Get a trade, says Blade

The government is to place greater emphasis on vocational and technical training after school, and less on purely academic education, Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande said yesterday.

Speaking before his budget vote, Nzimande said enrolment at tertiary level had increased dramatically since the advent of democracy, especially at technical and vocational education and training colleges (formerly known as FET colleges). Enrolments have increased by 130% since 2008.

"We are aggressively placing a particular focus on technical and vocational training colleges as the most preferred post-schooling option our economy needs," he said.

Construction of three new technical and vocational training campuses - in Thabazimbi, Limpopo, in KwaZulu-Natal's Nkandla, and in far-northern Zululand - will start within months, according to Nzimande.

The National Students' Financial Aid Scheme has been expanded to include technical college students.

Nzimande - who faced strong criticism from DA MP Yusuf Cassim on the administration of the students aid fund - said the fund was one of the ANC government's greatest achievements, especially in expanding the black middle class.

The government intends increasing university enrolments, though at a slower rate.

The number of students graduating as teachers increased, from 6700 in 2009 to 14700 last year.

Nzimande asked business to take a more active interest in vocational training and "job shadowing".

DA MP Belinda Bozzoli said Nzimande's upbeat view of tertiary education was at odds with reality.

She warned that, as a result of the weak schooling system and its failure to expand the economy, the government was faced with 3.5million unemployed - and often unemployable - people under the age of 24.

These young people were beginning to constitute a threat to the ANC's power base, Bozzoli said.

The increase in student numbers, though laudable, had not been accompanied by an increase in university budgets, leaving universities groaning under the strain.

"Classrooms are often crammed beyond capacity, the infrastructure is falling behind, class sizes have increased, making teaching more anonymous and less effective, academic staff are demoralised, and the failure and drop-out rates of students remain shockingly high," she said.

"Fifty percent of students admitted to universities fail to complete their degree.

"And if the department thinks Unisa and other distance methods provide an easy solution, it should remember that by far the majority of these failures are Unisastudents," said Bozzoli.

Minister of Science and Technology Naledi Pandor wants to produce 6000 doctoral graduates a year, with a focus on black women.

Pandor told parliament the target was part of the National Development Plan and that her department would need an additional R5.8-billion a year to achieve it.