The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has the pleasure of announcing the names of the Chief Executive Officers who will lead six new Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges in the province.

The appointment of the six CEOs, or Principals, marks a major milestone in the development of technical and vocational training in the Western Cape.

The WCED has completed the process of merging 13 technical colleges in the Western Cape into six "mega" FET institutions, in line with national policy, to ensure that the colleges are well placed to meet the human resource development needs of the province.

The new CEOs will provide strategic, academic and administrative leadership in their institutions. They will consolidate the colleges and develop institutional cultures designed to build the new FET sector, in close collaboration with all role players.

The new CEOs and the colleges they will lead are:

• Ms Osma Jooste, West Coast.
• Mr William Holtshousen, Southern Cape.
• Mr Jannie Isaacs, Central (College of Cape Town).
• Mr Leon Beech, Northern (Northlink).
• Mr Cassie Kruger, Southern (False Bay).
• Mr Daniel Fourie, Boland.

With the appointment of the Principals, or CEOs, of these colleges we can now ensure that our FET colleges take their place in the range of educational opportunities available to learners in the Western Cape.

The colleges form part of a new educational structure in the country, basically consisting of General Education and Training (GET), for those in Grades 1 to 9, and Further Education and Training (FET), for those in Grades 10 to 12 in high schools, and equivalent levels in FET colleges.

The new FET colleges will serve the Western Cape by providing technical and vocational training closely aligned to the human resource needs of the province, identified by commerce and industry, and training requirements identified by SETAs.

The restructuring of the FET college sector in South Africa reflects a worldwide phenomenon. The public and private sectors worldwide are demanding further education and training specifically designed to meet human resource needs, that will guarantee greater productivity and greater employability on the part of the employee.

The FET sector in South Africa is also following international trends by recognising

prior learning, by supporting learnerships and by offering more advanced career guidance. This approach has the support of both employers and trade unions.

The new colleges will be characterised by a shift from supply driven teaching, where the college designs the curriculum without due reference to the needs of employers, to demand driven education and training, where the college responds to needs identified by the job market.

Colleges will be responsible for identifying needs in conjunction with commerce and industry, developing programmes to meet these needs, and delivering these programmes using various modes of teaching and learning.

These will include using information and communication technologies, distance education, special resource centres and education based in places of employment.

Future plans include improving access to facilities at FET colleges by members of the public, after hours, over weekends and during college holidays.

We have to develop a culture of continuous learning in the Western Cape and the country. We are not currently living in a learning society to any significant extent.

For example, in the English Midlands, the heart of industry in Britain, about 5% of the population is involved in further education and training of some sort at any one time. The English Midlands has an unemployment rate of around 2%.

By contrast, less than 1% of the population in the Western Cape is involved in further education and training at any one time, and our unemployment rate is about 26%.

At the moment, about 45 000 learners attend some form of further education and training in FET colleges in the Western Cape. Ideally, about 250 000 learners should be attending courses at our FET colleges each year.

We will need to expand our capacity in coming years to accommodate these numbers. Our six FET colleges will continue operate from the 38 sites previously managed by our 13 former technical colleges, and we will continuously look at ways of expanding our service.

We cannot do this on our own, and will actively seek partnerships in the public and private sectors to ensure that we do everything possible to build the human resource capacity of the province, and to ensure prosperity for all in the Western Cape.