False Bay TVET College has received confirmation of the approval of its long-cherished project to establish a College campus in Mitchell’s Plain, Cape Town. Minister Naledi Pandor has announced that the world-class facility, to be built at a cost of R386 million, will serve Mitchell’s Plain, Strandfontein and the surrounding communities.

The new campus underlines the continued phenomenal expansion of the College, which is perennially among the top-performing TVET colleges in South Africa.

The City of Cape Town has agreed in principle to make available a 6.5 ha tract of vacant land for the new mega-campus which will be located on Spine Road, a major arterial road connecting Mitchell’s Plain, Khayelitsha and the Cape Flats community.

“This campus will enable the College to address two major challenges in South Africa, namely providing access to high-quality training that addresses the scarce and critical skills needs in South Africa and addressing the challenge of youth unemployment,” says Acting Principal, Karin Hendricks.

The new campus will provide programmes serving skills needs in the tourism, creative media, business BPO, wholesale and retail, engineering and services sectors as well as early childhood development programmes, safety in society and paralegal programmes.

False Bay TVET College has been delivering education and training programmes in Mitchell’s Plain for the past fifteen years, using leased premises in primary and high schools. It is estimated that a further 5 000 to 10 000 Mitchell’s Plain students commute daily to educational facilities in other areas. The College has long argued that the Mitchell’s Plain and surrounding communities deserve a top-class campus that provides skills development and helps to address the chronic youth unemployment rates in the community and the country.

With the dream finally about to be realised, the College is establishing a community communication and consultation forum to ensure support and buy-in from the surrounding communities. Along with the participation of various community structures, the forum will stimulate further discussion regarding programmes to be offered to the targeted communities.

The new Mitchells Plain Campus will complement the College’s existing campus presence in Khayelitsha, Fish Hoek, Westlake and Muizenberg. In addition, the newly established Swartklip campus along Swartklip Road, will become one of the largest artisan/engineering campuses in the Western Cape.

Acting Principal Hendricks says, “With South Africa having set itself the ambitious goals of growing the economy by an average of 5,4% and cutting the unemployment rate to 6% by 2030, False Bay TVET College is extremely excited about expanding its contribution through the new development. We wish to thank the Minister and her department and the City of Cape Town for this huge vote of confidence in the College.”