In an effort to combat the high graduate unemployment rate, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) will place 10,000 TVET college graduates in workplaces from April 2022, so that they can complete their qualifications, thus improving their prospects for employability or starting their own small businesses.
According to Parliament’s Select Committee on Education and Technology, Arts, and Culture, at the moment 7 000 graduates have been placed and it is confident that the 10 000-placemnet target will be reached by the end of March 2023.
The committee says that the DHET is still proceeding with placements, and it is confident that the placement target will be reached.
Despite the department’s progress, students have expressed concerns and frustrations about certain TVET college management not being bothered that thousands of students still do not have work placements.
The committee noted that it receives lots of letters of complaints from TVET students that have not been placed and others who are still waiting to receive their qualification certificates, which is also one of the main reasons why graduates are unable to secure job placement.
Many people have also asked how TVET colleges in rural areas are faring with graduate work placements and experimental learning and how the department plans to address the challenges graduates in rural areas are facing.
In response to student placement in workplaces for TVET colleges located in rural areas, Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande explained that it is a real ongoing challenge bolstered by the lack of significant workplaces.
“Following the President’s commitment to solving student placement, the issue was 70% dealt with. This highlights DHET’s commitment as it will initiate further investigations of rural conditions.”
Nzimande says that the aim of the investigations will be, for example, to find available police stations and see if motor mechanic students can offer their services; there will be an effort to ensure the construction and repair school desks.
He says that it has now stated that performance agreements with TVET principals prioritise student work placements, adding that vocational training cannot exist without student placement.
