VHEMBE TVET COLLEGE
VHEMBE TVET COLLEGE Providing the skills the community needs Vhembe TVET College principal Basani Hlekane outlines the goals of skills development programmes that are relevant to the workplace and respond to the challenges of the new economy. and in retail many malls are being built. Agriculture and mining are strong and when you look at mechanical engineering we talk about fabrication, welding and boilermaking. That is how we positioned our campuses. The Makwarela campus specialises in innovation in engineering and also hospitality and business studies, welding, motor mechanics and robotics. Some drone pilots have graduated and we are promoting entrepreneurship. At Mashamba campus it is purely agriculture, that’s where the greenhouses are. At Mavhoi campus, they specialise in electricity and chemical engineering. At Musina the focus is on the mines and engineering programmes. Tshisimani has engineering but they are working on their speciality. Shingwedzi looks at what their surrounding area needs so they have early childhood programmes, engineering and business studies. We also have a satellite at Makhado where we have hospitality facilities. We do bed and breakfast, conferencing and have a restaurant. Thengwe Campus wants to specialise in engineering skills. Biography Basani Hlekane Having completed her schooling in Mdabula in the Malamulele area of Limpopo, Hlakane studied for a BTech, Higher Education, at Tshwane University of Technology and was awarded an Honours degree in Educational Leadership and Administration from Unisa. She held senior posts at Tshwane South College and worked in the Department of Education and Training before joining Vhembe TVET College. She has been principal since 2015 and notably introduced Limpopo’s first Centre for Entrepreneurship to the College. How many campuses do you have? We have seven campuses in the Vhembe district. What do they have in common? What our campuses have in common is they provide skills to the communities around them. They focus on the economic factors in their local municipalities as a priority. But campuses also have their own focus? Many different sectors of the economy are doing well and the campuses respond to that. Construction is booming in all areas Are students enthusiastic about the courses you are offering? Our programmes are gaining momentum. We review our programmes often and we have started distance learning but mainly we check what the industry wants. The more industries are looking for certain qualifications, the more the students are enthusiastic about those courses because they know they are going to get employment. We encourage our students to look at employability. How do you foster entrepreneurship? At Makwarela we prepare them to sustain themselves. The restaurant at Makwarela gives the students workplace experience because when we have visitors or conferences, the students get to plan, budget and cost for the events. At the end of the conference, the students do a review and submit reports. Our Centre for Entrepreneurship assists students to register a business. We support them with training, marketing and in getting funding where it is possible. I was told that a group of students who started a textile venture had split up, which worried me. But then somebody said, “The students split because they are doing well, everybody is going on his own.” That was great. Are partnerships working well for the college? We have about 120 partnerships that provide placing for students. But we are getting support from many elements in terms of government institutions, our municipalities and the IDC, for example. We are getting a lot of interest from banks approaching us and other stakeholders saying we want to implement this programme, can we approach your 36 | www.opportunityonline.co.za
VHEMBE TVET COLLEGE college? We are also being exposed in the international space, for example our partnership with Hewlett-Packard. We are doing a lot of industry stakeholders’ engagement with the hope to get more partners. We no longer sit in the office; we go out there and ensure that we market our students that need employment and we ensure that they do a good job when they are there in such a way that the industry will keep on asking us to bring them more. Is placing people in terms of internships or actual jobs when they exit? The challenge is the magnitude of the size of our enrolment. Few can be placed but with the growing hotel, tourism and retail activity in the area, we can compete because of our incorporation of technology and new programmes. I had interns who were hotel interns one stage. I was later told they had been appointed as head chefs. The prison close to us appointed 21 of our internship students in managerial positions. It ends up being a good story to tell because we place the students for workplace learning but it brings results. So I can clearly say that we are placing students as interns, and we also have those that get absorbed in permanent positions. How are you making Vhembe TVET College more relevant? As Vhembe TVET College, we try to spice up our programmes. We are a college that is pursuing innovation and technology and there is a bit of Fourth Industrial Revolution in most of our elements. An agricultural student in our college knows how to use water-smart technology. We are also a college that likes to be innovative with the programmes we offer, for example, a lot of colleges are offering a normal Secretarial Programme, but our college is looking at introducing Legal Secretary and Medical Secretary. We are also an inclusive college. We have a lot of disability students, especially blind and deaf students. We have incorporated smart technology into what we do in order to make their learning experience easier. So it’s not just new programmes, but a new approach? The new programmes are about reprioritising what we have to meet the need of what is required outside. Waste-water management is a critical element now. In road construction we are bringing innovative ways of mixing concrete with plastic. We were delayed with renewable energy, but we are actually getting into that space and there are other skills that we have introduced such as cellphone repairs. We also want to return to upholstery and vehicle-body spray painting. Regular programmes will continue to be there like tourism but what the college is doing is to bring the 4IR into a programme to say, “How can you be innovative while you are dealing with the following?” Hewlett-Packard has come in with an innovative way with communication on campus. You not only learn online but you learn how to market the business online, how to use social media, which is not in the syllabus but we just spice it up. Did you face obstacles in your career? There are various obstacles or challenges that I have faced in my career: competition with other candidates in my field; moving from Academics to Skills and venturing from understanding commerce to understanding Engineering skills; moving from one province to another; self-development for leadership purposes was challenging; growing up through the ranks at a young age required more maturity and it was not easy; being challenged as a woman and young leader tested my ability. Finally, uplifting the college from a particular level without senior positions being filled and I had to work with junior staff and still comply. Did you have mentors? The passion for education was there, the passion for skills grew but there were mentors. As you are working you look at women leaders that were in front of you, inspirational people like the principal of Ekurhuleni West College, Hellen Ntlatleng. The department also played a role because they challenged you to implement something quickly. I never said no to the challenge. With the support that we get from the college and the team we always made it. This element of growth I am promoting now with my subordinates, especially women. I am a person who always like to visit others who are doing the same, not in the terms of competing but I want to learn. I say let’s learn from the others who do the same as we are doing, but let’s also open space for others to learn from us. That’s why recently we have been receiving a lot of visitors at the college who say they want to benchmark. We also go out and benchmark and it has come with opportunities where we went to international colleges. What are your main goals? To provide skills to the community. I want the college to produce professionals skilled in a lot of areas who can be competitive globally. In whatever we do it has to have an impact on the community. We want to provide solutions to poverty by providing skills so that people can stand up and do it for themselves. That is the main aim. We want to do that by making the environment around our area realise the skills that can be learnt at the college, the role that can be played by the TVET College in the community in terms of societal issues, behavioural issues, economic factors and reducing unemployment. We are taking the skills out to the community. We want everybody to see from the junior school learner upwards the students who are doing bricklaying, tiling. When they do practicals we look at dilapidated schools and say let’s show off what the TVET College is made of. Our students go out there in their work suit, promoting skills and showing what they do. We are also bringing the students on board to say come and see what technology can do, come and see what skills can do. I am also focussing on students’ employability, the fostering of partnerships and making it an innovative college. The last major goal is staff development. The wellness of staff is also my focus. My staff must work smart and they must be well. www.opportunityonline.co.za | 37
