North West Business 2020-21 Edition

OVERVIEW
Education and training
North-West University now offers Mechatronic Engineering.
Sector Insight
Civil servants are getting
extra training.
The Tebogo Nokwana Foundation donates shoes and
sanitary towels to Matlhare Mokautu Secondary School.
Image: North West Department of Education
Ubank and Royal Bafokeng Holdings have established the
Thutopele Learnership which provides young people with
working experience while they study towards a National
Banking Certificate NQF level 5.
Of the first 15 trainees who went through the learnership, 13 were
employed by Ubank within the province or in neighbouring Gauteng.
The programme prepares students for positions as tellers, sales
consultants and in-service consultancy.
A Provincial Government three-year programme has placed 120
unemployed graduates in the agricultural sector on farms as part of
experiential training and learning. The North West Office of the Premier
disburses bursaries to the Ikatisong School of Governance (located at
the University of Pretoria) for civil servants or prospective civil servants.
Studies can be undertaken in seven faculties.
The North-West University Business School has agreed to
collaborate with the North West Provincial Government in building the
relevant skills of officials. The school offers an MBA and a Postgraduate
Diploma in Management at three sites.
A specific initiative to tackle unemployment was planned for 2020,
a Provincial Skills Development Lekgotla. Participants were to be the
National Skills Authority (NSA) and various SETAs and their brief was
to develop a provincial intervention strategy relating to young people
who are neither employed nor in education and training.
South Africa’s educational
institutions are being
encouraged to focus on artisan
skills. At the moment, about
13 000 artisans are trained in the
country every year; the National
Department of Higher Education
and Training (DHET) wants that
figure to be 30 000 by 2026.
The first 164 graduates of a
joint programme of the North
West Department of Economy
and Enterprise Development and
the Construction Education and
Training Authority (CETA) have
received certificates in plumbing.
The three-year apprenticeship is
focussed on women and youth.
Technical Vocational and
Educational Training colleges
teach skills that are relevant to
the work place. North West has
three TVET colleges with several
campuses each. Vuselela TVET
College has its headquarters
in Klerksdorp, where there is
also an accredited trade test
centre. There are a further four
campuses: Jouberton Centre for
Engineering Studies; Matlosana
Campus; Potchefstroom Centre
for ICT and Taung Campus.
Orbit TVET College has three
sites, Rustenburg, Mankwe
and Brits, with about 15 000
students overall. The Rustenburg
campus of Orbit College hosts
a Microsoft IT Academy while
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