Western and Northern Cape Regions hosts first two of three Career Festivals as part of TVET month

25 Sep 2019

The Western Cape region recruited potential employers, 1,000 exit-level students from five Western Cape TVET Colleges and 900 school learners from the communities that the TVET Colleges serve. As part of a collaborative effort, Boland, College of Cape Town, False Bay, Northlink and West Coast Colleges invited TVET exit-level students and high school learners to experience the World of Work initiative. The participants had the opportunity to engage with key sector displays, Try-a-Skill activities and participated in career guidance sessions offered by SETAs.

Western and Northern Cape Regions hosts first two of three Career Festivals as part of TVET month

The exit-level students, on the cusp of graduating, had the opportunity to sit through interview sessions with prospective employers, ensuring (applying/experiencing) basic skills and fundamentals of the world of work. It also gave the employers who attended the event the opportunity to see the quality of students and future employees that the TVET Colleges produce.

According to Mrs Wendy Adams, (Vice (Deputy) Principal: Innovation and Development and (Chair of the WIL Forum), the aim is to make this an annual premier-networking event connecting exit-level students with host employers. Given the recent announcement of the high unemployment rate in the country this was an opportune time to speak to employers about WBE (exposure) and WPBL (placement) provided by the TVET sector. As we create broader awareness, we also wish to create opportunities for partnerships and strengthen existing ones with industry.

As part of the career festival, students prepared an industrial drama piece on work readiness (clothing, attitude, interview etiquette) which complemented and emphasised work already done at colleges.

“We believe that the exposure the students and learners received during this Career Festival opened their eyes to bridge the gap when preparing for the world of work,” Wendy added.

The last of the three events will be hosted by South Cape College in October 2019.

False Bay College offers quality, accredited, vocational, occupational and skills programmes in a range of fields, designed with Industry to meet the skills shortages of South Africa.