INSETA spends R4,2 million on 314 learners at FET colleges

Currently, the Western Cape and Gauteng have an equal number of learners supported by INSETA (total of 70%), while Mpumalanga has 24% of learners and the Eastern Cape has 6% of learners supported by INSETA.

Ms Sandra Dunn, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of INSETA says, "We are closely following the progress of our sponsored learners, with the objective of ensuring that learnerships are completed and learners are placed in suitable jobs. We also want to ensure that those receiving bursaries perform satisfactorily.

"Apart from financing learnerships and bursaries, and linking learners to workplaces we are also building human resource capacity in FET colleges. One of our top priorities is to co-ordinate SETA activities at the FET colleges where we have an office, and to participate in SETA cluster activities.

"At Ingwe FET College in the Eastern Cape, we are part of a steering committee, comprising of the various FET colleges and other Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) in the area. The steering committee oversees the establishment and functioning of SETA offices at FET colleges and they manage the INSETA deliverables.

"We also partner and work closely with FET colleges to assist with the relevant Education and Training Quality Assurance (ETQA) body’s requirements.

"Our support for the FET colleges is a significant strategy, not only for INSETA, but also for the national government, who has identified human resource capacity building at FET colleges as one of the most important priorities for more effective skills development.”

This is in keeping with a Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) labour market study conclusion that states, "In short, South Africa’s growth path in the modern era has been defined by a constantly increased need for skilled, educated workers at the expense of those who lack these supply characteristics.”

Government identified FET colleges as places of learning which could address the acute middle-level skills crisis.

There are many well-documented challenges associated with FET colleges. These include the poor image of FET colleges, lack of institutional capacity, quality challenges and the like, which are not easy to address.

However, there are also many benefits related to FET Colleges. The FET colleges are spread across all nine provinces and have a wider geographic reach than universities. Further perceived benefits of FET college education include a significant increase in access for learners (that can be achieved with less investment than a corresponding increase in university enrolment), lower costs as compared to universities, as well as the social benefit of including young people currently not in education, employment or training to participate by studying in work-oriented programmes. This illustrates that FET colleges are an important strategy to improve our young people’s skills.