The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) and partners have completed setting up a Wide Area Network (WAN), linking all 39 campuses of the six Further Education and Training (FET) colleges in the Western Cape.

Tomorrow (Friday 03 June), Western Cape MEC for Education Cameron Dugmore will launch the approximately R15-million network of the Dassie Project for FET colleges during a breakfast presentation, 08h00 at the Good Hope Suite, Grand West Casino.

"Dassie" is short for "Distributed Advanced Strategic Systems for Industrial e-Learning" and forms part of a broader international initiative requested by UNESCO to improve vocational and technical training in developing countries.

The network will provide the platform needed for fully integrated teaching, learning, administration, communication and management support in FET colleges. Features of the system include:

• Access to course content developed by FET colleges and the WCED for blended learning involving both ICT and traditional teaching and learning methods.

• Fulltime access to the web and web-based resources.

• Email services.

• Telephone communication within the FET college sector.

• Administration systems for FET colleges.

• Collection of statistics for management purposes.

• Integration of existing ICT systems at FET colleges.

Dassie sub-projects include the Dassie Competency Trust responsible for sourcing and evaluating digital content developed by FET colleges and other service providers.

For example, the trust is currently sourcing digital course content for Generic Business Studies, with a view to offer the course to NQF Level 2 in January 2006 and to NQF Level 3 in January 2007.

Other examples include Electrical Engineering to NQF Level 2 in 2006. The trust plans to offer material for the International Computer Drivers’ Licence (ICDL) course by October this year, as well as an HIV/AIDS Programme to NQF Level 3.

Various task teams are responsible for driving sub-projects within the Dassie programme. These include developing a blended learning framework; technology modeling; training; business planning and communication; and project management.

A German consortium involved in the international project asked the WCED in 2001 to participate in what was then a pilot project involving FET colleges in the Western Cape. The consortium includes companies involved in ICT and e-learning, and the Germany Technical Cooperation Agency (GTZ).

Another partner, UUNET SA is hosting the WAN hub in its Cape Town data centre. Siemens Business Services has designed the architecture of the network to grow with the expansion of the FET college sector.

SAP has installed SAP Medium 2.0 Learning Solution software to integrate the system’s various services. The project team expects the system as a whole to go live in September 2005.

MEC Dugmore has described the completion of the network as a "major milestone in the development of this project".

"ICT offers exciting opportunities for developing regions to fast-track the development of their human resources by offering new ways of supporting vocational, technical and professional training," said MEC Dugmore.

"We in the Western Cape have a special responsibility to succeed in this project, because other developing regions are looking at us to guide their own planning.

"With the help of our partners we could make considerable progress over the last four years, including conceptual development, sourcing funds through public/private partnerships, developing test systems, software and content, and training.

"We now have an excellent tool for supporting the work of our FET colleges in all of its dimensions. Our main challenge will be to make the most of this opportunity and use this technology to improve the quality of education we provide in this sector.

"It is clear we are making rapid progress towards developing world-class support for vocational, technical and professional education using ICT."

For enquiries, contact Gert Witbooi at 082 550 3938 or gwitbooi@pgwc.gov.za.