The de-massification of universities via new funding and admission rules must be accompanied by major reforms to technical and vocational training.
Technical and vocational skills are in such high demand and scarce supply that training of this kind should already be recognised as a valuable option. Instead, the benefits of university study have been oversold, while the poor quality of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges has further deterred enrolment.
What then can be done to improve TVET training?
The government pays lip-service to the importance of technical and vocational training at the country’s 50 public TVET colleges. This is particularly evident in the 2013 White Paper for Post-School Education and Training, which seeks to increase TVET enrolments to 2.5 million by 2030 – significantly higher than the 1.6 million target the document sets for university students.
In practice, however, TVET enrolment continues to lag substantially behind that at universities. This was evident once again in 2024, when there were roughly 564,100 students enrolled at TVET colleges – and more than a million at the country’s universities.
Defects in TVET courses
TVET colleges have long offered a vocational “NC(V)” matric for pupils in grades 10-12, as well as post-matric “N4” to “N6” courses under the “NATED” system (short for National Accredited Technical Education Diploma). Most of these TVET offerings have been strongly criticised by employers for being too theoretical and failing to provide essential workplace experience. In addition, lecturers often lack practical and industry knowledge, while the subjects and technologies being taught are generally outdated. At the same time, dysfunctional schooling leaves many TVET students with poor levels of literacy and numeracy, eroding throughput rates.
In 2017 the report of the Heher commission on the funding of tertiary education highlighted many of these problems. The report nevertheless recommended that “the TVET college sector should increase threefold”. In South Africa, said Judge Jonathan Heher, a mere 2% of pupils aged 15 to 19 were enrolled at TVET colleges, whereas “industrialised countries had over 6% of the youth cohort in vocational education”. This meant that “the TVET college sector was too small for the size and level of development of the economy”.
However, many of the problems confronting TVET colleges would have to be resolved through “efficiency changes”, Heher took pains to stress. The curriculum would have to be modernised. TVET lecturers “with the required skills and industry experience” would have to be “trained and encouraged to enter the sector”. ICT and blended learning techniques would be needed to improve teaching and ensure that graduates were better prepared for the world of work.
New courses being offered
Major curriculum changes are now under way. Both NC(V) and NATED (N4–N6) courses are being phased out and replaced by “occupational courses” developed by the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO). Every QCTO course includes a theoretical section (counting 20%), a practical element involving simulated tasks in a college workshop (counting 30%) and mandatory “workplace-based learning (WBL)” (counting 50%). Students will not be able to pass without completing all three, making workplace experience essential. In addition, internal TVET exams are being replaced by an external assessment system, (grandly) entitled the External Integrated Summative Assessment or EISA.
To ensure that necessary workplace training is provided, TVET colleges are barred from offering QCTO courses without first signing agreements with employers or industry associations willing to provide it. The many TVET lecturers lacking relevant knowledge are to be provided with suitable theoretical and practical training. To help fill gaps, TVET colleges may also be permitted to hire private-sector experts on part-time contracts to deliver advanced practical modules.
According to one TVET college, the new occupational courses aim to equip graduates with “up-to-date skills, workplace experience, and competencies aligned to modern work demands”. Students are to be trained, for example, as “mechatronic technicians”, with a basic knowledge of what used to be three separate trades: fitter, electrician and millwright. This will equip them to install and repair industrial machinery forming part of automated production systems. Training will also be offered in areas such as cybersecurity and renewable energy.
Practical problems
However, there are many practical problems in implementing these proposals. Workplace training is supposed to be funded via SETA levies, but the payments on offer are often too limited to cover the costs to employers of supervising inexperienced students. Many employers are thus reluctant to sign up for training of this kind.
In response, the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) has stated that, where actual workplace experience is not available, “simulated workplace experience would constitute an appropriate and feasible substitute”. A key weakness in current TVET courses is thus likely to persist under the QCTO system.
In addition, writes Professor Mbulungeni Madiba, Dean of Education at Stellenbosch University, “colleges are grappling with a severe lack of qualified staff, particularly in high-tech fields like mechatronics”. As he points out, “the shortage of TVET lecturers is driven by systemic and interconnected factors, including the strong pull of industry, where qualified artisans, engineers and IT professionals earn significantly higher salaries and enjoy greater professional prestige than in TVET teaching”.
In addition:
Retention is further undermined by heavy workloads, excessive administrative demands, frequent curriculum changes, poor infrastructure, outdated equipment and governance challenges that create demoralising working conditions. These challenges are compounded by slow and rigid public-sector hiring processes, uncompetitive HR [human resources] practices that cannot accommodate scarcity skills, and a long history of underinvestment in the TVET sector.
Inadequate funding
TVET skills and funding shortages cannot be overcome while the bulk of government spending on tertiary education continues to go to universities. The overall budget for tertiary education in the 2026/27 financial year is R149.2 billion. Of this, a mere R14.7 billion has been allocated to TVET colleges (for personnel, operating expenses, and 80% of tuition fees), while NSFAS funding for TVET students from households with annual incomes of R350,000 or less will contribute some R2.5bn more.
If TVETs are to become institutions of choice for many students, current allocations to universities and TVETs require fundamental change. To help shift demand from universities already struggling with excessive “massification” and high drop-out rates, the Government of National Unity (GNU) should replace “free” education with a system of income-contingent loans for all university students, as outlined in my piece last week, Reforming wasteful “free” university education.
This shift would allow NSFAS funding for university students, currently amounting to some R51bn a year, to be redirected to students at TVET colleges. Other savings could also be found: for example, by scrapping the inflated prices or “BEE premiums” charged on many public procurement contracts, which cost the fiscus an estimated R150bn a year. Meaningful sums could then be made available for TVET training.
Other essential reforms
To avoid wasted revenue and high drop-out rates, the GNU must reform basic schooling and equip TVET students with the foundational skills they need. The requirements for a National Senior Certificate should also be raised to more realistic levels.
Reforming the TVET sector requires other changes too. In particular, the GNU must take effective steps to enhance the current modernisation of TVET training beyond what the QCTO courses envisage. It should seek out expert advice both here and abroad on how TVET curricula can best be amended to meet modern workplace needs.
At the same time, improved TVET courses should continue to impart core plumbing, electrical, bricklaying, glazing, roofing, wood-working and other skills. These are likely to remain in demand in millions of homes and small businesses across the country, even as many larger workplaces shift towards AI-driven automation.
The GNU should offer TVET lecturers better salaries and ensure that all are adequately trained. It should require that genuine workplace experience replace the “simulated” kind that can never be an adequate substitute. In addition, it should explore the optimum use of AI: for example, to provide TVET students with personal study “guides” to help improve their understanding and diagnostic skills.
The value of the TVET sector should constantly be stressed.
Many academic disciplines in the humanities are over-subscribed and do not lead to jobs, whereas sound technical skills remain in high demand and short supply.
In addition, unless the technical skills deficit is reversed, South Africa will lose even more of its capacity to re-industrialise, beneficiate minerals, and improve economic productivity. The major benefits of TVET training must thus be emphasised to all South Africans.
Tax-funded TVET vouchers for competition and efficiency
To stimulate competition and further increase efficiency, much of the increased TVET funding to be provided should be made available to low-income students via tax-funded TVET vouchers.
Under the current payment system, tax revenues flow directly to public TVET colleges and remain much the same each year, regardless of how well or badly these colleges perform. Under a voucher system, by contrast, much of the revenue often being badly spent would be divided among qualifying TVET students in the form of tax-funded vouchers, redeemable only for TVET courses.
TVET vouchers would follow students to the TVET colleges of their choice, which would use them to pay lecturers and meet other vital needs. TVET colleges would then have to compete with one another to attract and retain the custom of their students. This competition would give them powerful incentives to improve their efficiency and keep costs down.
To promote competition still further, TVET vouchers should be made available for study at private technical colleges too. South Africa has some 350 private colleges, which are currently excluded from state funding and have only some 70,000 students. Tax-funded TVET vouchers for both public and private institutions would level the playing field.
Competition from private colleges would also encourage the public ones to up their game. In addition, many more independent colleges would spring up to expand individual choice and help meet crucial economic needs.
[Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank/5320879145]
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