion for the recapitalisation of FET
colleges is proof of this positive attitude. According to the most recent
report, the department indicates that the conditional grant has enabled the FET
College sector to:
* train 4 666 lecturers, which is 2 666 more than the projected 2 000, which
is the projected figure over three years of the recapitalisation grant
* upgrade information technology system in all 50 colleges
* upgrade 57 workshops, 64 classrooms and 15 resource centres
* build 18 new classrooms
* upgrade 130 campus sites
* purchase learning and teaching support material to the value of R122
million.
All this has happened over a period of one and a quarter years. I strongly
urge the colleges to make profitable use of the Recapitalisation Grant, as it
is calculated to serve as a springboard for skills development. The statistics
on staff upgrading clearly disproves recent statements that college lecturers
wish to exit colleges.
Another major achievement of this sector is the introduction in 2007 of the
11 new, vibrant and responsive programmes of the National Certificate
Vocational / NC(V). These comprise over 50 qualifications that serve as the
colleges' response towards the skills shortages identified as binding
constraints in the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa
(AsgiSA). In 2008, an additional NC(V) programme will be offered at a few
colleges in 2008. This is the Safety in Society NC(V) programme which will be
done in partnership with the South African Police Service. Students enrolled on
this programme will also have an opportunity to get drivers licences. This
means that colleges that will offer this programme will have to make provision
for facilities for training towards obtaining a driver's licence.
I must further congratulate the college management and staff for being able
to enrol over 25 000 students at NC(V) Level 2 in the new programmes. This is
quite an achievement considering that the National Certificate Vocational
programmes have been offered for the first time in 2007. The colleges and the
department are also focussing on the challenge of scarce skills and this year
12 597 engineering and 2 033 IT NC(V) students were enrolled. I wish to
encourage colleges to grow these numbers in 2008, if we are to reach the
targets set in the Government Programme of Action. The NC(V) programmes will
lead to the development of FET college graduates with the kind of skills that
are needed by industry. While we celebrate these notably high enrolments the
challenge that lies ahead for each college principal and lecturer is to ensure
that at least 20 000 (80%) students enrolled on the NC(V) Level 2 programmes
this year progress to Level 3 in 2008.
Targeted attention must be given to student academic support. Each College
must provide academic support and ensure that these programmes address
students' academic needs. The presentation earlier today by Mr Osterlund
clearly outlines the role of academic support in vocational education and
training. The Department will use his input in refining student support
services with a focus on academic support. This will assist colleges in
strengthening academic support services rendered to students. A key aspect of
any academic support must be communication skills and work related numeracy
since these are the skills that enable learning to be achieved and
sustained.
As part of encouraging, recognising and rewarding achievement and excellence
in this sector, the department will be giving awards to the top performing
colleges in each NC(V) programme. These awards will be given to the top
performing colleges based on the 2007 final examination results. Similarly,
top-performing students in each programme will also be recognised and rewarded
for their overall performance.
Another first in the history of vocational education in South Africa is the
introduction this year of the Department of Education FET College bursary
scheme, the aim of which is to ensure that deserving, talented and financially
needy students are not denied access to education and training at FET colleges.
Of the R100 million allocated for 2007, colleges projected an expenditure of
R66 million to cover 12 857 students, which is more than 50% of the students
enrolled on the NC(V) programmes.
It would be remiss of me not to note the progress which the department and
the colleges have made in respect of the implementation of the Further
Education and Training Colleges Act of 2006. This legislation was put in place
to make colleges centres of the skills revolution in South Africa. To this end,
the Act requires FET college educator staff and administration staff to
transfer from State employment to the employment of the college so as to make
colleges responsive and flexible in dealing with the needs of the community
they serve the economic development needs of the provinces and national
priorities.
In this regard, I am delighted to note that on 17 July 2007, the Collective
Agreement Resolution No 4 of 2007 was signed at the Education Labour Relations
Council. This agreement paved the way for the facilitation of the transfer of
the staff currently employed in terms of the Employment of Educators Act of
1998 to the College Councils as the new employers. A further resolution five of
2007 is due to be signed by the State, the new employer and the labour
unions.
This will be the last piece in the puzzle, as it will signal the beginning
of a new era in the governance, management and staffing in the FET the college
sector. In this respect I wish to refer to features of the College sector that
point to Colleges as attractive employers. First, colleges remain public
institutions. Second, the FET college sector is an expanding sector full of
hope, promise and opportunities for youth and adults, as well as for vocational
education professionals. The College sector is being transformed into a
specialised, professional sector. Support for lecturer development will be
provided and the initial training for professional vocational education will
also be redesigned to suit new needs. I therefore invite every lecturer to join
me in this venture as the future in the FET college sector has never looked
brighter than now.
As we continue to implement the NC(V) programmes, it is imperative to
constantly monitor the state of readiness at colleges to offer additional or
advanced levels of the NC(V) programmes. Last year an external Ministerial Team
monitored and evaluated the state of readiness of colleges to deliver the NC(V)
programmes. This year an internal team has been monitoring the state of
readiness for the delivery of Levels 2 and 3 of the NC(V) and will present me
with a report at the end of October 2007. The challenge is that of keeping the
recapitalisation goals in mind, which are to increase the number of students
enrolled in the high priority skills NC(V) programmes and to offer quality
programmes that respond to our skills gaps. The investment made through the
recapitalisation of the colleges must result in an increase in the number of
students enrolled on and succeeding in NC(V) programmes.
I also want to thank the Government of Denmark, in particular the Danish
Embassy for their continued support for the transformation of education in this
country. The Danish International Development Assistance (Danida) Support to
the Education and Skills Development (SESD) programme has a clear strategic
focus on supporting the Government of South Africa's policy for transforming
Further Education and Training (FET) colleges, with the aim of making them
responsive to the needs of the community, of facilitating the delivery of
relevant and high quality programmes, and of contributing generally to improved
life opportunities. The programme represents a significant financial and human
resource investment in the transformation process by both Danida and the
Government of South Africa. The SESD II programme has provided funding for the
following Department of Education initiatives:
* the development of the manual for the implementation of the FET Act of
2006 and to facilitate the understanding and implementation of the Act.
* the efficiency study which is aimed at providing a status overview of
efficiency and effectiveness of colleges with a view to identifying and
recommending ways of enhancing cost-effectiveness and utilisation of resources.
* the pilot implementation of student support services and tracer studies. The
student support focus is on academic support to increase student retention and
throughput rates and to ensure that placement in employment is achieved.
* tracer studies will enable us to determine the contribution and impact made
by the graduates of FET colleges to the skills needs of the country.
As the year draws to a close, I wish to challenge college principals and
staff to ensure that:
* an 80% pass rate is achieved in the NC(V) Level 2 programmes
* the college's programme offerings are widely marketed and advertised to
ensure that we achieve the projected enrolment of 40 000 students in the NC(V)
Level 2 in 2008. In the context of the severe skills shortage, we cannot afford
to have even a single campus site under-utilised.
* to consider increasing student enrolment in the fields of Engineering and
information technology on condition that available equipment, infrastructure
and staff capacity support such increase
* to assist and support the facilitation of staff transfer such that by 31
October 2007 all staff will have signed employment contracts with the
college
* to ensure that the Recapitalisation Grant is used effectively to increase the
capacity and readiness of our colleges to offer Levels 3 and 4 in 2008 and 2009
respectively.
I wish you a successful and productive day tomorrow as you continue
deliberating on issues that affect the sector. To all of us here, I believe
this conference should serve as a medium through which we can appreciate the
milestones we have achieved to date and to honestly consider and examine the as
yet untapped potential of the sector and the challenges that lie ahead of us as
we advance the nation's human resources and skills development agenda.
I wish to conclude by placing before you a challenge that we have not
addressed in Higher Education and in the FET Sector. This is the development of
Centres of Excellence and niche programmes in a range of diverse locations. Is
it possible, for example, that Sacpo can agree on the colleges that are to
become key institutions for language study of foreign language toward training
of interpreters?
Sectors have great difficulty is assessing their own abilities and strengths
in academic programmes, but this is a necessary task if we are to achieve high
levels of quality. That then is the challenge; for the FET College sector to be
able to assess its abilities and excellence as a sector and as colleges within
the sector, and to promote these for the good of the nation.
Thank you.
Issued by: Department of Education
30 August 2007
