A lack of workplace knowledge and experience is a huge stumbling block for graduates entering the world of work. It limits their ability to access work and their ability to cope in a work environment. The Minister of Higher Education and Training reconfirmed the role of TVET colleges in providing work experience for students and graduates to bridge their entry into the world of work.
“We now know that college training is, on its own, not enough. If workplace learning does not complement the learning done at colleges, we could well find that the youngsters we work so hard to train remain unemployed after they qualified.” (Address made by Blade Nzimande on 23 February 2010)
Our vision is the attainment by our students of the knowledge and skills required by prospective employers through workplace-based experience.
Workplace-Based Experience plays an essential role in preparing students for employability.
It provides students with an understanding of the nature of the workplaces in their chosen field of training and builds their capacity to apply their college learning in the context of real workplace operations.
It provides workplace-relevant social and communication skills, which enable students to effectively work in teams and engage with customers.
It is also a key ingredient in graduates being able to start and succeed in their own business ventures.
On a daily basis South African employers are confronted with a shortage of adequately qualified and experienced staff. Students at Further Education and Training colleges are a good future source of such staff. We urge you to grant them an opportunity, at no cost to your company, by offering them a short period of work experience to develop their skills.
We wish to place students who are registered for National Curriculum (Vocational) and other college programmes with employers for periods of workplace-based experience (WBE). Our goal is to place students for five consecutive days per year of study. During these placements, employers are asked to orientate students to their companies and allow them to work alongside employees.
For many young people, obtaining this kind of work experience has been life-transforming. They have developed a better understanding of their chosen career and how it is practised in the workplace. This has motivated them to work harder and succeed. Many students have forged relationships with employers that led to immediate offers of employment after graduation.
We are looking for companies who are willing to host some of our students who are being trained in Business , and Engineering studies. We hope to place them for 5 days during the March 2012 (30 March – 10 April) and June 2012 (22 June – 16 July) school holidays.
The Company is not obliged to offer any stipends / remuneration to students. The only cost to the company is the notional one of supervising the students during their time of placement.
“The work placement helped me to understand completely because everything they teach me, they also let me do it practically to understand better by doing it.”
“I now have a clear understanding of the course I have chosen.”
“It gave me an idea of what employers are looking for and what they expect”.
“The experience was extremely useful – I learned not only what it is to work, but also what my life could be”.
“It has helped with my practical skills a lot because I worked daily on a particular machine. I also worked with experienced people who gave me a few tips.”
I learned that the company is not a playground. I could die if I did not follow the safety rules.
(SSACI – Providing Workplace-based Experience for TVET College students - 2012)
